Chapter 6 – 29th December – Volunteer’s Point – Off-road Penguin Tour

Chapter 6 – 29th December – Volunteer’s Point – Off-road Penguin Tour

Well it has been quite a day. Hard to believe we have been on the islands a week now. We note that today’s weekly LAN airlines flight has been delayed by the closure of Mount Pleasant again. Fingers crossed for us next week.

 Today we have been to Volunteer Point (named after the first ship to visit). This is home to three distant penguin colonies – Magellanic, Gentoo (seen ‘em already)  and a thousand or so King Penguins (second largest type in the World).


Getting to the Point was an adventure in itself (as was getting back to Stanley again). Whilst 20 or so miles away as the crow flies; driving there is another matter. It was just over an hour to Johnson’s Harbour Settlement on mostly

gravel roads. That was the easy bit. It was then on for another ten miles completely off road. I don’t mean bad road – I mean no road. We drove over moorland – avoiding ditches and ponds where possible and cutting across where we could. How Andrea and Gus found our way I have no idea. It was a challenging drive and the land cruiser didn’t let us down. It took as around 90 minutes to drive this distance to get to the point where someone actually lives (the warden and family). Andrea paid our entry fees and then it was a fairly easy finally drive (we could see where we needed to be) to the colonies. They had a picnic spot and toilets. It is mid summer here – it was bloody freezing (respect penguins).  We had a chilly picnic.
King Penguins

We got up close and personal to all the penguins. The King Penguins are just brooding their eggs whilst the Gentoos and and Magellanics are already looking after chicks. The Gentoos is particular were having a hard time seeing off predatory birds of prey, trying to snatch a chick for lunch. You will be pleased to note we didn’t see any success and the Penguins joined forces to chase them off. The Magellanic have their young in burrows and so get less hassle. All were taking turns as parent to go to sea for food.

 100s of photos later we departed. Another adventurous drive and interesting navigation (Andrea fairing better than Gus I’m afraid). Tomos took the wheel and got to experience off road driving. I got to bounce around in the back for 90 minutes until we returned to the actual road. We were then soon back in Stanley covered in penguin poo and off road dirt. 

 A bloody cold but spectacular Falkland day!

 Interesting Fact – we visited the memorial to HMS Glamorgan the other day. It was obviously granite. Turns out it it granite from my own village quarry in Trefor.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/hms-glamorgans-casualties-honoured-long-1851130
A piece of home - Trefor Granite

Incoming - watch your family

Favourite penguin food?

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