The end of the adventure

During our time in the Falklands we had some nice days out hiking and sightseeing.  The weather in the Falklands is constantly changing, and it seems usual to have all seasons in one day, with a persistent bitterly cold wind blowing at quite some speed, whatever else the weather is doing.  Here are a few pictures.

Bodie Creek suspension bridge- the worlds most southerly suspension bridge, now falling into ruin and no longer in use.  It was built in the 1920s to transfer sheep across the river to avoid a 100 mile detour around the coast…

Another ruin, the disused Cape Pembroke lighthouse (now superseded by the tiny little fencepost looking thing directly to the right of it which is a light and serves the same purpose)…

Goose Green, one of the outlying settlements in the Falklands…

The pleasingly named diddle-dee berry, used to make jam, growing in the Falklands…

Rock and sandy shorelines…

Grassy landscapes…

And huge open beaches (which usually have dolphins playing in the surf)…

Stanley church…

And my final photograph, taken from the plane as we left for home, showing the tiny red dot of the Sir David Attenborough ship, still moored in Mare Harbour…

Thanks to all the team at Bird Island who made it such an enjoyable season this year.  Bird Island is such a unique and special place and it was a real privilege to be working there once again.  Despite a number of years passing since my first visit, the magic of this little island for me has not changed one bit. 

I will sign off here, now safely back home in the real world after a wonderfully enjoyable trip.  Thanks for reading my blog- until next time, goodbye.

Volunteer Point

We spent the 2^nd to the 8^th April in the Falklands, still onboard the ship, moored at Mare Harbour, where we could come and go as we pleased.  During that time we had some days out exploring in the car we hired.  One day we went to Volunteer Point, which has 3 species of penguin (gentoo, king and Magellanic).  These were the king penguins (the brown ones are the chicks)…

I’ve not seen Magellanic penguins on this trip as they don’t go as far south as South Georgia, so it was a nice treat to see these.  Magellanic penguins are quite secretive and nest in burrows.

The beach at Volunteer Point is enormous and very lovely (although with a bitingly cold wind that was definitely not as warm as it appears in the photos!)

Volunteer Point also has dolphin gulls…

And turkey vultures…

Plus sea lions on the shore and Sei whales just offshore in the waves (which I didn’t manage to get any pictures of).  It was a great day out!  I’ve run out of photo space on this blog so I’ll put a few more of our other trips out onto my next blog.

On 9^th April we finally left the Falklands, and flew home, via the same route that we came 3 months ago- the MOD flight back to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, via Ascension Island.  We arrived back in the UK on 10^th April and I am visiting my parents for a few days before heading home to Swaledale.  I’ll put a few more pictures of our final Falklands days out on here soon.

The largest iceberg in the world

Part way between Signy Island and the Falklands we took a small detour to visit the largest iceberg in the world, unimaginatively named A23a.  This berg broke off from Antarctica in 1986, and remained grounded on the sea bed for many years.  In 2020 it started slowly moving northwards and now lies pretty much on our route home.  It is currently a massive 40 miles long by 32 miles wide and is a huge flat sheet of ice, with edges beautifully scalloped by the incessant battering of the southern ocean waves.  We were able to get quite close to it and get some amazing views.

One morning at sunrise we were treated to some very nice anti-crepuscular rays- these are like the sun rays you see around a sunrise, but with the added confusion of being on the horizon directly opposite the sun instead of around the sun itself, resulting in something that looks like a sunrise but without the sun!

On our final morning at sea we were treated to a lovely sunrise. 

We have now arrived into the Falkland Islands where we are spending a week there before flying home on 9^th April.  We are still aboard the ship and are moored at Mare Harbour, which is the military port that supports the RAF base at Mount Pleasant.  It is in the middle of nowhere, about an hours drive from the capital Stanley, so we have hired a car so we can get out and about and see the islands.      

Signy

After leaving King Edward Point we sailed west, back around the north coast of South Georgia, then headed south for Signy island.  Before we left, we called in to visit a huge king penguin colony at Fortuna Bay. 

Fortuna Bay is home to thousands of king penguins and their fluffy brown chicks.  As king penguins don’t breed on Bird Island, this was a special treat for all of us. 

It was a nice excuse for the crew to use the various boats we have onboard…

The weather was wild and wet and the landscape was vast and windswept… 

When sailing at night in the southern ocean the ship uses ice lights.  When its foggy and dark these give quite a dramatic view…

After 3 days at sea we arrived at Signy.  It was nice to see very little had changed there, and I was able to go ashore and help out with the closing down of the research station (Signy is a summer-only station). 

We were able to get out for a couple of short walks and revisit some of my old haunts.  This is the Orwell glacier which has melted quite a bit since I last saw it.

Signy treated us to a nice sunset…  

After 2 days at Signy, the station was winterised and everyone was onboard.  We finally set sail home, heading northwards towards the Falklands.