Blanco y Celeste: A bit more of the Falklands

The shipwrecks Lady Elizabeth and Samson lying in the harbour. The Islands are littered with shipwrecks, most of them having been severely battered as they rounded Cape Horn and never got any further. These were both built in the mid-1800s and sailed from England as cargo ships all around the world. Lots of places on the Islands have received their names after the ships that were wrecked there!

The "Lady Liz" in her hey-day.

The Pharos anchored in the harbour. It's a scientific ship that sails down to the island of South Georgia to do investigations.

Another shipwreck! This is the boat that Arthur Leeks and Lawrence Blizzard lived on for some time while they were first in the Falklands! Tiny! They moored it in the bay but Arthur tells that when storms came up Lawrence had to move it elsewhere. The idea was that they sail from island to island I think!

Old wrecks and new...some of these are wrecks from the 1800s too. Looking toward Stanley.

The Falklands was full of landmines, put down by the Argentines. Slowly the mine fields are becoming cleared, but there are still areas where they are de-mining. There are a lot of Zimbabweans here who are doing that work. Some were put on the beaches, and although there are plans that the Argentines had to provide, because of the shifting sands they are difficult to find.

We came across this camp of some Zimbabweans who were clearing mines in this area.

Looking down on beautiful Gypsy Cove. We went for a very long walk that day hoping to get down to the penguin rookery there, but found it was all fenced off because of mines! (In actual fact if we'd gone past that bit we could have gone down to the penguins). The sand is amazingly white!

Looking out to sea from same area. All this was mined, and they're in the process of clearing it.

Looking back to Stanley from the harbour end. All these reddish-yellow plants are ferns.

Having a cuppa in the Seaman's Mission on the way back from walking. Note the flag overhead! It's a voluntary mission sponsored by different businesses and churches that offer a place for the sailors to go while their ship is in. It has tea and coffee, games, donated books and clothes for them to help themselves to, telly, and warmth! There were a group of Indonesians there at the time.

A strange little bird I frightened out of the grass

The Stanley cemetery where 8 of our friends are buried.

Cemetery with a view!

Leaving the cemetery and going back to town along this road

Most vehicles are 4x4s... there are few paved roads on the islands. Since after the conflict of 1982, there was a lot of work done, but still a lot of gravel road and driving over peat bogs.