July ramble - The Camber

On Sunday we went out with the ramblers. It was a calm, sunny day but quite cold as there had been a sharp frost the night before. The puddles and ponds all had ice on which remained all day.
We drove to Moody Brook which is at the Western end of the harbour. The brook which enters the harbour here passes through a small reservoir which provides the town's water supply.
We then walked up to Wireless Ridge (scene of fighting during the conflict) and took a detour westwards to view neptune in the solar system sculpture. We then headed eastwards along the rocky ridge. The ground is very boggy in places and extremely uneven with tussacky whitegrass, diddle-dee and ferns so walking is quite tiring. This is a long promontary of land forming the northern side of the harbour to the west of The Narrows.

We passed uranus and saturn before heading down to the shore at Fairy Cove where there is the remains of an old jetty. Apparently there used to be a smallpox isolation hospital there in the days when sailing ships that had come round Cape Horn would come into Stanley for repairs or restocking. Near here we saw the model of jupiter.

Along the hillside are the names of various navy ships which have served in the area. These are spelled out in white painted rocks and you can see them from Stanley looking across the harbour.
Our leader says the first one - Baracouta was written by sailors in 1896. Some are more recent protector vessels. We ate our picnic sitting on some of the rocks but soon got quite cold and were pleased to get walking again, following the track along near the shore until we reached The Camber. This is directly across the harbour from where we live, and the site of a naval base for many years.
There is an enclosed stone walled harbour where the boats used to come for refuelling, originally from large coal stores and later from 2 huge oil storage tanks.

The group leader used to live out here and her husband who was employed by the navy as a caretaker used to go inside the tanks to clean them. Simon found a small open port in the back of one of the tanks and if you shouted into it the noise echoed round and round inside for about a minute.
There is a reservoir next to the tanks storing water for the fire engine in case of fire and large pipes and taps which presumably controlled the flow of oil.
This old stone building was built by Italian masons and houses the pumps for warming and moving the fuel. There are very few stone buildings here.
After we left the harbour the rest of the group returned to the cars but Simon and I continued on to the end of the promontory (known as Navy Point). There is a beacon here marking the entrance to the harbour and it is just across The Narrows from Engineers Point.
There were lots of rock shags at the point and a good view across the harbour to our part of town.
We then walked along the ridge for a while, looking down over the area where many of the British soldiers were accomodated after the conflict (apparently nick-named portacabinopolis).
As dusk was approaching we then walked briskly back along the track to our car. The track runs along the course of an old railway line and in places you can still see sleepers. The 24 inch gauge railway was built around 1915 to carry coal from The Camber to Moody Brook where there was a wireless station. A steam engine powered a dynamo that produced the large spark that was required. The carriages of the train were fitted with a mast and sail and utilised the westerly wind to propel them back to the Camber. When someone told me this I wasn't sure whether to believe them but I have now seen an old photo of one of them!