Hi Everyone,
Today we got up nice and early to head off on a hike to Cape Pembroke and the lighthouse there. We could do this starting from the lodge and were hoping for a much flatter and shorter hike than the day before, with the prospect of some swimming towards the end. We were absolutely blessed with some stunning weather, that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the peak of English summer. We had 24C and sunshine, although the strong winds stopped us overheating too much.
We began the walk along the coast and then across to Stanley airport. This isn’t actually the main airport of the Falklands (that would be Mount Pleasant, where we are headed tomorrow), but it is where the smaller flights out to the nearby islands leave from, with much smaller aircraft. We saw a couple of them take off as we rounded the airport towards the coast. The area around Cape Pembroke is well known for its wildlife, particularly the charismatic megafauna like whales, seals and dolphins, so we were very much on the lookout. However, despite spending significantly more than the recommended 15 minutes (according to a sign at the lighthouse) looking for them, we failed to see any large mammals.
The lighthouse was cool though, and there were a scattering of war memorials and other remnants of the 1982 war lying around the peninsula. On the route home we stopped by the “totem pole” which was essentially a very tall pole with hundreds of signs on it, pointing to locations around the world and giving the distance. I don’t think we ever worked out if they were just random, or related to places people have been, but the UK was very well represented.
Finally, we started strolling back to the lodge. It was a long way along the side of a road, and we were both dreading this last bit a little, but thankfully some very kind locals pulled up and offered us a lift the rest of the way. We used the extra time to go to the café near our lodge. The milkshakes there tasted incredible, especially after a long day walking in the hot sun! We still made it back to the lodge at a reasonable time, and after a quick call with the family using my last remaining wifi and a quick game of darts, we began packing for tomorrow. The game of darts does deserve further mention here, we played around the world as a pair and actually managed to finish it for the first time (whether this is due to our improvement or the fact we were no longer on a rolling ship I will leave up to you). A lovely last day in the Falklands, roll on Chile!
03/02/23
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