Days 20-26: The Falkland Islands 🇫🇰
We arrived in Ushuaia on Friday and picked Neil up! We were able to find a nice lunch at a quaint, local restaurant. Pierre was happy to find rabbit on the menu and Neil had a delicious gluten-free lamb dish. I had king crab ravioli that was wonderful and Adrian had a good beef dish. It was great to catch up with Neil and get ready to start the second half of our trip.
We immediately headed out the Beagle Channel and into the Southern Ocean. It was a little rocky that night and into the day. Adrian and Neil slept some and tolerated the motion moderately well.
We then spent two days in the western side of the Falklands at 3 different islands - New Island, Carcass Island, and West Point Island. The landscape is very desolate and windswept. No trees at all but plenty of wildlife, so many different birds and 4 kinds of penguins - Rockhopper, Gentoo, Magellanic, and Macaroni.
New Island
The first island, New Island, is a private reserve and only has a small settlement that runs the wildlife preserve and center for researchers to stay. I met a lovely woman from South Africa that manages the preserve and bought some postcards she had made. We saw Black-browed Albatross and Rockhopper Penguins nesting together on the sea cliffs. In the afternoon, we crossed the island, a 5 mile hike, while the ship relocated to the other side. We found a large colony of Gentoo Penguins on their nests. Many have laid their eggs and are protecting them until they hatch but no babies around yet. They are so amusing to see mating and marching up from the sea. A lovely sight!
Carcass and West Point Islands
The next day we stopped at two more private islands, Carcass Island and West Point Island, that have one farm and family each. A very isolated existence. We brought the family on Carcass Island some staples—flour, butter, sugar in exchange for two lambs, which we will have later this week. At each island we had wonderful assortment of English tea and treats.
We hiked across West Point Island to Devil’s Nose and were treated to a large colony of rockhopper penguins together with the black browed albatross again.
Sea Days
Our two sea days were a great chance to catch up on photo editing, relaxing, and seeing a variety of sea birds. We’ve had an unusually calm crossing from the Falkland Islands to South Georgia. On the first day, we had a fantastic showing of sea birds with the naturalist team helping on identification.
One of the most beautiful sea birds is the Cape Petrel. It is also know as a “Pintado” or painted petrel due to the coloration on its wings.
We also had the opportunity to see a few Wandering Albatross - the largest bird in the world. Their wingspan was impressive and they flew so close to the ship that we got some excellent looks at them.
It was also interesting to see the Black-browed Albatross at sea after seeing them in their nesting sites in the Falklands. It’s strange and amazing to imagine that these birds are more at home at sea than on land. We even heard that they have a higher resting heart rate on land than at sea - potentially because they’re more stressed.
