Intro

Falklands 2019-20 (Sponsored by AMEX rewards & AVIOS points) 

Facebook reminded me that five years ago we were in New Zealand. Given that we were about to embark on another trip that’s a little out of the ordinary I thought I would keep a journal as I still remind myself of our New Zealand trip with the blog I wrote (http://woodiesnz.blogspot.com/).
This time we are finally visiting our friends who are regular visitors to Wales but who live in Port Stanley.  Many people know Andrea, Gus, Tessa, Finlay and Oscar. The twin boys were actually born in Bangor as you ain’t allowed the last trimester of pregnancy with twins in the Falklands (not enough special care provision). Anyway I like to remind them they’re Welsh!

There are three questions have been regularly asked about this trip:

  1. Why go there?
  2. How do you get there?
  3. Will it be cold?

So apart from catching up with old friends, why? Because it’s different! How many people do you know who have been (excluding military)? Also there are penguins, oh and other wildlife that I have been promised. This includes orca, elephant seals etc. One half of the Wood family will educate the other on what we are seeing! It also strikes curiosity in us fifty-somethings and older. We all remember suddenly being involved in a war in 1982 liberating somewhere (let’s be honest) most of us had never heard of before. It is also in the Southern Hemisphere - I hate the dark nights and we will therefore switch to long days - hurrah! That’s enough why the official line remains to see our friends! (Did I mention they have quad bikes and 4x4s).

 How you get there depends on your wallet, comfort tolerance and sense of adventure. In my pre travel hacking days I would have had to fork out £2.5K ish each to the RAF to fly direct in the back of their Thomas Cook charter via a refuel at Cape Verde (Ascension Island is closed). The military get all the best seats. Otherwise you fly to Santiago in Chile from London (high taxes) or Madrid (£75+60,000 AVIS air-miles for a nice business class seat). Guess which option the Wood family are taking...HOLA! We will eventually fly down to Punta Arenas (think bottom of South America) and on to the Falklands on the single weekly (sometimes delayed by 24hr) flight. That last flight takes 80 min and they will charge you £500 a head thank you very much. Ryanair are you listening! Anyway all being well after 5 flights we will be there and will be stopping over in Madrid, Santiago and Punta Arenas so taking 5 days is very civilised.

 Will it be cold? It will be summer! Think Shetlands in June - yes it probably will be. But not as cold as July! We shall see.

 Still reading? You must be bored and having one of those “quiet christmases” - that’s code for bored. Anyway for my own memories I will try and keep this going for the trip. Since my New Zealand blog I hear vlogging is now all the rage. Elin is horrified at this prospect so who knows it may have to happen. After all it got some guy on Strictly and I haven’t given up on Flavia’s return.
Note - posts are indexed newest first so may need to be read backwards!

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