Heat-wave

We are having a bit of a heat wave here in the Falklands. Usually the wind is strong enough to keep the temperatures down, but we have had a week of very little wind so the temperatures have been getting close to 20 degrees Centigrade. I have only been sunburnt twice, the sun is quite strong here as the ozone layer is thinner and there is less pollution, you don't always notice how burnt you are getting.

I am in the middle of an enforced week off. We have 2 days public holiday, and then 3 days government holiday, which means I go back to work on the 3rd Jan.

I have just been to Sea Lion Island, and I am now off to Volunteer Point to see the big penguins.



This is the "famous" Globe Tavern, a very popular local pub with the locals and the military. A bit too busy for my liking sometimes. When then military are in there are usually a couple of military policeman on duty inside the pub just to make sure everybody enjoys themselves without things getting out of hand. Usually once people get thrown out of here on Saturday night they go up to "The Trough" to see the "Fighting Pig Band" which I have been told you have to go to at least once before you leave the Falklands.



A friendly magellanic penguin coming out of his peat burrow. Inside the burrow will be 2 or 3 chicks.

Sea Lion Island

A Christmas trip to Sea Lion Island about 10 miles off the coast of the main East Island. The whole island is a nature reserve. There is a lodge where we can stay, they have to generate their own power there. There are no land mammals on the island so other types of wildlife can flourish, especially the penguins and other birds.


Gentoo & magellanic penguins on the beach. The magellanic penguins live in burrows made in the peat or sand near the shore. The gentoos live in the long tussock grass, both are easy prey for the killer whales (Orcas) that patrol the off shore waters. The penguins have no land predators on the island so they thrive in quite large numbers.



A couple of magellanic penguins with a young cub.



At this time of year the elephant seals and sealions come to shore to give birth in great numbers, and then moult. They lie very still on the beach and appear to be rocks from a distance. The elephant seals, especially the males can grow up to 12 feet long and are very large and heavy. You are advised not to get too close to them, and never get between them and the sea. They can move very fast when they want to. The beaches are littered with seals and sealions all around the island, they blend into the rocks very well and you don't always notice how many there are there.


The red FIGAS planes (Falkland Island Government Airline Service). This is the main method of transporting people, goods & post across the many islands. Most of the air strips are just level pieces of grass. This service is essential to keep the remote settlements going. You book you ticket as per a normal plane, and then listen to the local radio the night before to see if you have got a seat and what time you are leaving. All the passengers are announced by name, where they are going from and where they are going to. This makes trying to plan a secret meeting with a "friend" on another island a bit difficult.


The rockhopper. As the name suggests these live on the rocks rather than the beach and are one of the smaller breed of penguins. They are quite inquisitive and if you stay still long enough they will come up very close to you.

Even more photos....

Wireless Ridge. Overlooking the harbour across from Stanley. This ridge was a key part of the defenses of Stanley during the Falkland's conflict. There are very few farms or houses outside of Stanley and if you go exploring you really have to know where you are going.




The view from my room in the hospital house, overlooking the harbour toward Wireless Ridge and the Narrows, the entrance to the harbour.



Boxing Day race meeting in Stanley. The race course is just a strip of flat land to the edge of the town. It was here that a Argentinean airplane was forced to land after being hijacked in the early 1970's by a band of guerrillas who wanted to take over the islands for Argentina. They did not get very far, they never even got off the plane before being arrested and sent back home.



The hospital, with its fleet of 2 ambulances. The military have their own ambulances which they use, or they fly patients down to us by SeaKing. The hospital is new and very well equipped for the number of people it serves. There is sheltered housing close by for the more elderly residents and all the GP services are based here. It is a totally intergrated health system, not quite like mainland UK. We even still have the "Ground Force" garden still there which was planted a few years ago.



The race track, which also forms part of the golf course as well. In the distance are Mount Tumbledown, Twin Sisters and Mount Harriet. On Mount Tumbledown there are small remembrance markers on the hillside marking the spot where a soldier fell during the conflict.

Some more pictures..

I have only got a cheap digital camera at the moment, but I am going to have to buy another better one once I get out to the more isolated areas where most of the wildlife is. Over the Christmas break I have 2 day trip to Sea Lion Island planned and a day trip to Volunteer Point, a 3 hour drive, off-road from Stanley, where there is a large penguin colony.

Here are some more of the pictures so far, hopefully I can post more later.




The 1982 memorial, overlooking Stanley Harbour on a rare sunny day. The weather changes very quickly in the Falklands and you rarely get a whole day of unbroken sunshine. Further up this road is Government House and the racecourse. In the distance are a few of the mountains that saw a lot of the action during the 1982 conflict.



The road to Fitzroy and Bluff Cove where 2 Royal Fleet auxiliary ships where hit with the loss of of many lives, mostly from the Welsh Guards. Fitzroy is basically 2 sheep farms. There are memorials at Bluff Cove to the people who died there.



Cape Pembroke, the most easterly part of the Falklands. If you travel East from the point the first landfall you get to is Chile, over 12,000 miles away. There are no major land masses on the latitude where the Falkland Islands lie, which leaves them very exposed. There are virtually no trees anywhere in the Falklands.



Stanley from Gypsy Cove. Typical Falklands countryside. Very thick spongy grass, which is suprising hard to walk across. A heather type plant called "diddle-dee" is very common across the islands, and its bright red berries are used to make jam. There is also the traditional yellow gorse which can make the countryside (or camp) colourful at times.



Cricket nets in the Falklands, overlooking the harbour. Stanley has a enthustiastic local team who play "friendly" matches against the military. They also occasionally go on tours to Chile.

Week 3.

There are no daily newspapers in the Falklands. Local news and gossip does travel fast in a small community. There is a weekly newspaper printed every Friday called "Penguin News". The big news is that mobile phones are coming to the Falklands as well as broadband internet. Cable & Wireless are the only company down here and they have been promising a mobile network for months.

There is a local radio station which broadcasts from time to time, in addition to the British Forces radio, and the BBC World Service and sometimes Radio 5. The local station broadcasts the passenger lists for all the plane trips for the flights to all the islands the next day. People book their seats and have to listen to see if there is space to take them each day. There are over 20 air-fields in the Falklands, most of these are not much more than grass strips.

Work at the hospital is fairly quiet, but just enough to keep me occupied. The lab is well equipped but is very reliant on supplies via the RAF or commercial flights which are not the most reliable, especially when a lot of our supplies have to be temperature controlled and are time sensitive.

We had a public holiday this week it is held every 8th December to commemorate the Battle of the Falklands which occurred early in the First World War. The local defence force, cadets, scouts join with representatives of whatever military units are present at the time for a parade through the town and a ceremony at the memorial held by the Governor General. We even had a fly past by a Hercules Transporter and a couple of Tornadoes.

HMS Southampton visited Stanley harbour this week. Usually there is one naval ship in the area but is stationed in the military harbour on the far side of the islands. The ship came in so the sailors could come ashore for some R&R. The pubs were even busier than normal, the Navy police were in attendance in each of the pubs, but apparently there is rarely any trouble, and when it does occur it is usually the military fighting amongst themselves.

I am to cricket nets this week. The team plays 3 matches a year against the local military and the games are taken seriously as the "South Atlantic Ashes". The military have been known to fly people in specially for the game. The Falkland Island team is a bit of a mixture of grades, as you might expect, as I might get a game. I may end up umpiring the game. The Falklands team has traveled to Chile to play matches, and also play against a Gentleman's Touring side, all the members of which are Sir's or Lord's who pass through occasionally on an round the world cricket tour.

Gypsy Cove

This Gypsy Cove and Yorke bay. It is nearest and most accessible penguin colony to Stanley, only 2 miles away.

This beach was expected to be the landing site by the British during the war so was heavily mined, so you can not get onto the beach itself. There are still a lot of live mine fields across the 2 main Falkland islands.

You can just about see a small group of Magellic penguins on the beach. These are the small ones, who live in burrows on the cliff face. The much larger colonies live on the more isolated islands further out which require a lot more traveling to get to.

Even in this short walk, we saw lots of penguins, herons, cormorants and seals, and even a seal cub. You have to be very careful not to get too close the seals or sea lions when they have their young around them.




This is the view from my house. We have a 5 bedroomed house occupied by the hospital staff. Every couple of weeks or so people leave to be replaced by the new staff. Most people stay 2 to 3 months. It is a fairly easy walk from the house to the hospital. Everybody in town knows where the hospital house is, and there always seems to be people visiting. One of the locals acts as an unofficial hospital guide to the newcomers to make sure everybody is settled in. We then share his extensive DVD collection.

Fitzroy / Bluff Cove.

This is the main road out from Stanley to the military base at Mount Pleasant. It is a bit like driving across Dartmoor.

We were driving up to the airport because there was a patient who was being transferred to Chile for specialist treatment.

This patient got very ill overnight and needed to be airlifted to Chile via a specialized medical evacuation plane (a GulfStream jet, that can fly at over 500mph). These are the only planes that are allowed to fly over Argentinean air space to get to the Falklands. I went up to the airport to see the jet and to help carry the patient from the SeaKing helicopter to the jet. From the time the jet left Chile it took less than 9 hours for the patient to be admitted into the hospital in Chile, which is not bad considered the distances involved.

If the Chilean jet is not available the RAF would use one of its own VC-10's as a last resort but these can not enter Argentinean air space during the flight which adds about 2 hours to the journey time.

On the drive up we drove down to Fitzroy, which is basically 2 sheep farms. This is where Bluff Cove is where 2 troop carry ships were hit during the war, with the loss of many lives, mostly in the Welsh Guards who were still on the ships waiting to off load when they were hit by an Exocet missile. The are memorials to the ships and the people who lost their lives there.

The Falkland Island people remain very grateful to the military and are very proudly British.

Life in Stanley

Stanley is the only big settlement in the Falklands with a population of around 2,000. The remaining 1,000 or so people who live in the Falklands are either at the military base about 35 miles away or in isolated settlements on the the many islands that make up the Falklands.

The are over 700 islands here, mostly uninhabited. The 2 big islands are East and West Falkland. Virtually everybody is on East Falkland. There are only 70 people living on the whole of West Falkland. Everything outside Stanley is called "camp".

There are plenty of pubs in Stanley, usually quite busy when the military are visiting either from the base or from visiting ships.

The food shops are well stocked, with produce from England and there are a few restaurants and take-aways. There are clothes & electrical shops here, you can usually get hold of anything you normally get on the mainland.

There is very little crime, what there is is either drink related or driving related. There is very little trouble between the military & locals. Even though it is 20 years ago, the locals have far too much respect for the military to cause trouble. The military also know that while they can fight amongst themselves, if they hit a civilian they are in serious trouble.

There is cable TV, but it is Spanish based rather than the SKY we are used to. There are no mobile phones yet, but they are supposed to start very soon.

There is very little natural wood in the Falklands, and the local stone is un-workable. The majority of the houses are pre-fabricated and imported into the islands. There are very few stone or brick properties on the islands. The houses tend to be painted in very bright colors, especially the roofs.

The is no public transport, but it is reasonably easy to walk anywhere in Stanley. There is a flat fee of £2 for any taxi journey within Stanley.

For a town this size the schools & hospital are excellent. The hospital is better equiped than some I have worked in. Every pupil has the chance to study in the UK after 5th form, either vocational or 'A' level at a college in Chichester. The flights, board & fees are all paid for on top of a small bursary. After growing up in the Falklands most of the islanders are suprised by the pace of life in Chichester.

Most people have a 4 wheel drive vehicle of some sort. There are limited paved roads on the islands. Some places have hard gravel tracks which can be fun to drive along, but lethal to cycle along if the cars get too close to the cyclists. For a lot of places you have to go off-road, and it does help to know where you are going. If you get stuck you are unlikely to be found quickly.

1982 Memorial

I am going to have to get a better camera...

In the foreground is the memorial to the 1982 conflict.

In the distance you can just make out the twin peaks of the "Two Sisters" and above the trees the high peak of Mount Tumbledown. These were heavily defended by the Argentinean and had to be taken in order for Stanley to be re-captured.

There was very little fighting in Stanley itself, both sides did not want to take undue risks with the civilian populations. Three local people were killed in the conflict, when a stray British shell hit a house along the street seen in the picture.

Stanley airport is about 1 mile outside Stanley and saw a lot of action. The fact that the British were able to bomb it so early in the campaign played a major part in the eventual victory.

Week 2

Hello everybody.

I have survived another week in the Falkland Islands, and I must say I am still enjoying myself.

My luggage has finally arrived, and almost in one piece. I think I have now too much to bring back, but we shall see about that later.

This picture is Stanley harbour. In the distance is the 'Narrows' which is the entrance to the harbour. The big ships can not get through, but a lot can.

I am going to be here until the end of January, I want to stay longer, but they can't afford to keep me much longer. I will have to stay until they find a cheaper replacement.

I am staying in the hospital house, a 5 bedroomed house about a 15 min walk from the hospital. A lot of the temporary staff stay their and people come and go all the time.

It is a very tight community and everybody knows everybody, and people look out for each other. It is quite a friendly place, with very little crime, mostly just drink related.

There are quite a few pubs here and the beer is cheap compared to the mainland. I have even been into some of them myself. The highlight of the week I am told is "The Trough" on Saturday night with music from the "Fighting Pig Band". I have been told I have to go at least once before I leave.

I do the same job as I would do in any hospital on the mainland, with a few extra things to do. The workload is a lot less than I am used to, but there is enough to keep me occupied.

I am going to train with the cricket team next week, they have a couple games coming up against the army. Apparently I could even play, but I will probably just umpire.

The weather is quite mild as we are just entering Spring but it is very windy. We are very isolated and low lying. There are very few trees in the islands and there are no major land masses anywhere close by, so we can get some very strong winds here. The weather can change very quickly here.

I am organizing a few day trips to the other islands to see some of the wild life and to go on a battlefield tour to see the major sights. I have re-read my book on the history of Falklands war and to be able to see the actual sights puts it into so much sharper context. Even this week a stash of Argentinean ammunition and guns were found in a house in Stanley.

There is no military presence in Stanley itself, the base and the airport are at Mount Pleasant, about 35 miles away. The locals are free to visit the base & its facilities at any time.

The islanders rely on tourism and the cruise ships have started to arrive. This week we had the QE2. The population of Stanley can double in the afternoon as the passengers off load and walk around the streets. Very occasionaly the weather changes and they are unable to get back to the ship so the locals put them up for the night in their own houses and everybody is looked after.

Hope all is well.

Will post again soon.