Port Stanley, Falkland Islands

Ah, a day at sea!  I woke and opened my curtains.  We are outside the South Georgia area, so I don't have to close them again!  (South Georgia regulation is to close curtains to avoid bird strikes.)  It was a beautiful morning.  Birds flying by the window – more petrels.    No wandering albatross that I could see.  So after a few morning ministrations, back to bed I went, having woken just in time for a nap!  One giant petrel seemed to hover by my window for a bit longer than necessary, almost as if looking to see if I was a meal he could scavenge! I was suddenly brought to an awakened state by Ab, the ornithologist guide, announcing that wandering albatross were around the ship.  So, up I jumped, dressed, grabbed my camera and door key, and out the door I went.  Out the back door where nobody had seen it.  Up to the 8th floor observation deck where Adam said there were three of them, but they were gone now.  Adam is one of the heads for the Rock Jumper birding group, and he has been really nice to me (and everybody else who was interested in learning about birds).  He said you have to be on deck when they get there because they only hang around for seconds, then they're gone.  So, it looks like I'm NOT going to get a picture of the wandering albatross.  I need the rest.  I really don't have the strength and energy to stand out on the deck in the driving wind.  If one flies past my balcony, I'll probably see it (unless I'm asleep), but that's going to be my extent.  I hate it, but that just has to be okay.  I tried to get a few more of the prion that were flying around because I don't have many of those (and no good ones).  I failed miserably.  Those little suckers are FAST!

On the second day at sea, Hard-Core Sanna gave a lecture about her trip skiing to the South Pole.  Turns out, she “warmed up” by skiing across Greenland!  She is soooo hard core!  As if any of the guides on this cruise is a slouch!  Any one of them would be considered hard core by normal standards, but Hard-Core Sanna is a hard core stand-out among even this group!

We pulled in to Port Stanley about 7:00 a.m. with a pod of 3 little black and white dolphins playing at our side.  I was in the dining room having breakfast and did not have my camera.  By the time I got back to my stateroom and my camera, we had docked.  Without any wake, the dolphins moved on.  I'm hoping they'll trail us while pulling out tonight so I can get some shots.  They were adorable!

And speaking of adorable, we went to Gypsy Cove where some magellanic penguins nest in burrows. They are adorable!  There was a group of people that was going to walk all the way around the cove and back to the ship and there was the rest of us.  The rest of us walked around part of the cove and then went back to the busses to take us back to the ship.  It's a difference of about 4 miles, and Ab always seems to underestimate!  So, I caught the bus for people who weren't doing the long walk out to the cove, which was right behind the long walkers' bus.  We all started out together.  Ab was the leader and pointed out the black crested night heron that was nesting with the shags on the wall.  We found the burrowing penguin on our own as well as the other penguins on the beach and all the geese.  I probably shouldn't have gone as far as I did to see the shags and heron, but plenty of people helped me over the big rocks and stuff.  After that, though, I decided it was time to turn back.  Ab, our guide, said we could go as far as the canons and just go back over the hill, but I'm glad I decided to turn around and retrace my path.  There were more penguins on the beach (2 going up; 4 coming back) and many of them were coming and going from their burrows.  They sound a lot like the black footed South African penguin, which is also called the “jackass” penguin because of their bray.

The buildings in Stanley are colorful, mainly by the different roof colors.  Notice that the only trees are in town.  They don't grow naturally on the island.

This is an empty burrow

A family of geese

The night heron

Magellanic penguin in burrow

Megellanic penguin walking through the ferns going back to his burrow

Once back in the parking lot, the driver said he'd leave if we got about 20 on the bus that wanted to go back early.  When we met that quota, he started off.  He was supposed to take us back to the ship, where we could pick up a shuttle to town.  The shuttles are small and only run at designated times, so most people were encouraged to walk from the ship to town.  Somebody mentioned that maybe we could just go all the way to town.  The driver pulled over and tried to call his boss, but couldn't get an answer, so he brought us to town anyway!  That actually saved a couple of hours because we would have needed to wait over an hour for the shuttle to town.  That's assuming we all would be able to get on that shuttle!

With rest stops, I walked from the visitor's center out to the memorial to the Battle of the Falklands in World War I, the solar system monument, and the Jhelum shipwreck from WWI. Then I slowly made my way back, stopping to take pictures of the horses in the yards in front of Government House; checking out the Liberation Monument to those lost in the 1982 Falkland War, the Margaret Thatcher bust on Thatcher Drive, the Penguin News (local paper), the Dockyard Museum and Antarctic Monument, the post office/town hall, the police station, the Victory Green, and finally stopped for a snack at the WestStore Supermarket, where I had a baked potato and beans.  I then continued on to the Whalebone Arch which is beside the Christ Church Cathedral (which was closed but did have a memorial veterans display), the botanical gardens at Jubilee Villas and back to the Jetty Visitor Center where I caught a shuttle back to the ship.  It was a very nice walk, about 3 miles.  With the stops and actual sightseeing, it took about 2 or 3 hours.  A lot of folks wanted to do the pubs and have fish and chips and a pint.  That's not my scene any longer, so I just came back to the ship where my feet could use a rest, my body would like a shower and a nap, and my mind knew there was nothing left to do in Stanley!  It's a nice place, but there isn't much to see.  The weather was a nice, sunny, windy day in the 50s, and I had to take my jacket off, just wearing my thermal shirt and fleece leggings.

Jubilee Villas with the botanical garden on the left

Pale Maiden, the national flower of the Falkland Islands

Memorial display in front of the church

Whalebone Arch

Police station

Town Hall and Post Office

Local paper

Bust of Margaret Thatcher

1982 Falkland War Memorial

Horses in front of the garden of Government House

Falkland Island shag.  Note the RED feathers around the pretty brown eyes.  The Antarctic shags had blue feathers.

WWI Falkland War Monument

Shipwreck of Jhelum, WWI ship

Solar system model.  I'm sure it was more in-depth, but I didn't walk down the hill to see.

Dockyard Museum and Antarctic Monument

Victory Green

Church

With my T-Mobile plan, I was able to text home to let Bruce and Chrissy know I was okay and having a wonderful time, but I didn't have any data, so no calling.  I wasn't even able to send pictures through!  But, I'll be in Ushuaia in just a few days and all the messages I've been “sending” and posts I've been “posting” to Facebook will go through!

Tomorrow is the last excursions.  Rock Hopper penguins and nesting brown browed albatross at Carcass and Westpoint in the West Falklands.  Then a day at sea before docking in Ushuaia the following morning.

Reaching the Trifecta - Gold Harbour, St. Andrew's Bay, and Salisbury Plains

 More king penguins.  A lot more king penguins.  We have apparently made the trifecta of South Georgia.  Apparently the three largest king penguin colonies in the world, with St. Andrew's Bay being the biggest. Those king penguins seem to really like windy places.  Two of the three had hella winds.  Often enough to try to knock you over! I seriously needed a hiking stick to stay upright!  There were king penguins as far as the eye could see and then some.  Huddled in the midst was one who had been wounded.  Our guides thought he had probably escaped a leopard seal attack.  They were torn on whether it would likely survive, with one hoping to see the scavengers get to work before we left!   Keep in mind that it is difficult or impossible to sex a king penguin from a distance, so even if I use a gender for the penguin, it must be considered just a fluid and generic pronoun.  Also, don't get me wrong.  I love king penguins, but I am ready now to move on to another species.  Bring on the rock hoppers and magellanics in the Malvinas – er Falklands! I am starting to be able to tell that four days of tough landings is a little much, between the tussac grass of Gold Harbour and the winds and uneven grounds of St. Andrews and today's Salisbury Plain, my right leg is saying enough and giving way.  It's doing it enough that I'm holding hand rails and unable to walk without a limp.  But, I will soldier on because FOMO!

Thankfully, the last outing before two days at sleep – er sea! - is a zodiac cruise.  So long as I can get into and out of the zodiac, the rest of it will be spent on my butt.  And so far, the staff and crew has been able to get me in and out of zodiacs even in the worst of conditions.  Leaving St. Andrews Bay this morning, that meant me backing up to the zodiac and lifting a leg and the guides just rolling me up and over into the boat!  It worked, and I'm good with that!  But I can use these next two days to rest.  After lunch, while the ship was repositioning, driving close to Prion Island where wandering albatross are known to be nesting, I fell asleep sitting in the balcony (covered by a duvet) watching for that one particular, noted, coveted bird.  I woke up to Phil announcing our arrival at Prince Olav Harbor, our afternoon destination.  I don't know if anybody saw any wandering albatross while I was sleeping.

Prince Olav Harbor is the home to an old whaling station.  The government of South Georgia is currently studying the best way to remove existing asbestos from the old whaling stations.  In the meantime, they are just slowly deteriorating, with Mother Nature doing her thing.  Other than Grytviken, where they have removed the buildings that had asbestos some time ago, there are no landings at the old whaling stations, and ships and zodiacs must stay a certain amount of space away from them in hopes that the passengers are not exposed to asbestos just flying around in the general vicinity.  It was a pretty neat place.  The ship was intentionally scuttled for some reason.  It and the remainder of the ruins are just up my alley of things I like to see and take pictures of (aside from wildlife, of course)!

I love ya', South Georgia, but I'm really looking forward to these next two days at rest while repositioning to Las Malvinas - or as called when actually there, the Falkland Islands.  (I've spent more time in Argentina than Great Britain at this point, so I've grown accustomed to using the Argentinean name!)

Macaroni Penguins! And More

 So, Phil is safe.  No mutiny is necessary.  We pulled into Hercules Bay this morning to nice calm seas.  Therefore, our zodiac to see the macaroni penguins did, in fact, happen.  And what a wonderful sight it was!  This time, Phil was actually my zodiac driver.  He took us around and gave us not only information about the fur seals, elephant seals (with one male), shags (cormorants), petrels, and other birds, but he also talked about the geography and geology.  He talked about the pressure that was exerted on the sediment that pushed the rocks into diagonal or even horizontal positions.

He did talk to the captain about doing the polar plunge, so even though we weren't able to do it in the Antarctic, we do still plan to get into the southern ocean!  It won't happen today, though, because there's still three hours to get to our afternoon stop.  I asked about potentially touring the bridge, and he said Cpt Jeremy is very happy to accept bridge tours and that those have previously happened.  They suspended these tours because of COVID.

Beautiful little baby fur seal

They were nesting all the way up the mountain (and down the other side), often hiding behind the tussac grass.  Believe it or not, the macaronis are the most numerous penguin on South Georgia, even though there are three massive king penguin colonies.  They just tend to nest in the less hospitable areas and are difficult to see.

Take note of the beautiful blue feathers around this shag's pretty brown eyes!  That orange thing over his nose and pretty pink feet mark him as a good candidate for breeding! 

This penguin picture won picture of the day on our ship!

After lunch, we dropped anchor in St. Andrew's Bay.  This is the largest king penguin colony in the world with an estimated population of approximately 150,000 breeding pairs plus their chicks and whatever singles are hanging out.   It is also situated at the feet of two large glaciers that have receded significantly.  When Cpt James Cook first came here in 1775, these glaciers both extended to the shore.  You can see how far back they are now.  The nutrients left by that recession has been wonderful for the penguins, and the elephant seals seem to enjoy the beach, too.  Walking along the beach, you can see how difficult life is here.  There were carcasses that had been picked clean, probably by the shua and giant petrels, though there were a few pintailed ducks around, too, and they dig in there right along with the other scavengers.

This wasn't an easy landing.  Those glaciers give rise to what are called katabatic winds.  Folks, you ain't seen wind till you've seen these winds!  I had difficulty standing!  And coming down off the glaciers, they are icy!  I tried to capture how the sand just blacked out the scene in front of you when it decided to gust, but the camera didn't do it justice.  It “dehazed” to pick out what was behind the sand.  Before we left, they announced that we could have nothing hanging from our necks and that everything had to be in dry bags.  I thought they meant binoculars or cameras that literally hang around your neck, so I put the chest harness on with the action camera under my life jacket.  They made me take it off and either leave it in my locker or put it in my dry bag.  They also made sure everyone's life jackets were still tight, and many were not.  St. Andrew's is one of the hardest landings in the rotation, and the drivers said this wasn't the worst they've negotiated.  They did say the weather can change in a second and that they have (rarely) had some accidental polar plunges when the wind hits at a particular severity.  My zodiac going to the beach was pretty dicey.  We tossed so much that I am actually surprised Ab was able to keep us upright!  Coming back, it wasn't quite as bad, and Sanna took us along the shore to see the far end of the colony.  Then we turned to dock at the ship.  The waters weren't so calm anymore.  Two strong deck hands and our driver, who we have dubbed “Hard-Core Sanne” because she's just so bad-ass, had difficulty holding the zodiac at the boarding dock, but they did manage to get us all back on the ship, though it was an interesting feat!  I felt sure I was going to slam against the wall, but they kept me on track and got me in safely.

We jokingly called this David Attenborough's summer home.  Sanna said she did see Frozen Planet staying there once, though!

It was a good picture day, too.  At the daily recap, I got an honorable mention for picture of the day with my macaroni penguin picture!  And Dede, my stateroom attendant, has hunted down a shower chair for me!  It's been a good day all around!  Of course, he also made me promise, again, to not fall overboard from my balcony!