From Cape to cape. Expeditions by land and sea.

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Saturday and we awake steaming towards Stanley's harbour-

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Lots of cormorants fly by as we get our first glimpse of Stanley-

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Turns out there are 4 Expedition ships in today-

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A lot bigger than I expected-

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The fisheries patrol boat,a Taiwanese sqid boat and Quark Expeditions-

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There were a few unhappy souls aboard the Quark ship.They missed all their activities in South Georgia due to weather and a huge Chinese group aboard.
Stanley panorama-

 

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We began our day in Stanley with a city tour.We had an older guy called John.Really good sense of humour and knowledgeable about the history and characters of Stanley.He gave us his version of the Invasion in 1982.All of his generation were absolutely astounded that they invaded.Everyone was convinced the British Government was softening them up to be handed over to Argentina.
So first to one of the original small ship ports-

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The surrounding country is desolate-

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Outside the old airport a different type of totem pole-

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Started off with homesick sailors or workers putting up signs for their favourite pub.Now everybody adds to it-

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Then stopped outside the home of a passionate opponent of whaling-

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Across the road was an Argentinian armoured vehicle-

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But there was no doubt of our campaigners loyalty-

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He also had an old peat shed which was the major source of energy before 1982-

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Over the other side of the harbour bored sailors would name their ship in rocks-

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Government house-

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An ordinary house and a panorama-

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A memorial to the 1914 battle of the Falklands-

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Another wreck here-

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And suburbia-

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And the ships in the harbour-

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So then to this place-

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including an Antarctic Expedition hut-

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Modern telecommunications-

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Then we walked back along the harbour-

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Past birds-

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And this street-

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To the memorial of the 1982 war-

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It is amazing to see the number of units from all branches of the services that took part in the retaking of the Falklands.Some shown-

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And the number of civilian ships.I knew the Queen Victoria 2 took part but not the Wimpey seahorse-

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Sadder the casualty lists around the wall-

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Maggie looks over it-

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And a Falklands "air taxi" flies overhead.If you want to fly somewhere you must ring the airline before 10am the day before.Then listen to the 6pm news,weather and sheep alerts before the routes and passenger's names are read out for the next day's services.By the way they decided to change the name of the Falkland Island Broadcasting Service as it was felt that in the era of acronyms it was not an appropriate name for a news service.
We continue our ramble-

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That is the Catholic church.

 

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One of the reasons for visiting the Falklands was because it was one of the places I collected stamps from when young.So a visit to the Post Office was a definite.Unfortunately we found ourselves behind 6 Chinese customers from Quark who were driving the Postmistress balmy.Whilst trying to take an order one of the others would climb on the counter and take the franking machine to postmark the stamps but getting things mixed eg cancelling Falkland stamps with a South Georgia postmark.so she ened up taking every thing off the bench and putting it all out the back.She also took the self postmarked stamps back and gave back mint stamps.
Of course we sent postcards to the grandkids-

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Over the road the Police station with the smaller part being the jail-

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For the first time in many years they have a long term inmate.Usually the inhabitants are short term usually due to the side effects of alcohol.
Some more interesting residences-

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We had a cappuccino at the café attached to one of the supermarkets-

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The supermarket had English brands but a lot of Aussie brands as well.Probably as there are only 2 commercial flights a week into Stanley-1 from the UK,the other from SCL.

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Sometimes you think you are in England-

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The most southerly cathedral in the world.Sometimes known as the whalebone cathedral-

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The week after our visit there was to be a visit by an Argentinian delegation.The new President isn't as antagonistic as his predecessor.Nevertheless the messages in a house across the road from the Cathedral leaves no doubt as to the message they will get from Falklanders-

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That last is because an Argentinian charter airline has applied for an additional once a month return flight from Argentina-the LAN service once a month goes via Argentina.
However after the 30th Anniversary of the war the Argentinians got a bit excited and called Falkland Islanders hostages of the British military.They responded by having a referendum on whether they wanted to remain under British control.1513 voted Yes,3 voted Nne of the No voters voted that way because they wanted full Independence.

Time now to visit the gift stores.Our guide said this one was for items made by Falklanders and across the street for those made in China-and that's where all the Chinese were shopping.Go figure.

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Should have bought that T-shirt.

 

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Units built for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee-

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And tacked on-

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Back on the zodiac for a late lunch and Nanny nap.Awake as we set sail.First the 2 sisters-

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Interesting formations and another stone river-

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Stanley is surrounded by peat bogs so no wonder the water is brown-

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The next day is a quiet sea day.Some birds and a couple of lectures-

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A different sunset-

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And another sea day.A black browed albatross flies by-

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But mainly sea-

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It was pretty quiet until we spotted something in the distance towards sunset-

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Shag rocks.Soon we were surrounded-

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Fin whales.Unfortunately they remained some distance off.

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And called shag rocks because of these-

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Cormorants.

 

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The next morning awake approaching South Georgia-

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Penguins swimming past-

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Our first landing was to be at Salisbury plains.However due to a large swell we could not land directly at the beach so it was the secondary landing site meaning a more than 2.5km walk there and back.Mrsdrron decided to stay on the landing beach for a couple of hours.She got some very good pics.The animals obviously got used to people's presence.

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Where did you come from?

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We're surrounded-

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Where's that no good father of my chick-

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I think I need Jenny Craig-

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You did notice that last picture is of a little bird?
A male seal-his big whiskers give him away-

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So after limited internet time in Africa it is time to get this TR back on track.
So more of mrsdrron's pics at Salisbury Plains.Time for some birds-

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But she couldn't resist the young fur seals-

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One day this fellow will fly-

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But not today.his friends get friendly-

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