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.