A day on the Falklands with lots of penguins

 A day spent on the Falklands was one of the best days of the cruise. And a walk amongst the penguins was one of the best experiences I had. 

I did a private tour with Patrick Watt's company Adventure Falklands, which I would thoroughly recommend. 

We were picked up at the jetty in Stanley and set off in various 4WDs to Volunteer Point. This is 50 miles from Stanley. It takes 2 hours, as the first half is on tarmac roads, then the second half is off road. 

The road ends after Johnson’s Harbour Farm, a farm which extends all the way to Volunteer Point. Johnson's Harbour is a settlement on the shore of Johnson's Harbour. We had a toilet stop and there was a bake safe.

Our convoy -

The farmer is paying to have a road put in all the way to Volunteer Point to save cars from churning up the land and there was a lot of heavy plant material. 

From the farm it was 4WD across moorland which is all peat, but at the moment is really dry after 2 dry years. There is just “white” grass and not much else, just diddle-dee shrubs. 

We reached Volunteer Point and were eager to see the penguins. First we had to step in a foot bath to disinfect our shoes. Then it was time for the penguins........and I took over 100 photos in the next hour.

There are 3 species of penguin here. Firstly I went to see the kings. The king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) is the second largest species of penguin, smaller, but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. The emperor is endemic to Antarctica. There was a large colony of kings on the grass, inland from Volunteer Beach.

The big brown fluff balls are the chicks that hatched in the autumn (March/April) so are almost a year old - 

There were also some younger chicks -

Unfortunately the sound of the wind almost drowns out the calls of the penguins in this video -

I was reluctant to leave these majestic kings, but wanted to see the other penguins. So I set off for the beach alongside these two -

There were lots of upland geese on the grassy areas -

Walking across the sandy area -

The Magellanic penguins nest in burrows. They have two black bands between the head and the breast -

A chick in its burrow -

There were sandpipers in the sandy scrubs before the beach -

Next were the Gentoo penguins, they were in small groups in the sand and a few on the beach quite far away. They have a white patch on the head.

A Gentoo on a mission -

I then spent time watching various groups of King penguins walking towards the sea. They all seemed to stop before reaching the water and then turn round, as if reluctant to get their feet wet. 

They get closer -

and finally take the plunge. Video of various groups and at the end the main group finally dive into the sea, although one continues walking for a few more steps -

Geese flying by -

I then went back up to the grass areas and over to another colony of Gentoos -

A moulting chick -

I still had a bit of time so went back to the main King colony. Some were preening, some were resting, others were having a conversation -

I was fascinated by just how white the feathers are and how vibrant the orange and yellow colours are

Such a large colony of birds attracts predators. A gull looking for whatever it can find -

Turkey vultures were scavenging on carcasses of dead birds as well as eggs

Sadly it was time to go. Once again we had to dip our shoes in the foot bath before leaving.

On the way back we saw the stone runs. These are rocks that have slipped down off the hills over time as a result of erosion caused by freeze-thawing during the Ice Age. They were seen by Darwin, the biggest he named Princes Street after the main street in Edinburgh. 

Back in Stanley we had a quick look at the 1982 Liberation Monument and Margaret Thatcher’s bust

The cathedral with the whale bones outside -

I wanted to see the display of whale bones which have been assembled by anti-whaling campaigner Mike Butcher -

I then had a quick wander past the shops and popped into the supermarket for a look as they sell a mix of own brand groceries from different British supermarkets, such as Waitrose, Coop etc. I then only had about half an hour left so in true British fashion I went to the pub for a pint -