Stanley, Falkland Islands, British Overseas Territory
This morning, during breakfast, National Geographic Explorer entered Port William on the eastern side of East Falkland Island and then slowly made her way to the inner harbor of Port Stanley, where she berthed at the FIPASS Pier a couple miles from the city of Stanley. This very colorful and picturesque city is the principal community and port of the archipelago and has been the capital of the British Falkland Islands since 1842. About 2,000 people, out of a total Falklands population of nearly 2,500 people, live here. There has long been contention over these islands between Argentina and Britain, and the two countries actually came to blows in 1982. This conflict is still prevalent in the minds of many locals and we saw numerous reminders as we travelled around the region. Stanley was held by Argentine troops for ten weeks in 1982 before being retaken by a British task force during the Battle of the Falkland Islands (or The Conflict, as the locals refer to it). Many changes have come about since then, most notably the expansion of the suburbs in both directions along the waterfront. Stanley is great fun to explore on foot, because there are good shopping and pub crawling opportunities. The colorful houses, with their front porch greenhouses and peat smoke (and the accompanying burning peat smell) are very picturesque, as is the Christ Church Cathedral (built in the early 1890s), with its famous whale jaw bone arch.
This proved to be a full day for most guests, since several different options were offered during our visit. Most people enjoyed a morning tour of Stanley and its environs, including a view of Government House (Figure A), the two main war memorials (one for the Battle of the Falklands during World War I and another for the Falklands Conflict of 1982), and a drive around the eastern end of the harbor to view the wreckage of the Lady Elizabeth (a 19th century iron barque which limped into Stanley Harbor in 1912 after sustaining damage in a storm coming around Cape Horn). At this same stop, closer to shore, is a veritable boat graveyard, where we saw the remains of numerous smaller wooden vessels slowly disintegrating in the shallows (Figure B). We also marvelled at the Totem Pole, a sign post erected by the military which indicates the mileage to their home towns in Britain, and stopped at the town peat bog, which used to be the main source of fuel for the town. In my mind, however, the highlight of this tour was the Falkland Islands Museum, which houses an amazing eclectic collection of anything having to do with the human or natural history of the Falklands.
In addition, some guests visited the nearby Stanley Growers hydroponic farm located very near the ship. I think many among us were inspired to get to work on our gardens as soon as we return home next month. It is a very impressive operation today, which is especially interesting since Tim Miller originally started it as a hobby when he retired some years ago. Now, it is essential for supplying fresh fruits and vegetables to the townsfolk and visiting cruise ships.
Others went out to the Long Island Farm and got to see life on a typical working sheep farm (note that locals refer to this as a sheep farm, not a sheep ranch). Demonstrations were given of sheep shearing, sheep herding by a sheep dog, peat cutting, and a farm tea was enjoyed inside the main house.
And, a group of us went out to Tumbledown Mountain, located close to the western-most end of Port Stanley. Here, the hikers enjoyed a four-mile loop on a trail through grasslands and hard camp (including diddle dee, pig vine, large and small ferns, balsam bog, etc.), which took us past two exposures of the beautifully layered and angled quartzite deposits. The larger of the two, known as Tumbledown Mountain, provides a nice view of the surrounding hills and also contains a war memorial dedicated to those British soldiers who lost their lives here in the final battle of The Conflict in 1982.
We sailed back out of the protected bays in the early evening under clear, sunny conditions and were excited to set our course towards South Georgia.
