A Visit to the Falkland Islands
It was early spring when our journey began in November, 2019, with a flight from Santiago, Chile, to RAF Mount Pleasant, the military base (and international airport) for the Falkland Islands. Upon landing, we drove for an hour to the capital city and port of Stanley.
The remote Falklands archipelago consists of two main islands and more than 775 smaller islands, only a handful of which are populated by humans. Known as a “British Overseas Territory,” the 3,400 Falklanders enjoy a system that allows self-governance while defense and foreign affairs are conducted by the United Kingdom.
Statue of Maggie Thatcher at the war memorial site in Stanley
That back-up came in handy starting on April 2, 1982, when long-simmering tensions with Argentina (who claimed sovereignty over what they still call Islas Malvinas) erupted into a full-scale invasion with 5,000 Argentinian troops. A naval task force sent by Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher left England April 5, and steamed 8,000 miles, arriving May 21. Some pitched battles ensued. The conflict (not technically a war) ended when British forces retook the territories on June 14. In all, 650 Argentine and 255 British fighters died. [Source: britannica.com/event/Falkland-Islands-War, accessed January 14, 2020]
Stanley Harbor
Afterwards, Falklanders faced a serious problem with landmines, which numbered more than 25,000. Only very recently were these finally definitively eliminated ---work done since 2009 by a contingent of about 100 Zimbabweans whose extensive experience with similar work in their homeland made them the experts of choice.
An eye-level albatross coming home to the nest
The Falklands are home to a variety of wild creatures, especially birds. Several places are identified by BirdLife International as an “Important Bird Area” for birdlife conservation. During our two-plus days, we cruised on the ship, National Geographic Explorer to several places where we saw springtime in full swing, with nesting black-browed albatross, gentoo penguins, southern rockhopper penguins, Magellanic penguins, upland geese, imperial shags (including one colony approaching 90,000!), oystercatchers, and more.
A gang-like rockhopper group leaves the colony to go to sea
An Imperial shag backgrounded by the rockhopper colony
We had a good long walk on Saunders Island (the fourth-largest of the archipelago), boyhood home to our expedition leader, Russ Evans and his extended family, and location of the local “store” (in the back of his aunt’s LandRover!). There’s nothing like being at eye level with a flying albatross, or having the chance to (safely/non-stressfully) approach a southern rockhopper penguin colony.
We also enjoyed several long walks across Keppel Island, Bull Point, and Bleaker Island. All were quite low-lying and very wind-swept. (The territory’s maximum elevation is just 2,300 feet.) A dense shrub not unlike English heath but called “diddle-dee” in the Falklands (with refences back to 1836) made the going tough sometimes! Its reputation is somewhat redeemed, we were told, when islanders make jelly from its berries, or enjoy the intense heat it releases when used for fires. [Source: The Antarctic Dictionary: A Complete Guide to Antarctic English, by Bernadette Hince]
This was one of the more prominent hills we saw
Our final day in the Falklands found us in the extreme southeast, at Bleaker Island. It’s another “Important Bird Area” largely because several of its nearby tussac islands are still mercifully rat free. Rats are an invasive scourge for ground-nesting bird species, and are being actively eliminated in some of the places we visited. Other non-natives (sheep and cows) are farmed for their delectable organic meats and high-quality wool. They get along well with resident wildlife which, in addition to the abundant birds, sometimes also includes seals and sea lions.
A thick patch of “Diddle-Dee”
Old fashioned sheep shears at an abandoned farm
Nests are routinely raided by skuas and other scavengers
I enjoyed poring over the ship’s charts, and it was on the Bleaker Island chart that I first identified the mapping symbol for kelp beds, which can be extremely dense (and hazardous to marine navigation). During our zodiac cruises, I noticed we always sped up when encountering kelp. Had the Argentines known to do this, we were told, the 1982 conflict may have gone differently: slower moving Argentine outboard propellers got wrapped in kelp, halting efficient forward progress at a crucial point during the invasion. So it goes!
[Our hosts were the cream of the crop at National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions. See more at nationalgeographic.com/expeditions/]
Kelp beds are thick in the waters at Bleaker Jump!
