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20080119 Saturday Day 4 Stanley, East Falkland Island
Town visit, lunch onshore, posted 3 postcards. Christ Church Cathedrale, Falkland Islands Museum, Cartmell Cottage. Met a gentleman who visited Hong Kong in the 1960s, he had picture of a woman smoking opium inside Walled Village.
13 degree on land in the morning. Our knowledge and awareness of the Falkland Islands were limited to the Falklands war in 1982 which we understand very little of it. It was interesting to finally set foot on the island. The key highlights of the visit were the Cathedrale that has a small mouement outside made of whale bone; The museum though small had good collection of items that represented the Falklands such as items used by early settlers, animals samples of those found around the region, news and bomb shells of the Falklands War; The Cartmell Cottage was the first house built on the island. We posted a few postcards and had lunch in one of the local restaurants, our first onland meal since our sea journey began a few days ago.
Irene: lunch was a highlight at the Brasarie and had a nice dafe latte,
though penguin gifts are v. cute, we didnt buy any.
Met Jutta at dinner, from Germany living in London beteen Heathrow and central london. collected penguin items for 20 years+, went on icebreaker from Tasmania to Antarctica in 2000.
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20080118 Friday Day 3 Carcass Island (Falkland Islands)
Saunders Island has a very rich animal population dominated by penguins and other birds, we saw plenty of Gentoo penguins and Rockhopper penguins, we also saw some Magellanic penguins and King penguins. The King penguins were not moving an inch because they are protecting their precious eggs underneath their belly! The Rockhopper penguins were busy hopping upwards from the sea through the beach and up towards the hill, at some point we were in their path and they waited patiently until the path is clear again. We also saw an amazing colony of black browed albatross, the chicks were sitting comfortably inside the nests and waiting for their parents to feed them. It was fantastic to see how these animals co-exist in harmony. On our way back to the boat via Zodiac, a dolphin paid us a visit.
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20080128 Monday Day 13 Still at sea, hoping to make a landing on Elephant Island
It was getting colder, outside temparture is now 2 degree C, and water temparture is zero. We are approaching Elephant The sea got rougher again.
We got to Elephant Island, so called because when Shackleton and his men first arrived, they had a hard time finding a place to set up their huts, they called it "a hell of an island" which sounded like "Elephant Island". We saw some glaciers around the island. But unfortunately the weather condition was not good for landing, so we could only admire the island from the deck. And we were off to see more iceberg.
