Falkland Islands

Land ! We arrive at the Falklands at 2pm and cannot wait to get off the boat for a bit of land based activity, one customs give us the OK we can set foot on land. Unfortunately it is blowing at around 40 knots and predicted to go over 50 so we were informed our stop will be short at 6pm return.

David, George and I (my paddling buddies) started walking towards the cove but after about an hour of walking we felt it prudent to turn back. The winds were getting quite a bit stronger. Stanley did not offer much of interest to me, nor the others so we entered the pub opposite the pier. The locally brewed ale was a bit insipid, it tasted as if it had been watered down. At about 4pm we got a call to return to the boat early as the winds were increasing over 50 knots and the ship was dragging anchor and had to move to a better anchorage.

The local Sullivans agent boat was used instead of the Zodiacs to ferry us across, the skipper of which was rather enjoying the torrid weather, the journey was actually quite comfortable as were still in the river.

So my initial impressions of the Falklands: windy, open grassy land, a few shops and museum – for Stanley the capital; it’s rather boring. It turns out that we have to stop at Stanley to clear customs in order to visit the rest of the islands. It is an opportunity for some of the passengers to depart, make contact with the world at large and for the crew to see civilisation. I would have left here too had the flight timings been opportune as tomorrow is a visit to one spot on the islands then the next leg is an open sea journey to Ushuaia, Argentina. I am not sure that I would bother going out of my way to come here again and really I am struggling to see why Aurora bother coming 3 days out their way to stay only a day to come here either.

The second day fortunately improved significantly enabling us to enjoy the natural offerings of the Falkland islands. Now I can see the special significance of this place. I’d suggest to anyone doing this cruise that it would be a good move to stay at the Falklands 3 or 4 days departing the ship and take the once a week flight to enjoy nature even further, or arrive early if going the other way. Similar to South Georgia we got to see a lot of wildlife.

Great excitement at the beginning of our paddle. Ahead: Orca a pod of four heading straight for us ! One swims by -

and away

dives and checks us out …

Hoot, hoot, hoot ! As they disappear quickly leaving a swirl on the water's surface, my ticker is thumping away with excitement and perhaps primal fear.

We get some more varieties of penguins – the Magallanic. (photo courtesy George).

Some exciting paddling through a cutting on a sea cliff in a boisterous sea.

Another animal we have not seen yet was the sea lion. Lion is truly the word for it, like their smaller cousins the fur seal these guys are aggressive, large and truly roar like a lion. David and I had a bit of fun in the kayak filming them when the water washed out from under the kayak leaving us beached a few metres away. No sweat though, an hour later (sic.) another wave came in to take us out to safety, with a lot of help from our paddles.