Final Blog

As we came into Stanley Harbour I stood on the deck and saw houses for the first time in 14 months. Not a base, hut or whaling station but houses, and not just houses but a collection of houses, a town. I will admit to standing on that deck and experiencing a slight feeling of nerves. It was a feeling that I was not really prepared for. I had thought that I would get nervous before landing in the UK but I was not ready for the butterflies in my tummy as we came into Stanley Harbour.

1st town in 14 months

We arrived in port and had our papers checked and then that was it, we were on the dock waiting for transport and our sojourn on the ship was over. After a short journey (every journey in Stanely is short) we arrived at that salubrious establishment: Shorty's, which was to be our accommodation for our time in the Falklands. Shorty's is a diner and B&B with which BAS have an arrangement allowing us to eat there for free. The menu is, well, mostly fried, but if you delve deep enough you can find baked potatoes etc.. Not too bad for a couple of days. 

 We had two and a half days in Stanley until the flight on Friday 13th. There are only two flights a week, on Tuesday and Friday, and they are known as 'the flight' and when you say that everyone knows what you mean. There is a flight to Chile on Lan Chile (their national carrier) but that is not the most common route to and from the Islands. We were on the MOD flight to Brize Norton (the RAF base near Oxford) via Ascension Island. First we had two days to fill in Stanley.

The Narrows (the entrance to Stanley Harbour) from near Shorty's.

Micky (one of the builders) very kindly had offered me the use of his 'vehicle' while I was there and while I was slightly (read 'really rather') nervous about driving a car after 14 months I took him up on his offer. Not only had I not driven anything other than a JCB or a boat for the past 14 months, but when at home, because of a knee problem, I generally drive an automatic car and this was definitely not an automatic. Very luckily it was a diesel and was therefore incredibly forgiving, which meant that the many stalls I would have put the car through with a petrol engine were averted.

In order to get the car I had the opportunity of meeting Lynsy, Micky's sister who lives in Stanley with her partner, Trevor, in a house that they built together. I had a lovely hour or so with them, their two cats and two kittens. Now I am not really a cat person but these kittens were really very sweet and I warned Lynsy that when she met Hazel (who was arriving in Stanley on the JCR a few days after we left annoyingly) she might have to check Hazel's pockets to make sure that she hadn't 'borrowed' one of the kittens for the rest of her time on the JCR.

1/2 mast in respect for Nelson Mandela

With the car we were able to get out and about a bit more than we would have on foot and the day after we arrived I drove to Surf Bay with Erny, Jerry, Catrin (a field assistant who has come out of Rothera and is going into Powell Island (opposite Signy) to help study penguins and who I was sharing a room with in Shorty's). From there we then walked to Cape Pembroke Lighthouse. Just before, I had gone to the museum in Stanley to borrow the key to the lighthouse so we could go up it. The terrain is very varied, bog and scrub and rock all in a couple of hundred meters but it was flat and a lovely walk, very different to South Georgia but lovely none the less. The view from the top of the lighthouse was very impressive but the wind picked up dramatically which made standing on one side of the balcony a slightly nervous experience. The walk back, into the wind, was like walking uphill it was so strong.

Cape Pembroke Lighthouse

From the top of Cape Pembroke Lighthouse

That night we had a dinner at the Malvina restaurant, the best restaurant in Stanley. It was a bit of a farewell and thank you dinner with many old friends from Government house present; Martin Collins and Frin (the fisheries officer) were there, as was Sally Poncet, who has surveyed the wildlife of South Georgia for years. It was a lovely evening and we all had a very good time.

The next morning broke to lashing rain and the high winds the Falklands is so used to, so I made my way back to the museum to return the key and to go around the museum itself which is an eclectic mixture of  maritime and military history, as chequered and varied as the history of the Islands themselves. In the afternoon I drove to Yorke Bay which had been recommended by Hazel. I had to drive beyond Stanley airport and to the dunes where the locals take their sand for building. Once there I walked along the dunes towards the beach. My path was blocked by barbed wire and signs alerting me to the presence of mines on the beach. It is a sobering thought that the beaches all around Stanley are still mined from the time of the conflict and that they haven't yet managed to remove them all, effectively barring people from enjoying some of the most stunning beaches I have ever seen. I walked along the dunes until I came across the Gentoo penguin colony that I had come to see. There I sat in the dunes separated from the birds by the mine field (the penguins are too light to set the mines off) and drank in the view. The water was so clear that I could see the penguins quite a way out cutting their way through the water to land on the beach. I have only seen beaches this pink/white and beautiful in the Bahamas and it was a little surreal. The whole experience in Stanley was a little surreal actually: Cars and more people than I have seen for a while on streets with horses grazing in front gardens and turkey vultures wheeling overhead.

Danger Mines!

Just like the Bahamas except for the penguins

Turkey Vulture

To say 'thank you' to Erny for all the help he gave me with those blasted engines and for being such a great co-winterer I invited Erny to the Malvina restaurant for dinner. It was a very pleasant evening chatting about everything from seals to what we were going to do when we got home. A lovely end to our time in Stanley. The next morning we were picked up at 0600 and taken to the MOD base about an hour outside of Stanley. In Stanley the speed limit is 25mph and outside Stanley it is only 40mph, which is probably a good thing since only a very short distance from Stanley the roads turn from tarmac to gravel, but this is why it takes so long to get anywhere.

The next 24 hours was a blend of uncomfortable seats, airplane food and very, very little sleep as we flew the length of the Atlantic. We had to stop to refuel at Ascension Island where I had time to send a postcard and stretch my legs. After that it was back into the plane and back on our way. We arrived into Brize Norton and I stepped out to find Mum waiting for me. We both nearly burst into tears and then headed home through London which is WAY too big and smelly for my liking.We rapidly returned to Kent, which for me is home for Christmas. It has such a different beauty but a beauty none the less.

A very different view!

 So ends my incredible 14 months on South Georgia. I am still processing everything I experienced and am trying to get used to trees and radio and telephones that don't have a ridiculous delay. I miss the island, the seals, the penguins and the friends I made but am so thankful for it and know that somehow I will be back.

Thank you for reading this blog. I hope it was entertaining and as enjoyable for you to read as it was for me to write. Maybe the next installment will be coming soon. You never know.

For now:

Goodbye and good adventuring 

Ella