Tuesday 15th March; 16th day at sea
We’d finally arrived at the Falklands overnight and anchored in Stanley harbour just before breakfast. We’d been led to believe that this would be another wet landing, but instead of having to wade ashore, we could tie the zodiacs up against a small pontoon jetty, which saved us the bother of getting wellies on. The bad news was that the weather was pretty grim – dull, cold and damp heading towards wet, which made Stanley feel a bit like Maryport on a wet Wednesday afternoon.
Whilst the people on the long tour where whisked off towards their land rovers, we were herded onto a normal single-decker bus, for the guided tour of Stanley and it’s environs. First off, we headed out towards the old airport, which is still used for the local air service. After that, and heading back into the town, still with the guide, who came from somewhere in Scotland, we were left at the museum for half and hour, and then taken back to the centre of Stanley. Lunch was up to us, so we followed the Governor’s advice about the best place to eat in Stanley and had lunch at a Chilean-owned brasserie, which had the best coffee we’d had since we left Britain, and had a nice half-bottle of Chilean Sauvignon blanc.
After lunch we walked back to the museum, about a mile and a half from the centre of town, had another look around it and then got ourselves invited into the archive where R. was hoping to talk to the archivist. As it happened, she was talking to two women, one of whom knew a woman who’d donated some archives on one of the families who owned land in the Falklands to the RCS collection at the UL. Everyone we met in the archives and the museum was very friendly – all in all people were very easy to talk to. They also had a lot to say about the Argentinians. No one was terribly worried about the visit to their cemetery at Darwin, but were concerned about politicians and journalists exploiting the visit. The other major concern was the status of the air link to Santiago in Chile, one of the only two air routes into the Islands, and the only competition with the RAF link to Brize Norton via Ascension. The latter’s an 18-hour flight with a bit of hanging around at the latter, whereas the Santiago flight has the advantage of going via a holiday destination.
Whilst we were in Stanley we had to see if Hoc, one of our dancing teachers who works for BAS and had spent much of the summer on the Ice, was around. We’d not expected to see here, but it seemed that she left on Saturday, only three days previously! We also popped into the Falkland Island Company store; partly stocked courtesy of Waitrose, but they didn’t have any decent chocolate; I bought a bottle of Chilean beer called ‘Polar Imperial’ and wondered what sort of demand there would be for Waitrose brand Argentinian red wine – it seemed an odd thing to be selling in Stanley, especially when it would have to have been shipped from Argentina to Britain and more or less back again. Chilean wine is, I would say, generally better and it was only a few hundred miles away, rather than 15-16,000.
Something else about Stanley that seemed curious was that everyone left their car keys in the ignition. Odd, until you realise that in a small community everyone knows everyone else’s business (to the extent that there is, or was, a gossip program on the radio station). Also, there’s clearly no way of selling a stolen car.
Getting back to the Polar Star was a bit of a trial; after we left, the ship had gone out to Port William, the outer harbour, to be refuelled. This meant a 25 minute trip in a zodiac in rising winds, choppy seas and rain, and to capit all, once we got back on board, the ship moved away from the refuelling point. As soon as I got back on board I opened my bottle of Chilean beer – and very nice it was as well.
Meanwhile the expedition staff had been to Government House for lunch, drinks etc., and some of them got a lift back in the harbourmaster’s launch – not as good as it sounds as they had to walk around the outside of the launch to get to the Polar Star’s gangway. We learnt later that there was a tradition in Government House of graffiti being written on the underside of the snooker table – when the expedition staff had left, there was apparently a reference to Argentina there, courtesy of Santiago.
We left Stanley once all the zodiacs and expedition staff were back and instead of heading North towards East Falkland we headed down the coast of West Falkland, with the lights of Mount Pleasant Airport visible from the ship. I’m not sure now where we anchored, but it must have been off Barren Island, the next day’s landing site.
Whilst the people on the long tour where whisked off towards their land rovers, we were herded onto a normal single-decker bus, for the guided tour of Stanley and it’s environs. First off, we headed out towards the old airport, which is still used for the local air service. After that, and heading back into the town, still with the guide, who came from somewhere in Scotland, we were left at the museum for half and hour, and then taken back to the centre of Stanley. Lunch was up to us, so we followed the Governor’s advice about the best place to eat in Stanley and had lunch at a Chilean-owned brasserie, which had the best coffee we’d had since we left Britain, and had a nice half-bottle of Chilean Sauvignon blanc.
After lunch we walked back to the museum, about a mile and a half from the centre of town, had another look around it and then got ourselves invited into the archive where R. was hoping to talk to the archivist. As it happened, she was talking to two women, one of whom knew a woman who’d donated some archives on one of the families who owned land in the Falklands to the RCS collection at the UL. Everyone we met in the archives and the museum was very friendly – all in all people were very easy to talk to. They also had a lot to say about the Argentinians. No one was terribly worried about the visit to their cemetery at Darwin, but were concerned about politicians and journalists exploiting the visit. The other major concern was the status of the air link to Santiago in Chile, one of the only two air routes into the Islands, and the only competition with the RAF link to Brize Norton via Ascension. The latter’s an 18-hour flight with a bit of hanging around at the latter, whereas the Santiago flight has the advantage of going via a holiday destination.
Whilst we were in Stanley we had to see if Hoc, one of our dancing teachers who works for BAS and had spent much of the summer on the Ice, was around. We’d not expected to see here, but it seemed that she left on Saturday, only three days previously! We also popped into the Falkland Island Company store; partly stocked courtesy of Waitrose, but they didn’t have any decent chocolate; I bought a bottle of Chilean beer called ‘Polar Imperial’ and wondered what sort of demand there would be for Waitrose brand Argentinian red wine – it seemed an odd thing to be selling in Stanley, especially when it would have to have been shipped from Argentina to Britain and more or less back again. Chilean wine is, I would say, generally better and it was only a few hundred miles away, rather than 15-16,000.
Something else about Stanley that seemed curious was that everyone left their car keys in the ignition. Odd, until you realise that in a small community everyone knows everyone else’s business (to the extent that there is, or was, a gossip program on the radio station). Also, there’s clearly no way of selling a stolen car.
Getting back to the Polar Star was a bit of a trial; after we left, the ship had gone out to Port William, the outer harbour, to be refuelled. This meant a 25 minute trip in a zodiac in rising winds, choppy seas and rain, and to capit all, once we got back on board, the ship moved away from the refuelling point. As soon as I got back on board I opened my bottle of Chilean beer – and very nice it was as well.
Meanwhile the expedition staff had been to Government House for lunch, drinks etc., and some of them got a lift back in the harbourmaster’s launch – not as good as it sounds as they had to walk around the outside of the launch to get to the Polar Star’s gangway. We learnt later that there was a tradition in Government House of graffiti being written on the underside of the snooker table – when the expedition staff had left, there was apparently a reference to Argentina there, courtesy of Santiago.
We left Stanley once all the zodiacs and expedition staff were back and instead of heading North towards East Falkland we headed down the coast of West Falkland, with the lights of Mount Pleasant Airport visible from the ship. I’m not sure now where we anchored, but it must have been off Barren Island, the next day’s landing site.
posted by Iain Burke at 30.1.06
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