2014/02 Falklands trip - Sealion Island |
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We took off in good weather on a short hop to Saunders Island where we dropped off Dennis and Jean. We’d be seeing them again at Carcass Island in a few days. We were the only 
passengers for the next hop. We flew south over much open water to a really lonely spot, Port Stephens, at the end of the road on West Falkland. There we picked up Anthea and Mark, from Tilehurst, where we had our first house. These can be very scenic flights in good weather. The islands look like a great place to have a boat too, on the right day.
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Flight to Sealion (19.34) |
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We flew southeast over more open water to Sealion Island, in the Falklands’ extreme south. Sealion has a fancy runway scoured flat by the army, but they 
still have to clear the geese away. It’s a nature reserve and we had to walk through a foot dip of disinfectant; I was glad I wasn’t wearing sandals. We noticed that their wind turbine was down, nose in the dirt; the bolts that attach it to its concrete base had sheared in a recent storm and they were waiting for some cement to come in by ship. My guess was that the whole generator was a write-off.
Jennie the manager told us about the island’s nature reserve status. There is no livestock, and all the cats, dogs, rats, and mice have been removed. The island is reverting to its natural state including the growth of tussoc grass, eaten into extinction by sheep and cattle on the big islands. The lodge was comfortable but it had a government feel about it, with more staff than the family-run places. It was nice though to look out the window and see the Gentoo penguin colony.
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Cow Point (12.28) |
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We set off to the closest piece of coast at Cow Point and had the first of many tussles with the tussoc. The stuff grows in big clumps up to eight feet high and almost as wide. It’s possible to push your way between the clumps but you can’t see where you’re going or what you’re about to step on or in or off. After a couple of such moves you lose all direction. Oh yes, and there were penguins and burrows underfoot too.
Luckily there are a few patches where it doesn’t thrive, and there we found sprawls of sea cabbage and these over-friendly tussoc birds. They’ll get close
enough to perch on your boots waiting for you to disturb some bugs.
We were making our way through a rare bare patch when we came across this bird of prey standing on the body of a penguin chick and screaming its beak off. We eventually realized that is was a young striated caracara and it was screaming at its parents. There were two more young nearby. This is one of the rarest raptors in the world and we were sitting in on a family dispute with five of them around us!
Later we found that they are quite common on the smaller islands and known locally as “Johnny rooks”. My guess was that the bird was saying “I don’t like penguin! I want some mouse munchies.” Eventually one of its siblings came over and took the meal away and ate it.
Eventually we got to where the beach was blocked by rocks and the dunes by tussoc and had to find our way back across this very soggy meadow, navigating around ponds and streams. Note my Falklands beach clothes.
The food on Sealion was also very good, three courses plus the usual honesty bar. Limited selections and high prices but that’s to be expected in these remote spots.