The Falklands

The Falkland Islands is a strange place, there are hardly any houses or buildings apart from the RAF base, and the houses in Stanley. It’s almost desert like and very dusty, but also in a way like the Scottish northern islands. I saw plenty of sheep, which are one of the main commodities of the islands.

When we arrived in Port Stanley we were taken straight to our ship the James Clark Ross which has sailed down all the way from the UK over the last 5 weeks. Once on board we were assigned cabins and tried to sort out the luggage so we have room to move and bags are flying everywhere during the journey. In the evening we walked into Stanley which seemed to be deserted and found a pub that was pretty packed (obviously where all the inhabitants of Stanley hang out) and had a couple of drinks surrounded by British flags and memorabilia and lots of 80’s music. 

The JCR ice breaker ship

Dolphin Gull

Upland Geese- these are everywhere!

We expected to be leaving the following morning, but all of the cargo hadn’t been loaded so we got a free day in Stanley. I was so pleased about that as it would be a shame to travel all the way to the Falklands and not see any of it! We set off to walk into Stanley, which took a very long time as we are a group of bird and sea mammal nerds! We saw Commerson’s dolphins which are tiny and black and white. For those of you fellow bird nerds I’ve put a list below of the species seen in the Falklands.

Magellanic Penguins (from on a distance on the beach)

Southern Giant Petrel

Southern Fulmar

Rock Shag

Kelp Gull

Dolphin Gull

South American Tern

Black-crowned Night Heron

Upland Goose

Kelp Goose

Falkland Steamer Duck

Magellanic Oystercatcher

Blackish Oystercatcher

Turkey Vulture

Long-tailed Meadowlark (they have a bright red chest!)

House Sparrows (just like at home)

For those of you not that interested in birds, I saw penguins, sea birds, geese, vultures and a few little birds! 

Town centre of Stanley on a beautiful day!

Stanley Catherdral and whale bone arch

The weather in Stanley was so hot that we had a picnic by the whale bone arch at the Cathedral and even had ice cream!!! Not what I was expecting at all! In the afternoon we were planning on going to a penguin colony but unfortunately we were called back to the ship because we had to move away from the dock. Another ship with a medical emergency needed to come into Stanley and we were in the way. We stayed over night and set said the following day.