Early night last night as we had a 6am wake up call today for our another amazing day here in the Falkland Islands. The Falkland Islands consist of two main islands, East and West although the archipelago consists of over 700 islands. With its location combined with the weather here the Falklands have an abundance of wildlife. Literally millions of petrels, albatrosses, penguins, gulls and cormorants inhabit these islands. There are also a plentiful amount of marine mammals along the coast line. For most people when they hear of the Falklands they relate it to the war in 1982. For several decades the Spanish and the British went through a succession of expulsions and postering of the Falklands. The last of these came in 1833, when Britain forced out the Argentinian colonists - Argentina having taken over as the Spanish influence in South America was waning. The Falklands then remained under British control until 1982 when Argentina invaded and occupied the islands for 74 days before Britain wrested them back. The War cost 910 lives, including 3 Falklanders. Today it remains under Britain’s control but Argentina still maintains a claim to the islands. There still remains a bit of tension between the two nations as there is no trading with Argentina which is actually unfortunate as the Falklands trade extensively with Chile, right next door.
Today for us it was all about the Penguins and Penguins and yes, more Penguins. Marianne was able to secure the last 4 seats on a Volunteer Point tour ran by Jimmy Curtis Touring, excellent tour. Jimmy has a fleet of 8 4X4s, all with experienced drivers to navigate this interesting and crazy terrain, our driver was Steve - I have included the company card for anyone visiting this part of the world looking for an amazing tour. Our tour read as follows, Volunteer point is home to 1,200 Adult King Penguins, plus several hundred chicks. There are approximately 1,000 Gentoo Penguins and several thousand Magellan Penguins. It takes about 2 1/2 hours of driving to reach it. Most of the route is on a gravel road while the final hour is over grassy track, small streams, bridges, ditches and peat bogs all of which will test the skill of the driver…
A great reward to met is you are able to walk amongst these incredible birds in their local environment.
So the pictures today will be mostly of, you guessed it, Penguins, some terrain and other highlights of the day but today was a day to celebrate the penguins. The weather worked out wonderfully, overcast, windy and about 12 degrees (celsius), no rain until late in the day and then only a passing shower. About ten years ago we were on a ship that could not tender due to weather, so we are very happy today as everything worked out seamlessly.
Hope you enjoy our pics, gotta say, I love the ones with the eggs…
Quote of the day: “ the journey is the destination” - Dan Eldon
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