Falkland Islands

We had been looking forward to visiting the Falkland Islands and didn't really know what to expect.

We decided to take the local shuttle up to Gypsy Cove to see the penguins but also to get a view of the scenery. It was barren and also far rockier than we had imagined . The view from Gypsy Cove across the ocean was very scenic and we could see the penguins gathered together below. We were careful to stay on the paths, having been made aware that there are plenty of land mines still here.

The rest of our time was spent exploring Stanley which has a feel of an old-fashioned English sea side resort about it, somewhat reminiscent of Hayling Island, where I (Eva) was brought up. I could imagine that outside tourist season, the Island is probably a bit of a ghost town. However, we may be wrong. During a chance meeting with the newly arrived Vicar, we learnt that the Island population is on the rise.

Everyone we met on the Island was friendly and welcoming. We had expected there to be a distinct Falklands accent but the people we met sounded just as if they lived in Southern England. After a month of being the foreigner, we felt as if we had come home. Even better we were able to pay in English currency, thus avoiding the astronomical credit card fees that we'd become accustomed to in Argentina.

Getting back in touch with our Englishness, we visited the Victory pub which is one of about 7 pubs on the Island, to sample their delicious fish and chips and what we soon realised, was a very strong local beer!

We left the pub in a bit of a daze and made our way to the Island Museum. This small museum captured the history, flora and fauna of the Island but the biggest exhibition was unsurprisingly about the 74 day Falklands war in 1982. An interesting film captured the views of Islanders who were young children at the time. They talked about their fears, the fears of their parents and how the Island changed forever during that time. The Island is still recovering from that period.

John and I remember the conflict as few of us had even heard of the Falkland Islands before that point. It remains meaningful to me as I knew a royal navy seaman who went down on one of the vessels and whose name was the first one I spotted on the Memorial structure today.

We were not dissapointed by the Falklands and its gentle beauty.