Our excursion on the Falklands could almost have been called ‘The Excursion That Wasn’t’! The weather forecasters promised us a splendid summer day with winds no stronger than 20 miles per hours, but when we steamed towards Stanley’s Outer Harbor, winds were already clocking in at 30 miles per hour, and steadily getting stronger. Captain Gunderson had to keep the Prinsendam steady in the Outer Harbor as only two of four tenders were lowered for the visit and all had to wait their turn to be tendered into the Inner Harbor and port for their visit. We finally got on close to 1 pm, just in time to get to our Excursion to visit the Bluff Cove penguins, and we were the lucky ones! Shorty after our transfer, winds rose to 55 miles per hour and tendering had to be suspended!
Here’s Henry holding on to his hat but happy to have made it after landing at Stanley Harbor.
Henry Holding on to his Hat at Stanley Port, the Falklands, Feb 2011
From Stanley Harbor we were off to visit Bluff Cove, first using a minibus with local guide Rudy, then a Land Rover 4 by 4 with Falklands native, who both provided some Falklands history and facts on the way. We were joined on this adventure by our Rio buddies Caroline and Bill, pictured below with our Land Rover guide.
Bluff Cove turned out to be calm and sunny and absolutely fabulous! We saw both King and Gentoo penguins, complete with chicks, on nests and in the water, and had a had a wonderful visit!
King Penguins & Chick
Gentoo Mama & Chick, The Falklands, Feb 2011
Gentoo Penguins & Chicks, Bluff Cove, The Falklands, Feb 2011
Much to our delight, the local Museum also had postcards and stamps, and we both got to put into action our plan to write and send as many postcards from the Falklands as we could. Henry got twelve off, and Genevieve kept going and managed to get sixteen written before it was time to go.
The lucky 28 people should get these postcards in the reasonably near future. Unfortunately, we were not able to write all the ones we wanted to write, but we bought a few more and will be sending them as soon as we can, probably from Chile, as it is not a very good idea to send ‘Falklands’ postcards from our next stop, Ushuaia, Argentina, given the unresolved conflict between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the status of the Falklands.
All the best and stay well, Genevieve & Henry
