To the Falkland Islands...

The Orion steamed into Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). After weeks of having seen virtually no sign of humanity, Stanley came into view as an outpost of civilisation, a real port, with a real dock, other ships and people wandering about! The predicted rain was falling, promising a soggy day for this visit.

The Falklands, two main islands divided by the Falkland Sound. We hope to stop at both islands.

The first ship sighted in Port Stanley.

The Falklands (pop 3,000, 12,200sq.km) lie 480km off the coast of Argentina and are a self-governing overseas territory of Great Britain. Like many remote places, "ownership" of the Falklands is disputed, and Agentina has long laid claim to this little archipelago, calling it Islas Malvinas. Argentina briefly occupied the Falklands in 1982, but PM Margaret Thatcher responded more strongly than expected and won the ensuing 10 week war which resulted in 900 casualties. The name comes from the strait which separates the two main islands, which in turn was named after the 5th Viscount of Falkland (Scotland) who sponsored a 1690 expedition. The word Falkland itself means "land held by the people" as opposed to privilege, the crown and private ownership.

The Captain takes charge of docking at Port Stanley.

Saturday, so it's bratwurst on the back deck again, and the crew are not going to miss out!

For the first (and probably last) time on this trip, we needed to use our blue Orion swipe cards to disembark. And, going down the gangplank, we wore no life-jackets! There were four possibilities, but the rainy conditions made most of us predisposed to the simplest one, a "highlights" tour of Stanley followed by self-guided exploring through town. The others, a visit to Gypsy Cove to see wildlife, and a trip then hike at Mount Tumbletown to view a 1982 Falklands War battlefield, both sounded good but in the end, not many took them up. A farm tour, the most popular of all judging by the sign-up sheets, was cancelled from the outset when the bad weather over the previous few days had slowed the Orion down.

The bus for our Stanley tour full of soggy passengers.

Stanley has many interesting features, as the photos show. [Apologies in advance for the water drops on the lens in some shots.] We saw the graveyard of old whalers, and even an old pirate ship, the Lady Elizabeth. There was a tall totem pole covered in signs pointing to different ports around the world, apparently placed there (an ongoing process) by immigrant workers wistful for home.

The whaler's graveyard.

The wreck of the Lady Elizabeth, a pirate barque.

Totem pole, all the immigrant workers' home towns.

A local welder has created this private "no more whaling" museum in his yard.

Red hot pokers, a reminder of home.

Government House in Stanley, has a nice garden.

And near the water, we were able to see lots of birdlife quite different to the species we encountered in Antarctica and South Georgia.

Upland geese in flight.

An upland goose by the waterfront.

Through the rain and gloom, a Magellanic Oystercatcher.

A flock of sandpipers, but not even Doug Gould is sure what type.

An albatross spied from Stanley, but not the black browed model common here.

The houses themselves were interesting. Since Maggie Thatcher won the war for Britain, there has been a modest building boom, and the new houses are covered in a pleasing variety of prepainted steel. This product comes from the UK, the guide said, not the much nearer supplier in Buenos Aires - an economic embargo prevents that trade!

Bright buildings seem to be the norm in Stanley.

The colorful steel rooves on new housing in Stanley.

Downtown itself is a small CBD occupying one or two streets running parallel to the harbour-front. Here we visited a great Maritime Museum and actually saw and met some locals, our colloquialism for people not off Orion, the first of this species we have seen since Ushuaia! Unsurprisingly, in pride of place is a memorial to the British lives lost in the Falklands War. An Argentine cemetery is "somewhere else", according to a local.

Stanley's Anglican Cathedral with a remarkable whalebone arch.

After winning the 1982 Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher is definitely a local hero.

The Falklands War memorial takes pride of place in Stanley.

The memorial is quite moving, with lots of personal notes.

Highly personalised memorial to the Falklands War.

At the Stanley Maritime Museum.

This model in the museum of SS Discovery shows the magnificence and complexity of these old ships.

The Maritime Museum looks over the harbour.

The harbour at Stanley houses many similar ships which at a distance we thought were oil tankers or even hulks, but on enquiry and closer up, they were revealed as active squid jiggers, chasing illex argentinus, the most fished squid species in the world. Later in the day, we saw these "hulks" sailing out of the harbour. Apparently the jiggers are from Asia and come this way for calamari because their own stocks are so depleted. Worse, a high proportion of the world's squid come from around here, and we can only hope that the fishing is genuinely sustainable! We heard that concerns about overfishing have focused the Falklands on alternative sources of revenue, such as tourism and oil.

A picturesque pier relic.

Cormorants and chains on this relic of an old pier.

Some of the squid jiggers which operate out of Port Stanley.

Accordingly, it being a Saturday afternoon, most shops in town were open to receive the Orion's visitors, particularly the gift shops, and we marauded around them. Many sampled the delights of several very English pubs in town.

No doubting the British heritage of Stanley!

Several staff off the Orion were given the opportunity to do some shopping in town. We saw a very cute woolen penguin themed jumper being bought for the 2yo daughter of a couple who both work on board. And we all caught the shuttle bus about 4km back to the ship in slight drizzle.