Woke up to find the ship chugging up the narrow channel to Port Stanley. After breakfast we were ferried over to spend most of the day in the town. It’s a strange place with just over 2000 residents, 85% of the Islands population. The houses are very varied, some of brick looking like a seaside boarding house from Eastbourne, some of wood and some of metal. There are some very new buildings including a new hospital and school, and of course there is Government House, central to so many proceedings in the 1982 war. The place is certainly bleak. Today was sunny but the wind still whistled over the mountains into the bay, whipping up the water and blasting the skin. What it must be like in the winter you can only guess. Prices are all in Pounds, so no complicated calculations to do, which was a relief for this poor Englishman. Visited the Museum and the Cemetery, including the memorial guardian which contains a shrub for every British service man killed in the 1982 war. Very moving to see them all laid out. Had a walk up Thatcher drive, a rather nondescript back alley, and then back to the boa

Arrived overnight in the Falkland Islands and awoke to a fantastically good day. We were anchored in the bay off New Island, part of the Western Islands, in glorious sunshine, which apparently is unusual in these parts. After breakfast we were ferried into the community, which consists of two houses just about as remote as you can be. To get to Stanley there is a 10 hour boat ride, although a helicopter is sometimes available. There was a track which led past an old wreck up onto some cliffs which were alive with Albatross, Penguins and Cormorants. It was a stunning site and fascinating just to sit and observe. The Black Browed Albatross’s so graceful in the air and so clumsy on the ground. Most of them sitting on high mud built nests and seemed untroubled by the presence of so many red jacketed tourists invading their space. Alongside them the Rock Hopper penguins, living up to their name and hopping by with a curious look. How on earth did they manage to hop up to the top of the cliffs and just how long did it take them? And then there were the Cormorants whistling past and landing to dig out clumps of dirt to make a nest. The afternoon was just as good as we moved up the archipelago to West Point Island and another wonderful colony. The same family has lived on the island for seven generations. The two current owners, now in their eighties, were very welcoming and gave us tea and cake. Again stunningly good weather, with sapphire blue seas contrasting against the velvet green grass. And to cap it all as we powered back to the ship on the Zodiac boats, we were greeted by a pod of dolphins playing in the wake of the boat.