I omitted to say that I was driven around the west end of Pebble Island by Emily who was helping out at the Lodge prior to starting a job in Stanley as a Fisheries inspector. The island is 19 miles long and 4 at its widest. I had had a choice of doing the east end or the west end and had decided west – it would have been better to have had two full days and been able to see the whole of the island and the wildlife …. I also omitted to say that it is called Pebble Island because it is famous for unusual and colourful pebbles which are very hard agates being washed up on certain beaches from deep on the sea floor. These are collected by the residents and made into jewellery and other gifts.
Rockhopper penguin colony on Pebble Island from the air
Coming in to land on Carcase Island – the air strip and the attendant vehicle are just visible in the middle of the picture.
Carcase Island is free of rats and mice so there are loads of little birds – wrens, tussac birds – all very friendly.
Lorraine & a tussac bird
The plane & a tussac bird
I spent 3 nights here – the intention was to see if I could join a trip to West Bay which is well know for black-browed albatross but that didn’t happen.
However Carcase Island is 6 miles long and 1.5 miles wide so I quartered the island and hopefully saw most things. There were no direct wartime experiences here but they did say that they were cut off for the duration and the first they know of liberation was a knock on the door from a chap from the SBS.
Lorraine has 5 milking cows and so we had unpasteurised fresh cream with our meals. Because this is the stepping off point for the boat trip to West Point (and other places) the house was quite busy and the catering was done by a Chilean team and was very good.
On the first afternoon I walked around the bay to see the Gentoo and Magellanic penguins and Lorraine picked me up. On the second day Rob took me to the air strip and I walked back along the shore. Walking in the Falklands takes time. On the shore I kept coming across Elephant seals lolling about. They are not dangerous whereas Sea Lions are. But they are big and you wouldn’t want to get into an argument with them. They were moulting so couldn’t go to sea and didn’t look pretty. The pieces of fur was quite robust but smelly (more of smelly later).
The other problems encountered walking along the shore were being attacked by Skuas, terns, gulls – when walking past a gull colony where there were chicks, avoiding the Magellanic penguins which run off (“Penguins have right of way at all times”), avoiding the Magellanic penguin burrows and trying to find a way through the tussock grass.
Tussock grass is a really important habitat which has been reduced from 55,000 acres to 10,000 and they can grow up to 3m high but this takes 200 years. It can grow quite dense as well as tall so you can’t see where you are going and often you end up in a tussock cul-de-sac and have to retrace your steps. A periscope is needed.
Tussock grass
Amazing lichen
Flowers
The settlement from the pier
The settlement with magellanic penguins from the pier
The settlement from East End Hill
The settlement from Ram Paddock Hill
Gentoos and the settlement
Dyke Bay
Gentoos on Jason Hill
Every so often the Falklands suffers from the “Red Tide” which is an algae bloom harmful to wildlife. The Gentoo penguins have a colony closer to the beach but when they suffered badly about 10 years ago from the Red Tide they formed another colony at the top of Jason Hill (500 feet above sea level). I calculated that the parents have to walk about 1/3 of a mile up and down the hill at least once a day to go for food.
An arrangement of rocks
An arrangement of flotsam
A well disguised wellington
I thought this looks like the profile of a face but it is know as “The slipper”
Not one of the milking cows
A military helicopter (not flown by Prince William) delivering military the wife of the Commander of British Forces Falkland Islands and her mother for a couple of days R&R
King cormorant colony on the east coast
The cormorants make these “nests” of sticks, mud and guano.
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