After a 0600 wake up call, I decided to try and continue downloading all the photos from yesterday that wouldn’t download, so I ended up at breakfast a bit late, but still managed to get something to get some fruit, eggs and hash browns. The first zodiac went out at 0730 and we went to West Point Island. The landing was a dry landing and was absolutely lovely. There was a house there and a few old shed that looked like air raid shelters and a long jetty and rusting anchors. I walked a few kilometres across the island to the rookery at the Devils Nose. There were Black-browed Albatross and Rockhopper Penguins. Again, I couldn’t decide what to look at and ended up not taking very many photos. Tom talked me through how to read histograms on the camera and how to adjust the shutter speed. It made sense at that present moment (unfortunately it didn’t stay in my head for too much longer though). Watching the penguins walk zig zag down a huge almost vertical cliff was funny. They leap and fall and tumble on top of each other. It really is quite comical. I went back to watch the penguins waddle up the highway along a stream and slip and slide in mud and try and balance on rocks to drink. It was so cool to watch.
We had to head back to the zodiacs so I decided to ride in one of the Defenders back to the landing site because how often can you say you ‘drove’ in the Falkland Islands? The caretakers of the house put on morning tea for us and the amount of food was humungous. There were so many cakes and teas to choose from. Unfortunately we only had 5min to scoff them down because we had to get back on board so we could move to the next island. The gardens surrounding the house were lovely. A real English cottage garden and everything was flowering. The gardens are surrounded by huge wind swept trees to protect them from the wind (the wind on the island was pretty fierce at times).
Once back on the ship there was an hour to spare before lunch to download the mornings photos. After lunch there was a bit more free time so I had a nanna nap. By 1400 it was tome to depart again, this time to Carcass Island. The zodiac ride was a bit wet, but the landing was beautiful. Long white sandy beach covered in penguins! There were three talks on offer and I wanted to go to all of them but I also wanted to see the island so basically missed all the educational stuff again so I could see birds. First up I walked up to see the Gentoo Penguin Colony with one solitary King Penguin and lots of Magellanic Penguins mixed into it. Getting there was a bit of a mission because there were penguin burrows everywhere so you had to be careful not to fall down one or to tread on a baby penguin. From there I walked to the opposite side of the island and watched penguins surfing, Oyster catchers foraging and Upland Geese and Steamer ducks ride the waves with their chicks. They had asked for people to volunteer their time on this side of the island and help pick up rubbish but there was too much to see so I passed on that activity.
I walked back to the landing site and watched the penguins playing in the water. They really are funny to watch and a bit like sheep, they will follow a leader but if there isn’t one, they just stand there looking stupid until someone makes a move. I walked down the far end of the beach and watched a family of Steamer Ducks feeding in the rocks pools and the chicks playing in the water. Then a huge line of penguins waddled out of the sea and climbed this huge sand dune, presumably to get to their colony. They slipped and fell the entire way up and one then got to the top and then decided to come back down and it tried to walk standing up but eventually fell over and slid down on its belly. It really was a sight. It was time to head back to the ship after that at 1900 with dinner at 1930.
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