Chapter 3 – 22-26th December – Christmas in Stanley

22nd December Arrival

The flight departed on time and arrived early. As Mount Pleasant is an active military base, we were warned when we left the plane that photos were forbidden. Nobody seemed to tell that to our friends waiting behind the fence and clicking away capturing our arrival. 

No photos allowed!

Blue skies - but hang on - no hats allowed - too windy

Immigration into the British Overseas Territory of the Falklands involves considerably more paperwork than Chile and we are admitted for two “weaks” – I didn’t have the “strength” to argue ;) it makes a fun passport stamp. I also have to part with £25 each in tax when we leave. I’m assured this is just air passenger duty paid direct and not hidden in the ticket cost. Our baggage was thoroughly checked by the sniffer dogs but they failed to detect Sarah’s contraband “Tetley teabags”. We were in - waiting for us were most of the Clausen family!

They transported us to Stanley (Port Stanley to the uninitiated) in one of their company mini buses and we were well fed with very welcome homemade sausage rolls. The journey takes about an hour and the road is only about 50% tarmac! There was a very nice sporty car terrified of the dirt track road. I have no idea who needs a Subaru Impreza here – 4x4 is the order of the day.

After visiting Clausen mansions we were assigned our vehicle – a rather nice Shogun and taken to our house on the Stanley hillside with sea views (everyone has a sea view). Houses here are pre fabricated but seem very modern and well equipped. It even had a Wi-fi hotspot – only £10 for a 100 min use! Internet doesn’t come cheap here. We then headed off for some shopping. There are three decent sized shops in Stanley for provisions. The stocked range is very good though best before dates are not to be taken seriously. Being remote it means that fresh fruit and veg is limited and expensive. In general you could get anything sold in Waitrose in Menai Bridge – you just pay three times the price! It was a relief that credit cards were accepted.

Magellanic Penguin

Our itinerary was penguin type 1 – Magellanic at Gypsy Cove – a short drive outside Stanley. There were 100s on the beach and a few crossed our path.

Once the nature trip was over we were well fed by the Clausens and even granted access to that rarest of commodities – the Internet and WI-FI.

We slept well in our home for the next two weeks. We were here.

Sunday 23rd December

It was a stunning morning in Stanley – bright sunshine and winds under 40 miles per hour.
The day started with a full English breakfast in a waterfront restaurant – provided by Chilean owners and Philippino  waiting staff. It went fairly well though getting extra toast proved challenging – we got there in the end. Andrea was also able to grant us access to another Wi-fi service that we could use (with a little bit of phone hotspot relay) at our house.
After breakfast we explored the seafront area of Stanley and this included the tourist hotspots of gift shops and museum. The small museum is an excellent presentation of live past and present here. It also includes a section the 1982 conflict including our very own host’s story of been taking prisoner of war as a child. It brings it all close to home!

Rockhopper Penguin

We had a rest in the afternoon before the evening nature tour no. 2 “Rockhopper Penguins”. This involved getting to “Kidney Island” and a rather exciting boat trip which gave us a little taste of the south Atlantic once we out of Stanley harbour. At the island we had to be transported by inflatable boat to shore and all credit to the skipper – we didn’t even get our feet wet. When ashore we headed for the Penguins’ area up on the cliffs. This was not easy. The entire island is made up of Tussock grass. These grow in very large (my height) bushes that you climb across or move in between. While doing so you take care not to crush any nesting burrows and also make sure what you are squeezing past is actually a bush and not a large vicious sea lion. We batted upwards – led by Gus and trying to stay together (harder than you think) as you may not see someone 2 metres ahead in the grasses. The grass also runs right up to the cliff edges so you have to be very careful! Anyway our trusty guide eventually found the Rockhopper penguin site and we got very close to these delightful creatures (so close some of us got bitten by penguin fleas). They had chicks and were very relaxed about humans being close – though all hell broke out if another penguin came into a parent’s patch! We spent an hour or so with the penguins then descended back to the beach for a picnic tea. We had company from sea lions and one very large scary looking male exited the beach and headed into the Tussock. Glad we didn’t meet him there.

On the boat back to Stanley we encountered our first whales of the trip – “Sei Whales” which we spotted some distance from our boat.

Once home we were all shattered and headed for bed. It was then we discovered that quiet Stanley isn’t always so. We have interesting neighbours in two younger gents with visiting lady friends.
Unfortunately as was announced to the World that night; one had been getting too friendly with Hannah and all hell broke out in Davis street. Eventually the drama queen was placated and we got to go to sleep.

Monday 24th December – Christmas Eve in Stanley

A fairly quiet day.  We had a bit of a lie in and breakfasted at home before we explored in our own steam Penbroke point and surf bay. I actually got sun burnt! The lighthouse is no longer used – replaced by an LED light on a pole! We saw some dolphins nearby and Tomos & Sarah had a close encounter with a male seal on the beach. They were obviously more scary and he decided to exit seaward!
We popped into town for some more shopping and even bought a pay as you go local SIM card – only £35 for 400mb data 
Appreciate now that while Stanley is small it is still big here and has to have everything life relies on – leisure centre, government departments, hospital and lots of pretty coloured houses. Balamory theme stuck in my head.

Tuesday 25th December – Christmas Day

So what is different about Christmas here. Daylight – lots of that. Weather – probably about the same today (we even had hail at one point). Turkeys are not massacred. The Bah lambs have that honour instead. We spent the day with the Clausens and had a very typical day of too much food and too much wine. The most traditional Christmas I have done in years complete with water going down the plug hole the wrong way.

Wednesday 26th December – Boxing Day

The Christmas holidays are a big deal here. Schools are now closed for a six week summer holiday. So Boxing Day is celebrated around Stanley Races. The horse race track’s annual

meeting is over two days and the race card has 50 events! Not all are horse races – there were also people races, three legged races, tug-o-war. The race track isn't a loop but about one miles of straight grass to sprint down. There was also beer and full pubs. Two bus loads of squadees have been brought in from the base complete with red hat military police. As I write it is Boxing Day evening and it could be a lively night in town.
Betting takes place with bets in either £5 or £1 stakes depending which tote window you use. There are no known odds and with all this randomness I won 2/3 race bets; though only two horses ran in the second race. But the first returned at 4:1 so it was a cheap morning.
We were invited to the Clausens' friends open house Boxing Day lunch. These kind folks fed and watered us well. They also had pet ducklings which were much cuter than the penguins!
After lunch we excused ourselves and returned to the “races” to cheer on the tug-o-war before sneaking off some for siesta time.
Tomorrow we are planning the M25 – an all day drive around the east island circular road (maybe with no road for some bits). It should be interesting.

Not so fun fact – In the short war there were tens of thousands of land mines laid. Clearance continues. An expert team from Zimbabwe recently made safe one device found at a depth of 6m! There are several no go areas around here. Bad news for us but good news from the penguins that get left in peace there.