Battle Day

Last Wednesday (Dec 8th) was a public holiday for Battle Day. Before we moved here I never had any idea that the Falkland Islands were involved in the first world war.

After the British were defeated off the coast of Chile on November 1st 1914 they sent a large force to track down and destroy the German squadron of 8 vessels which were responsible.

The British force of 7 vessels arrived in Stanley the day before the German force arrived to attack the British navy supply base here. In the Battle for the Falkland Islands on 8th December 1914 all but 2 of the German ships were sunk.

There is a memorial commemorating this on the sea front in West Stanley.

On Battle Day each year there is a service in the cathedral attended by military representatives and local dignitaries, including the governor. This is followed by a parade with military band to the memorial where prayers are said and wreaths laid.

These are representatives of the Falkland Islands defence force.

The governor inspected the troops at the memorial. We have recently had a new governor with , presumably, a new set of uniform. During the ceremony some of the red feathers blew out of his hat. I wonder how they are fastened in anyway!

Local organisations like the sea cadets, cubs and brownies (who dress in red) also attend.

Simon went windsurfing and tacked his way up the harbour as far as the memorial but he didn't land. The naval vessel, the Clyde, was also in for the celebration.

Paul and Lesley Evans who are visiting our church here came to have lunch with us then in the afternoon we took them to see the lighthouse at Cape Pembroke.

There was a young elephant seal on the rocks below the lighthouse.

Stormy weather

We have been having a lot of cold, wet and windy weather recently with hail and sleet showers (this is meant to be summer!).

On Saturday afternoon Simon and I went for a short walk from the end of Surf Bay towards Cape Pembroke. It was so windy that I kept being blown sideways but was very dramatic and exhilerating (except during the hail squalls).

There is a colony of rock shags nesting on a small cliff to one side of a gulch near where these pictures were taken and as the waves crashed into the gulch they were getting deluged with spray and didn't look at all happy.


The waves were crashing onto the coast sending up huge plumes of spray (not really good for the camera).


The small bays were filled with a thick white foam which covered the rocks and pebble beaches like soft white icing and was being blown inland. I suspect that alginates from the kelp along the coast get mixed with the sea water to form the foam.

This photo is looking back towards Surf Bay.

This week

Tuesday was definitely the best day of the week. Since then it has been very cold and windy with heavy squalls of rain, sleet and hail and is forecast to continue the same for another week. As I write it is raining torrentially and just before this squall arrived there was a bright rainbow over the harbour.On Wednesday I went for a walk at Cape Pembroke. Well actually I got blown down the Cape and battled my way back against the wind. There are some interesting dunes with exposed layers of sand and peat. I'm not sure how they form but maybe different things get blown at different times depending on the direction of the wind.


Near the headland there is a lot of dense kelp and it all swirls around with the waves in the inlets between the rocks looking quite sinister. You can almost imagine yourself watching some science fiction film and getting drawn into it! It certainly isn't much fun if you get tangled up in it when windsurfing.


Yesterday I went to Surf Bay and found that almost the whole beach had become a lagoon, which the wading birds were enjoying. I suppose it was a combination of a high tide and the wind direction. I have been very surprised how much the beach changes since we have been here, with several feet of sand being washed away at times.

An enjoyable walk

I am really enjoying being able to drive again and am feeling stronger so am able to get out to more interesting places to walk.

We have a minister, Paul, visiting our church here for 6 weeks and his wife Lesley is a keen walker so this morning I picked her up and drove down to the Lady Liz at the end of the harbour. Fom there we walked along the far side of the harbour to Engineers Point.


We saw upland geese with goslings and logger ducks with ducklings.


When we got to the point a variable hawk started flying around us quite noisily, obviously not happy that we were there and then his mate appeared.

Looking down over the edge of the small cliff we spotted their large nest on a ledge and could just see fluffy chicks in the nest.

We stopped at Hadrassa Bay for a snack and watched some magellanic penguins come out of the sea and toddle off to their burrows. It was a lovely sunny morning but the wind was picking up as we proceeded along the coast to Gypsy Cove. However when we went down to the beach it was sheltered and a real pleasure to sit in the sun watching a group of penguins on the sand.


Just as we were leaving Gypsy Cove a pod of Peale's dolphins were feeding amongst the kelp. It was a real treat, beautiful scenery, lovely weather, fascinating wildlife, good company and feeling stronger.


I took this photo of lichens on a rock when I was out yesterday.

What has been happening to the Wilkies?

Once again appologies for a long abscence of blogging. I am wondering what the excuses are. Being spring the last 3 months have been extra busy in the garden, although with a lot of cold, windy weather germination has been very slow and erratic. This is when the polytunnel really makes a difference.

Last week we had a gynaecologist visiting from UK for a week and I had a prolapse repair operation on Wednesday. It was really nice to be cared for by people you know and I had the privilege of my own room. I came home on Friday and am now limited in what I am allowed to do for a while. I thought this would result in having lots of spare time but it actually means everyday tasks like hanging out the washing taking much longer because I have to take things out one garment at a time instead of carrying the basketful. However I am feeling stronger each day and am enjoying getting out for some walks.

Yesterday we had a beautiful warm, calm, sunny day which was a real treat and I enjoyed pottering in the garden and planting out some bedding plants which were long overdue. It is cold and wet today but at least the plants won't need watering!

The weekend before last Simon went with the ramblers down to North Arm for the weekend. (I couldn't go as I had an appointment with the gynaecologist). This is part of Lafonia and is very flat, with huge areas of whitegrass.



They stayed in one of a number of self-catering cottages called The Wreck , possibly named for this wreck which they visited.


You need to be able to light a peat stove and start a generator to stay here.

Simon decided to camp in the garden.

On the Saturday they drove down to Bull Point, the south westerly point of East Falkland, (a long off-road drive). There are some lovely beaches down there and some gentoo penguins. I am hoping we will be able to spend a few days down there around Christmas now that Simon knows the way.

The weekend before that we camped at Volunteers and in October visited Sealion Island. Separate blogs to follow on those as I took hundreds of photos which need editing.

There was great excitemant in Stanley last week when a branch of Peacocks opened in the West store. It is a lot smaller than a UK shop but does mean that there is now a reasonable range of clothing available locally.

Well I'm off to do what the doctor ordered and have my after-lunch nap, then I might have a go at driving, just as far as the garden centre to hunt some fruit. Fresh produce has become even more expensive over recent months since Argentina has stopped any vessels that are coming to the Falklands passing through its waters so things can't come in by boat from Chile. More produce is being flown in. A shipping link from Brazil has been established but negotiations are still under way for importing fruit and veg and eggs.

Mount Vernet

Yesterday we went for a fantastic walk with the ramblers. The weather was dry, mostly sunny and not very windy. This was especially appreciated as we had gales all day on Saturday which had made us rather mopey. (Simon because it was too windy for him to go out windsurfing and me because some of my rigid cloches had blown away in the garden and the corrugated polycarbonate sheets smashed.)

We drove up near Estancia settlement and left 2 vehicles where the walk was planned to end. We then walked up Estancia Mountain which is almost 1,000 feet high and has rocky crags on top which were fun to scramble up.

We then walked over another small peak towards Mount Vernet. On the way I noticed this small but bright lichen or something (any suggestions?).

On the way up Mount Vernat there were plenty more opportunities for those of us that wanted to to scramble up rocky outcrops until we reached the main ridge.

I noticed this interesting curved piece of strata.

The ridge was almost like a huge wall which you could walk along the top of but it became quite precipitous before reaching the summit so we had to take a longer route round.

A lunch break was welcome when we reached the summit cairn at about 1,300 feet.

This is the route we did not ascend by!

There were fantastic views in all directions although it was rather hazy.

This was looking northwards over Berkley Sound to Port Louis, Johnson's Harbour and Volunteer Point.

In the valley below us was a vast stone run known as Prince's Street which we descended towards.
As we came down this gulley I noticed an interesting crack forming a tunnel through the large rock on the right through which you could see daylight on the other side.

Of course this was too tempting to leave unexplored! It was probably about 15 metres long and got progressively narrower and lower but there was a little daylight filtering down through the overhead crack in the middle.

I went first and Simon was surprised that I managed to get through as he found it a tight squeeze! As I dropped down at the end I wasn't sure if I would be able to get back up again or if there would be an alternative route back. In fact I did manage to get back and it would have been perfectly easy to get round the outside.

As we headed down the Prince's Street valley we had to cross quite a few tributaries of the stone run which can be a bit challenging but I find they are easier if you keep up a reasonable speed and momentum, although many of the stones are balanced and tip when you stand on them so it can be rather un-nerving.

It was good to get back to the car and brew a cup of tea while we waited for some of the others to catch up. We had walked 6 1/4 miles but with challenging terrain and a lot of rock scrambling it had been quite tiring.

Chinstrap penguin

Last Saturday we took some garden rubbish to the tip before going up to Mount Harriet for a walk. As we were passing the vets I noticed a lady by a plastic tank next to the shed where they keep oiled penguins if any have been found. I remembered reading in the Penguin news about a month ago that an oiled chinstrap had been found at Surf Bay so we stopped to have a look.


Chinstraps are only very occasionally seen here. They usually live around South Georgia.


After the oiled birds have been cleaned with detergent it takes several weeks for them to get fully waterproof again. They also had a rockhopper. They were greatly enjoying their daily bath.


He was swimming around so fast it was hard to get any pictures of him. He will soon be ready to be released again.

Ascension Island 7 Wideawake terns

Photos uploaded Sept 24th but blog posted Oct 9th

Most of the sea birds on Ascension Island nest on Boatswain Bird Island where there are no rats or feral cats to predate them. However there are about 400,000 wideawake or sooty terns nest on a lava flow known as the Wideawake Fairs close to the air base. We went to see them on both our visits to the island and they are an amazing sight. As there is such a plentiful supply of flying fish (one of their main food sources) all year round the terns here breed every 9-10 months so the first time we saw them they had eggs and this year although we were a little earlier they had chicks.


As you approach the fairs there are thousands of birds flying around you and swooping down over your head. They are incredibly graceful and beautiful.


They lay a single egg just in a small scrape on the ground or even on a rock.

The chicks are dark and mottled and incredibly camouflaged against the lava, so that it is hard to spot them.



There are at least 6 chicks in this photo!