FALKLAND ISLANDS & PENGUINS

This delightful British owned colony provided the highlight tour of our trip so far -- the penguin rookeries and colonies. The terrain is windswept and desolate with little natural vegetation. The ground is soft peat under a thin surface crust, and our 1-½ hour off-road trip to Volunteer Point was quite jarring, to say the least! There are some sheep ranches and a few cattle ranches. During the brief 1982 Falkland Wars, the Argentines buried many mines around Port Stanley, and they still remain undetected because they are mostly plastic. However, they are fenced off and well marked, and do not pose any danger to the livestock.

Near the sheep shearing shed, we saw sheep dogs, anxiously waiting to go out to work rounding up sheep. And at last, battered and bruised, we got our first glimpse of the penguin colonies! In spite of the cold wind, we loved our visit.

I was interested to learn that the Kings (orange & yellow under neck, orange ear) stand in a large group, and move to and from the water, always returning to the large huddle. I expected them to want their own space and have individual nests. I even saw several males among them, standing incubating eggs which they hold on their feet to keep them warm. If an egg touches the ground for even a minute, it dies, and we saw some abandoned eggs in the area. They tend to stay in groups of their own species although I did see two Magellanic penguins who had wandered over to the edge of the King colony.

We were also lucky to see a Gentoo mother feeding her chick (white patch above eye), and a group of larger chicks in another area that were moulting, getting their winter feathers. Farther down we saw the burrowing Magellanic penguins (black stripes), who build their nests in the ground near the water, and return to the same nest every year. They are really comical as they waddle around, chasing each other, tripping and falling onto their stomachs, and bouncing back up to keep on going!

In the town of Port Stanley we admired the whalebone arch in front of the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral, the southernmost cathedral in the world; we saw the Governor's Mansion, our driver's house(!), war memorials and several shipwrecks The roofs of the houses are brightly colored, perhaps to brighten up the bleak weather, but are also navigational landmarks for sailors. The people are very friendly and self sufficient -- many have little greenhouses to grow vegetables. The main industry is fishing, followed by tourism.