Chapter Eleven - Falkland Frolics - Dec 2008 (Part 1)

Well, as said its nearly the end of 2008 & having been away for the last couple of winters I'm looking forward to Christmas at home with Kate, Blythe & Zac however I've only just got back to Blighty having spent most of December basking under blue skies in the Falklands, yes it really was bright & breezy with not a drop of rain in sight, anyway when I wasn't working I got out & about & saw a bit more of West Island than I have on previous flying visits as well as getting in some serious fishing time, see Bangs & Twangs for tales of Falklands Mullet.

For most of the time I was there I was fortunate enough to have the use of one of the company runabouts so I could take more of a leisurely visit to some of the places I'd visited before such as Gypsy Cove, Surf Bay & Pembrokeshire Lighthouse where I spent some considerable time watching the antics of the Magellanic penguins as well as the watching Turkey Vultures of which there seems to be more than ever.

Things worked out quite well as the first weekend I was there as the Monday following was a bank holiday "Battle Day"contrary to what you may think this has nothing to do with the 1982 conflict but relates to a British naval victory over the Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 during the First World War in the South Atlantic. The British, embarrassed by a defeat at the Battle of Coronel on 1 November, sent a large force to track down & destroy the German cruiser squadron responsible. Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee commanding the German squadron of two armoured cruisers, SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau, & three light cruisers, Nürnberg, Dresden & Leipzig attempted to raid the British supply base at Stanley on the Falkland Isles. A larger British squadron of two battlecruisers, HMS Invincible & HMS Inflexible, pictured picking up survivors as well as three armoured cruisers, HMS Carnarvon, HMS Cornwall & HMS Kent, & two light cruisers, HMS Bristol & HMS Glasgow, had arrived in the port only the day before. Visibility was good: the sea was placid with a gentle breeze from the north west, the sun bright, the sky clear. The advance cruisers of the German squadron had been detected early on, & by nine o'clock that morning the British battle-cruisers and cruisers were in hot pursuit of the five German vessels, these having taken flight in line abreast to the south-east. By the time it was over all the Imperial German ships with the exception of the Dresden had been hunted down & sunk with the loss of 1870 German sailors against a loss of 10 Brit's, in fairness Battle Day isn't a victory celebration but a day of rememberance for all who died on that day.

Leaving behind the preparations for the following days "Battle Day" parade I headed off towards Darwin & then Goose Green, regrettably the population Goose Green is declining & it's now well under a hundred, consequently its starting to fall into decline for lack of numbers which is a bit of a pity but the bright lights of Stanley beckon. I'd hoped to get to see the Bodie Creek suspension bridge, its supposed to be the most southern suspension bridge in the world. It was built in 1925, from a UK fabricated kit, in order to shorten the distance sheep needed to be driven from southern Lafonia to the shearing sheds in Goose Green, the alternative was a four mile hike. unfortunately I lucked out, I followed the sign from Goose Green over a pretty rough but dry track, however I'd only gone a mile or so when the track was well & truely blocked by barb wire. I had a scout about & couldn't see any sign of the bridge or a way through so I turned the truck about & disappointedly chugged back, in hindsight I should have walked from there as I don't think it could have been much further, next time I won't be put off.

Leaving Goose Green I continued on to San Carlos which whilst not far as the crow flies, 20 miles or so, takes at least an hour to travel which should give you a fair idea of the roads your traversing, San Carlos is a small settlement funnily enough on the on a stretch of water known as the San Carlos Water, no surprises there then, it gets its name from the ship San Carlos, which first visited in 1768. The settlement grew in the early twentieth century around a factory which froze sheep carcasses, in recent years though its more known for being the main British army bridgehead during the conflict in 82 when it was code named "Blue Beach" There is a small museum, which I passed on, but I did pay my respects at the British War Cemetery before sharing munchies with two happy but noisey black pigs.

After filling my face I drove back out of San Carlos back the way |I'd headed in as the road goes no further, a mile or so back along the track however you can head over the hills via a many gated road & the odd forded river crossing before reaching Port San Carlos, by the time I got there the weather had turned decidely iffy, the only time in fact that the sun didn't shine for the whole of my december visit, when i reached the end of the track it was a bit of a let down, three or four farms & a couple of defunct tractors, admittedly the weather crapped out & the grimancing ewes probably coloured my thoughts as I am told that there's some excellant walking & trout fishing, maybe nest time.

Turning about I decided that I could risk going off road to Elephant beach or Cape Dolphin as irrespective of the weather without a second vehicle or knowing exactly where the bugger I was going it would be pretty bloody stupid, dam, sounds like I'm getting responsible in my old age, again this'll be a visit for next time, so heading back North I headed for Teal Inlet. amazingly the weather soon improved which did tempt me to turn about butlooking at the map I maintained my sensibility & stuck to the thin grey line.

Teal Inlet is a settlement of some half dozen homesteads on the south shore of Salvador Water overshadowed by Jack’s Mountain however it does seem to boast an inordinate number of retired, battered & dying Landrovers, absolutely fantastic, pictures elsewhere on the site, like everywhere else in FI it features sheep or in this case fleeces; I'm told that whilst NZ has more sheep than any other place in the world, FI has more sheep pro rata to population.

So with the clock ticking on & the Murrell whispering in my ear I headed up the road & over the pass between Mt Kent & Mt Tumbledown, passed Estancia & finally got back on the road to Stanley where I made a quick stop to pick up the rod & twenty minutes later I was playing a Falkland Mullet of about 2lbs into the shallows which shortly thereafter was devoured by me for tea, a tasty end to a interesting day.

Back to Antarctica