Last day down south

Yesterday was my last full day in the Falklands (oh waily waily). As usual first thing it was bright and sunny so we took Jackson for his morning constitutional to Surf Bay.

A morning walk needs a Basset, a ball, and a lot of kicking and chasing:


Refusal to kick the ball results in Basset protest:


After or walk we had a leisurely breakfast then went out to do some shopping, including a visit to the museum:

Curiously, the Darwin was the very first boat I ever travelled on, back in .... oh a very long time ago when we first went to England. It's not around any more.

Later I finally managed to get a picture of the elusive night heron. (well they are not actuall ELUSIVE, they practically live on my dad's doorstep, but I've just been lazy).


Then we took Jackson and Luca for another romp through the sand dunes, where Luca insisted on digging lots of holes while Jackson supervised:


They day was rounded off by a delicious (and fun) meal at the Malvina with Adam, Jenny, Dad, Jenny' brother Paicey and his wife Corrine. The upland goose pate was yummy... and the sea bass is to die for...

Finally - one magic moment. Instead of going straight home, we drove round the back of Sapper's hill. The sky was clear, there is NO light pollution, and there was no moon.

Oh the stars (sorry no camera!)

WOW.

Sunday brunch and snow

On Sunday we had Adam, Jenny and Larissa around for brunch. After a bright sunny start it snowed. Which just goes to show, if you don't like the weather round here, wait an hour. It WILL change.



After brunch the skies started to clear, so I collected Adam, Jenny and Luca and we all went to walk off our sunday feast



We walked round past the Lady Liz and the Plim


to the Samson (there are LOTS of wrecks in Stanley Harbour)


Close to the Samson Jenny found a suspect package, so Adam phoned the bomb disposal squad and we sat around an waited


Until the Basset got bored...


And the EOD turned up


And identified the suspect package as a battery. Oops. (but any excuse for a gratuitous Land Rover shot eh?).

Come the afternoon the weather had changed again to haily showers interspersed with sun, so Dad and I took a drive up to Estancia, but sadly the showers overtook the sun and there was not much to photograph.

A few reminders of an event 25 years ago:


And then there are the latest landmarks:

Cool huh?

In the evening it was sunny yet again (see what I mean about waiting?) so I took a hike up Wireless ridge to the memorial looking over Stanley:


The sunset was not too bad either.

Road trip.

On Saturday we took a trip down to New Haven to look at the hole in the ground that's going to be the new Ferry terminal between East and West Falkland. It's a big hole in the ground.

The weather was pretty much pants, which is a shame cos the scenery was terrific, but it meant I did not take many photos.

On the way out we saw a pond full of the shy black necked swans. Who promptly buggered off to the far side of the pond:


We stopped at Darwin lodge on the way back for lunch (which was, as ever, splendid).

But the traffic was aweful.


When we got back the skies finally cleared and the car looked like this:


And we did not even leave the road.

Sealion Islands

After Fox Bay, Dad and I flew out to Sealion Islands, which is to the south east of the main island group. It's a wildlife sanctuary and there is a lodge there. The island has the most amazing array of birds and sealife in a small area, it's famous for its sealions (hence the name... but you probably spotted that) but we were too early for the main sealion season.

The lodge (with turkey vultures and Johnny Rooks on the roof)


We did see one sealion wander up to a beach, take a look then decide is WAS the wrong beach (on account of it being full of elephant seals).


The main thing that WAS going on was that the elephant seals were having pups, fighting and mating on the beaches... and boy are they HUGE.

The big males guard their harems from all comers on land:


and at sea


The winner gets the girls:


And the girls have the pups (some of these guy were very newborn):


When not engaged on the trials of reproduction they sit around and sunbathe, coughing and sneezing and sighing:


And sometimes get their noses picked by tussac birds:


Other highlights on the island include our best bird friends, penguins. At the moment there are Gentoos


And Jackass Penguins (magallenic) all nesting


And further up the beach the giant petrels (locally known as "stinkers") are also nesting... these guys are huge, almost as big as the albatrosses (which don't nest on Sealions).


This place is just gorgeous, and the weather was very kind, on my last day there I was wandering around in a t-shirt.

One for Kate

Driving up to my brother Adam's house for supper last night we passed the parked vehicles of the smartly dressed people having a soiree at Government House:

 

Where have you been Kerri?

Well I've been EVERYWHERE. Ok just a few places, but my plan to do a daily blog update and upload en mass has failed, something to do with the 4600 photographs I've taken (thank DOG for digi), so I will summarise.

I flew the scenic route to Fox Bay, via MPA (Mount Pleasant Airport to you folks), Saunders Island and Carcass Island. The day was clear and bright and the scenery from the plane was utterly fabulous.

I'll pop a whole load of photos in my Flickr account so as not to overload this poor old blog.

In Fox Bay I stayed with my brother Ben and his wife Clare in their utterly fabulous house, no single pic can do it justice, so here is a photo of the vaulted ceiling in the living room:


And how many places in the world can you see this from the living room:


And the sunset looks like this:


A short walk from the house I caught these Johnny Rooks (Striated Caracara) posing:


And the fence of the paddock where Clare keeps her sheep (they were producing lambs while we were there):


Oh and while we were sat on the deck sunning ourselves, the British Antarctic Survey plane buzzed us (so did the Tornado, but I had my fingers in my ears to stop myself from being deafened, it's hard to take a photo with your fingers in your ears, trust me).


Our house in the sunset:


The weather while I was in Fox Bay was fabulous, sunny, still and very very bright (something to do with some missing ozone??). The sealions were roaring out on the big island, the jackass penguins were braying on the little tussac island, and the oyster catchers were piping. Heaven.


I'll do another post about the Sealion Islands visit later.

I'm in the south atlantic....

Day 1 was a bit of a post-18-hour-flight-blur in which I was too tired to take any decent pics (except a few of Jackson) so let's skip to day 2.

What a fabulous morning.

Thanks to
a) the neighbour's cockerel who does not know when the dawn is
and
b) the time zone change
we were up at the crack of dawn (which was around 6AM)

Sticking my head outside my Dad's front door to watch the Basset doing his early morning garden visit I saw this in one direction:



and this in the other:


And took more fresh air in one breath than I usually get in the UK in a month..

Wow.

Being as we were both up we opted for
a) a cup of coffee
and
b) a dawn walk at Surf Bay with the only Basset in the Falklands.

Is this not beautiful?


A two banded plover...


Jackson the Basset in his element...


We spent the rest of the morning running about doing chores then met up with Adam and Jenny for lunch at the Malvina:


(sorry Brian... it's an empty plate of calamari...)


Adam then took the afternoon off so we could go for a walk round Gypsy cove:
Turkey Vulture on the wing....


Seals in the Tussock:

(we also saw a couple of Jackass Penguins in the burrows, but I did not get any pics... yet)

Then we took Luca to the beach for a run:


Topped off with a roast leg of mutton at Adam and Jenny's for supper - a perfect day.

Up early tomorrow to catch the 10 seater island hopper to Fox Bay (the long way round!)... I won't be able to post until I'm back in Stanley... but will try to do daily entries for upload later.