A windy walk

On Sunday we went out for the first time with the ramblers who meet on the second Sunday of each month. After meeting up in town 7 of us set out in 2 vehicles and headed for Rincon Grande which is a farm towards the north of East Falkland. The groupleader had already asked the landowner for permission for us to walk there. There was no-one at home when we arrived at the settlement so we headed off northwards off-road. Simon enjoyed testing out our vehicle's capabilities and his driving skills. It is best to go with at least 2 cars in case one has problems or gets "bogged".

It was very windy when we left Stanley and it steadily increased. At times we were driving behind sand dunes and you could have imagined we were in the Sahara in a sand storm. We eventually parked and set off walking along the north coast with the wind more or less behind us. It was impossible to walk in a straight line as the wind was buffeting me about. The coastline is rocky with occasional sandy beaches and there were huge waves breaking and leaving drifts of foam on the beaches. At one point we saw a seal that followed us for a while, bobbing up through the waves to watch us.


We ate our lunch in the shelter of some rocks on a small beach but they were certainly SANDwiches by the time they got into our mouths! Along much of the coast there are kelp beds and huge pieces of this wash up on the beaches, as well as timbers from wrecked ships. You also see whale and dolphin bones (mostly ribs and vertebrae) washed up. Many of these are probably relics of whaling days.


Many of the wild geese now have goslings and we saw various ducks, oystercatchers, plover, dotterel, giant petrels and a few penguins as well as gulls.


To avoid being sandblasted in our faces it was decided we would return further inland which was a hard slog into the wind. Most of the ground is covered by whitegrass, a short coarse grass growing in small clumps, and diddle-dee which resembles heather plants but apparently has tiny edible berries later in the year. Huge areas are needed to support small numbers of sheep and cattle. The cows we saw were very scrawny and we saw quite a few carcases around. Unwanted livestock are shot and left for carrion to feed on.

It was certainly the windiest walk I have ever done and I was pleased when the vehicles came into sight and we got out the hot flask for a cuppa.