Remembrance weekend

Whoops - I've added the picture twice. hey ho. What a busy weekend - 50 Veterans, The Duke of Kent, and Mark Lancaster and Kevan Jones from Westminster. The windiest day yet at Blue Beach with stinging hail for a poignant service on Friday, a joyful service in the cathedral on Saturday with the Band of the Royal Marines, and Remembrance day which dawned with warm air and blue sky on Sunday. Fabulous for the vets to see what they were fighting for;many had never landed on the islands - fewer has seen Stanley or felt the gratitude if the islanders.

Summer on New Island

Blue skies, temperatures up to 22/23 degrees, and a warm wind. The best days of the Falklands have arrived (don't blink - it could be snowing again tomorrow) and we are enjoying them while we can. We flew to New island on Friday; west of Weddell beyond west Falkland; a spectacular flight on a clear day over winding coastlines and running white streamers across the bluest of seas.

Maria Strange came with us to spend time with Georgina, her daughter, who manages the island for the Trust they created. It is a conservation island and generally populated only by Georgina, the handyman Sam (out from the UK for the Summer, and picked from a good crop of applicants) and a few scientists. It was good to meet Laurent and his wife Maude and two small boys again; they are out for a couple of months studying hormones in Rockhoppers. Another two scientists are observing the albatross. Laurent's son, about 3, spent the day making mud dams on the beach, surrounded by wildlife, happily chattering to himself, and shadowed by the resting hulk of an old icebreaker ship now beached, its copper hull green and peeling in the sun.

 So, peace and quiet as we stayed across the bay from the rest of the group - in a tiny chalet-style log cabin which Ian and Maria built for themselves years ago. The view across the bay offers a picture of Upland Goose goslings, magellanic oystercatchers, kelp geese and Steamer ducks, and the odd Seal and Dolphin. The tide washes the small sandy neck in and out, and this weekend the sea sparkled magically.

Friday we walked across the main neck to The Rookery and spent an hour or so watching the heady mix of Imperial Cormorants, Rockhoppers and Albatross which shoehorn themselves into the rock faces on the west facing cliffs. There are thousands of them, all nest building and vying for nesting materials (diddle dee and tussoc) and space. A cacophany of noise and attitude. We wandered back in the evening sun and fell asleep early in the quiet.

Saturday morning, Georgina trundled us in the Rover across clay ruts and rock falls to the North of the island, to allow us to explore as far as possible in a day. We revsited North beach and its tiny shanty (Georgiana's honeymoon house when she is married in December), and walked through hundreds of gentoo penguins sitting on eggs. The Caracaras were doing their worst and there were some bloody sights, but watching penguins jumping in and out of the sea never gets boring. At the waters edges a huge male Fur Seal was sun bathing, but scuttled, dog-like, into the sea as we approached.
We set off for the nearby Albatross Rookery, set in precipitous cliffs above crashing waves, and walked the beautiful coastline to find the Fur Seals - about 30 of them - a community of characters; young males play fighting, mothers sleeping, young seals playing like labrador pups, sliding down rocks into the sea. ambushing each other from behind boulders. We walked from 10 in the morning til 7 at night and arrived back to the chalet for a glass of wine and a fabulous sunset. Dozing in the chairs, we remembered to venture out at 10.30, as dark fell properly, to witness the return of the Prions; the smallest of the Petrel family, they spend their days at sea and return to burrows at night. In the darkness, they seem to have a bat-like orientation system, flying into their small burrows at speed in the pitch black. Standing in the dark and feeling birds all around, hearing their wings past your face and their busy conversation, was a memorable experience.

Sunday our feet ached; we ventured south across the island to visit the abandoned whaling station. The only one of the Falkland Islands to be used for whaling, Salvesen set up a station around  1910 and ran it for  5 or 6 years, before deciding that South Georgia was more lucrative, abandoning New island. Huge rusting hulks of furnaces, vices, clamps and haulage devices stand on pristine white beaches, and you can only imagine the horror.

Back to MPH  and across Onion ranges where live firing has set the diddle dee alight. back to business...

Third chick arrives!

We have just returned from a fabulous weekend on New Island (more about that later) to find a third chick has hatched .Hoorah! We need names please....
Delilah seems to be a very good mother  -she is keeping the babies under her feathers and squawking when we disturb her. We have boiled eggs and mashed them up as apparently this is what baby chicks prefer. They seem to be eating well, so fingers crossed.
They are VERY sweet.

Zumba Chicks

School Life:

This afternoon we were given the opportunity of either doing hockey or Zumba so we obviously decided  to do Zumba!! It lasted for an hour but seemed to go really quickly.It was great to try different dances from completely different cultures such as India's Bollywood and Irish dancing!!!
There were about 20 people from our year doing the zumba class but only 6 people did the hockey- just shows how popular it was...
At first the strange dancing seemed awkward and confusing but we soon got ito the rythm of things and by the end of the session were loving it!

Such fun!!!

Very excited about the chicks and naming is in progress here in our dorm. At the moment, our thoughts are Jemima Puddle-Cluck, Fuzzy, and Cookie....although only two have hatched....
Any ideas??

Lots of Love from school
Phoebe and Georgia(her loyal and trusting friend??!!)

Delilah

The latest excitement at Mount Pleasant House is the decision (after a lot of whinging from Phoebe) to allow the latest broody hen to sit on eggs. Delilah is currently sitting on 4 or 5 eggs and we are waiting for November 20th to arrive, to see if any hatch. Watch this space....

Wheel changing coffee mornings...

I had to add this to the blog..only in the Falklands would you have wheel changing coffee mornings. On our remote roads, you are unlikely to find a passing man to help, and with the state of the roads, punctures are common. It is vital that everyone has the right kit in their car,and is confident in manhandling a Landrover...so we bake some cookies, get out toys for the children, and all listen to the Driver while he tells us what to do. And we then all change tyres (and those xcountry tyres are HEAVY!) I am confident that no patch has so many wives competent in vehicle care.

The Neck, Saunders Island

Wednesday morning, and no let up – off on a heli to Saunders Island. One of my favourite places, Bill’s first visit, and I  was very excited as we had managed to book the cabin at The Neck for the night. This a three room basic portacabin, equipped with 8 bunk beds, which was dropped in the time of chinooks, on The Neck – a thin strand of sand between two main landmasses where 8,000 plus Gentoos, hundreds of Rockhoppers and Albatross, and a handful of King penguins, live peacefully together . Flying time is around an hour; it is to the west of West Falkland, and the pilots kindly diverted to show Robert San Carlos Water, Ajax Bay, Blue Beach, and various wreck sites. As we approached Saunders, we learned that the Leopard Seal we had heard about the previous day, was still around. These are rare and lonesome creatures, with a bad and arguably fair reputation for aggression and viciousness. It was a leopard seal who killed the BAS diver a couple of year ago in South Georgia, pulling her down under the ice and drowning her at depth; their method of killing prey. Leopard Seals have an ‘s’ shaped snake - like spine movement when swimming, and have triangular, reptilian teeth. I was torn between fascination and the dread of seeing The Neck a gruesome massacre site.

We were dropped on the hillside and collected by David Pole Evans who owns the island. He drove us the couple of miles to the portacabin – a luxury not experienced before – but a necessary one because of our luggage. Once established we set off to the beach and spotted the Leopard Seal at the water’s edge. It had obviously gorged itself and now wanted to sleep, not particularly bothered at our arrival. A Johnny Rook, the curious and fearless local bird of prey, hopped around its head and riled it into a lazy snap which allowed us to see its vicious teeth. We kept a reasonable distance. More Caracaras (rooks) arrived, disgustingly picking at the pooh which was being produced at regular intervals; ragged pieces of penguin skin and fur were clearly visible and irresistible to the hawks. Eventually the seal had had enough and swirled a full 360 degrees on the sand, snapping and flapping. The Johnny Rooks hopped back and returned.

We headed across the beach to watch the Rockhoppers justifying their names by hopping up the cliffs from the sea to their colonies; they leap without resting, on,on.  They prefer to live near fresh water and here they hopped up through a small waterfall, following a stream which ran alongside their colony. Whilst Gentoos will stop, watch and sometimes divert when we arrive, Rockhoppers carry on regardless, and we felt very privileged to see them at such close quarters.

Back to the cabin for lunch and to meet up with Bill who had been in town for meetings all morning, and then off to show him the Leopard Seal. It was a David Attenborough moment, sitting on a rock with a Leopard Seal three metres to one side of us, a couple of Rockhoppers in the pool behind us, washing and splashing happily, and a line of Gentoos emerging from the Sea ahead of us. Magical.

Up the cliffs (some more mountain goat - like than others!!) and then round to see the Rockhopper colony from above – nest building, chasing, egg laying, yellow eyebrows waving in the wind. Charming couples huddled together, beaks touching and eyes only for each other. Lone males, running the gauntlet around the colony, squawking, mischievous.   And at the edge, a lone Macaroni penguin – Phoebe’s first. Hoorah! They often seem to live with Rockhoppers; possibly confused – there certainly seems to be interbreeding. Macaronis are not so different from Rockies; larger, orange eyebrows instead of yellow, a little fatter, perhaps not so cute – but good to see one here.

And then on to my favourite ..Albatross. Back for the season, committed and caring couples act out the elaborate courtship rituals, beak touching, neck preening, sharing the nest building and the egg sitting. Every time one returns from fishing and they exchange places, the ritual repeats in a reassuring and sophisticated cycle. They too have no fear of humans; landing at your feet, they will carry on regardless, and plod plod past you with their wide grey flat feet. They colonise cliff sides here on Saunders, which allows them to launch elegantly and swoop across the sea. Landing can be a little clumsier which may be why they sit down quickly ; they are not land birds and moving their vast wings without the wind under them always seems to lead to trouble.

Back to the cabin for tea and cakes and to warm up, before heading back to watch the Gentoos come up for the night,

An evening of charades and meatballs. What more..

We had not yet seen Elephant seals during our whistle stop tour, and with a whisper of them at the end of the island, Robert and Alexis  headed off early for a couple of hours’ trudge. Phoebe, having seen many elephant seals, saw no reason to exert herself, and Rachel and Juliet were happy with the penguins. So we headed across the other aside of The Neck, finding a number of Leopard Seal Gentoo remains , and a depressing amount of rubbish washed in from the sea. Litter on island here is not an issue, but the huge number of fishing vessels around the shores sadly have no compunction in disposing of their waste overboard. A cold but happy morning revisiting all types of penguins, and discovering some awesome views across the island from the other end of the beach. The adventurers returned successful, having seen mothers and pups hauled out, and we trudged off for one last look at the albatross before home.

David was coming to fetch us, and there was a cruise ship calling that afternoon, which we had not seen before. The Ocean Avior, with 68 on board, anchored off shore and dropped zodiacs to transfer passengers ashore. Just as they set off, the heavens opened, and we watched from our cabin window as they waded in. We felt very privileged to have had the wildlife to ourselves for two days. 

Back home to warmth and comfort food – a last supper of chorizo chicken before the Friday flight. We had a fabulous time – wonderful to share such a magical place with friends.