Well, we came to see penguins and we weren’t disappointed. We moored about 1.5 miles off Stanley in the Falkland Islands some time while it was still dark! As before, it was easier to get room service for breakfast, we ordered ours for delivery between 0700 and 0730, it arrived at 0645!
Once ready we headed down to the tender for a 20 minute ride to the dock. We were told ahead of time that the transportation wouldn’t be up to the usual standards and that there would be no A/C (AirCon) available.They were right!
Our ride for this tour was an ex- British Army 2015 Land Rover Defender. We would shortly find out why we were using this vehicle.
The scenery on the Island was quite bleak, very similar to Rannoch Moor, in the Scottish Highlands. Even the weather was similar with mist turning to thick fog at times.
We drove out of Stanley on a nice smooth road, which then transitioned to a reasonable gravel road. We pulled off this road, opened a gate and proceeded onto the moor. We were to be driving over rough land for the next hour. Our driver gave us the good news that it would smoother on this leg than on the return as we had 250litres of water in a tank in the bed behind us. This would be empty on the return allow more “bounce”.
Towards the end of our bone shaking hour I saw a lot of vertical white stones in the distance on the moor. Jokingly I said, look there are the penguins. The driver said they were indeed penguins!! These penguins had climbed the cliffs and waddled about 1.5 miles in land. No one is sure why they would do this, other than to escape sea loins and otters. This particular species were Gentoo Penguins.
We continued along for another mile or two until we reached the cliff edge and met up with hundreds more penguins and some king cormorants. The king cormorants look very much like penguins from a distance, they even waddle the same BUT they can fly!
The penguins in this area were the Rockhoppers with the “fuzzy” head
By this time our group of seniors were ready for a restroom break, no chance we figured, given the remoteness. Wrong, the tour company had thought of this!
This is the reason we brought along the 250 litres of water….. to fill the tank for flushing and hand washing. All very modern!
Back into the Land Rover for a few more minutes to descend down to the beach. There were a few small puddles in our path.
On the beach we discovered ……… more penguins. This time there were 2 new species for us to view.
The first were the Magellanic Penguins, it may look as there is snow on the ground but these are feathers from the moulting penguins. In the first picture you can see a penguin that is in the process of moulting nearest the camera.
The second new species to us was the King penguin.
After a lunch of a delicious home made tomato soup, cheese sandwich and cookie it was time to start the journey back to Stanley. Our driver was correct, it was bumpier on the way back! We had about 10 cars, with around 30 passengers, there was only one case of car sickness, which given the ride was quite remarkable!
We arrived back in Stanley with about 30 minutes to spare for a quick walk around and a little souvenir hunting. Below are a couple of shots taken in Stanley, and one taken from the tender on the way back to the ship.
Although it was misty throughout the day there was no rain and the temperature was forecast to rise to 18C(65F), which is bordering on tropical for the Falklands.
Today is another overcast and cool say at sea, but we are assured the temperature is climbing and should be around 23C(74F) tomorrow when we arrive at Port Madryn, Argentina.
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