Arriving at Port Stanley in the morning the conditions were not promising. A larger cruise ship had already arrived but was anchored outside the narrow entry to the calmer port waters due to the swell, but as we were on a smaller ship we managed to squeeze through despite the conditions, but had to anchor away from the port. We managed to get everyone into zodiacs an on land where we got into busses and drove to Gypsy Cove where we had a few hours’ walk around through Mount Tumbledown and back to town. It was raining and very windy so it was hard to fully relax with camera in hand, but the walk resulted in multiple magellanic penguins and a flurry of other birds that we hadn’t seen yet. Geese, ducks, songbirds and shorebirds were at an abundance and quite a change from the usual sightings we had had so far. Most people chose to get the bus back to town but having a rare moment off the ship I decided to walk back, despite the weather it was nice seeing it all up close rather than from behind windows.
Walking around Mount Tumbledown.
Long-tailed meadowlark.
Magellanic penguin wondering if it's worth going out in the rain for food.
Pied oystercatcher.
On the way the bus returned and stopped when reaching me. I was getting ready to argue with him that I preferred walking rather than driving, but upon opening the door he asked “Hey – are you Danish?” and on confirming that he switched to Danish. Apparently he had been working on freighters between England and the Falklands for 10 tours and realized in the end he had more friends on the Falklands than in England or Denmark, so he ended up settling there and had lived there for 30-something years by now.
Guessing I was Danish came from overhearing some of those taking the bus talking about “that weird Dane who decided to walk instead of driving”.
Coming back to port that had seized zodiac operations as they were getting ready to move the ship to port so instead we were a couple of people how went into town to grab lunch at a pub. Stanley is as British as it gets. It feels like being back in a British town somewhere on the British mainland, it was only the turkey vulture sitting on a TV antenna in the middle of town that reminded you of where you were. The rough seas also meant that the town was much less crowded than it could have been as the larger cruise ship hadn’t been able to unload any of their passengers – which honestly was a bit of a relief.
Turkey vulture.
The town was pretty quickly seen so in the afternoon, having stopped raining, I decided to go for a run. Mostly to be able to say that I had run on the Falklands, when would the chance of doing that again ever occur?
The following morning the weather was amazing when we arrived on the beach of Saunders Island where we after a short walk came across rockhopper penguins with chicks and black-browed albatrosses on nests with chicks. Completely fearless of humans they went along with their own business while we got to enjoy the encounters up close.
Striated caracara.
Rockhopper penguins.
Black-browed albatross chick.
The afternoon was spent at West Point Island where the weather improved even more when we had a nice walk to Devil’s Nose. Here we had a view of Cliff Mountain and more black-browed with nests. Our position relative to the wind meant that when the albatrosses landed, we could get close to front views of them gliding down, lowering their feet and adjusting the wings depending on the wind – basically a living version of an airplane.
Devil's nose. The rocky part is where the albatrosses are nesting.
The hosts on the island invited us all for treats and cookies and tea & coffee on returning to the zodiacs, and I did the utmost to end up on one of the last zodiacs, knowing that when returning to the ship we would be heading towards the mainland again.
There was no wind that day, this is just how the trees grow. One can only wonder why.
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