A Southern Island

February 4 and we are at the Falkland Islands. We have had a couple of lectures about the islands so we are not completely ignorant. This is a rugged place. It’s pretty but rugged and barren.



A lot of history in these islands. They are/were strategic in both wars and being so isolated hard to keep in the loop. There are memorials for each war and they are proud of the wreckage of ships that surround the island and pop up in a variety of inlets etc.



WW 1

                                                     Falkland War

                                                                                WW 2
 

And of course you come here to see penguins and sheep. There are 3600, yes that many zeros, people and 580,000 sheep, yes that many zeros! Not sure of the penguin population but it various from a few thousand to tens of thousands. Unfortunately we didn’t see a lot of sheep, apparently we didn’t venture into the country enough. But penguins we saw, not many and you smell them first!

And yes they breed in holes in the ground. These are Magellanic penguins, medium size as penguins go.

There are Gentoo Penguins, King Penguins and the above ones.

They’re a lot of other sites. We took a three hour tour and saw a lot around the town. The trip to the King Penguins was over an hour off off road rugged and we were told it was really rough. I’m too old for that sh*t and so is Jane! We have seen penguins on two continents and hopefully three counting Antarctica.


And you wouldn’t go to the Britain with out stopping for a pint now would you? 

We had a drink after the tour, a local brew for me. We were late arriving so we had a late return. Worked out well. Jane got some merino wool to play with as well.



Currently we are half way between the Falklands and Elephant Island. Our first Antarctic location and the last place Shackleton left most of his expedition from his failed cross Antarctic attempt, but more on that later.

The captain says we have a good chance of seeing whales, penguins and dolphins on these Antarctic route days. Unfortunately we are too big to disembark anywhere and we cannot cross the arctic circle. We will get with 60 miles of it though.

As Scarlet said “after all, tomorrow is another day”!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 There is a lot to see at the southern most tip of North America. Christmas is big here, lots of decorations using pine bow garland but I haven’t seen any pine trees so it must just be tradition. Lots of churches too, quite a few have been repurposed though, like the one above. We did make a little faux pas at the Southernmost Point. We walked up, waited till the people there took their picture then we took our sand left. It was only then that we noticed the line up down the street waiting to take pictures. OOPS! Happened to watch a funeral as well. All the streets blocked off to the church and police everywhere. It was the wife of some newly elected politician so lots of pomp and security. It was reminiscent of a New Orleans funeral only fewer bands.  Last day in the Keys then onto the boat tomorrow!
Read more
Image
 We did another road trip on the 23rd. ( We are a little behind on our posts, busy few days). We decided to try to go to Punta Chame. We were told that the road was terrible but thought we could try it and turn around if it was too bad. It was slow, the road did have some large potholes(but what road here doesn’t) and some construction but otherwise a pretty easy drive. I could say ‘I could have driven a school bus through there’. Pretty little town, fairly isolated, lots of fishing boats. What else would you do here. A number of resorts with one very large one, Playa Caricol Residences and Beach Club. Really big and very new. Us, being plebeians hung at the Surf Shack for a bit. It’s right beside the resort and much more regular. Cold beer is cold beer! If you look hard you can see some kite surfers in the second pic. Instead of just heading home I decided to see where the road went. Not too long a track but it ended right at the tip of the point. It was completely deserted. You c...
Read more

A Bit About Irish Golf Courses

Image
 We have all heard about how wonderful the golf courses are in Ireland and Scotland. At this time I can only comment on Ireland but hope to be able to add Scotland soon. The first premise of this golf trip was to play smaller more local courses that cost €50 or less per person. Since our experience and research shows that rental clubs per round, if the have them and they are usable, tend to be as costly as the round itself. We have rented clubs long term in Portugal and found a service in Ireland that met our needs. We rented our clubs for the entire time in Ireland from a company called Clubstohire. The website is www.clubstohire.com   The clubs were delivered to us at the car rental station at Dublin airport by Billy, amiable young man with good information. The clubs were high quality and suited us well. I should have ordered a club between fairway 3 wood and 5 hybrid but that was my failure not theirs and I managed.  The first course was Roundwood Golf Club in county ...
Read more