Hi everybody!
Here comes a report from my trip to the Falkland islands or Islas Malvinas as the Argentinians calls it. I left with a cruise ship called Professor Multanovskiy Wednesday the 20th from Ushuaia in Argentina. This vessel is the very same one I went with to the Antarctic peninsula in February year 2000. The ship has a Russian crew (wow, men in uniform ;o)) and Swedish and Brittish staff. The Swedes are one hotel manager (Martin Enckel from Lund), one bartender (Katja Paulsson also from Lund) and 2 chefs (Fredrik (from Lysekil) and David. Martin was on the ship when I left to Antactica as well.
The expedition vessel is named after the famous Soviet Physicist and Mathematition Boris Multanovskiy (1876-1946). He was a specialist in Physics, Mathematics and Physical Geography. In 1928 he went on an expedition with Nobel to the North Pole. After Multanovskiy we have names like Atmosphere, Stratosphere... Any physicist who the third one...I forgot (Hansen or Anette or Andreas Nygren)? And maybe even knows a little more?
Half of the Russian crew was the same people as my last trip, some of them still recognized me :o) It was lovely to be back on Multanovskiy! Mika, you understand! The sailors Denis and Igor were still onboard, the waitress Galina and her boyfriend Valery. Pasha, the Russian chef, the radio manager Evgeny and many more. Great to meet them all again!
On every trip like this there are also specialist who works as expedition staff. This time they all came from the UK. The expedition leader was Anna who I happened to sit next to on the plane from Frankfurt to Buenos Aires :o) And then it was Chris Edwards(geologist) and Will Wagstaff (ornitolog...fagelskadare pa hogre niva alltsa). Will have written books about the animals, mostly birds, on the Falklands so he was really an expert.
There are a West and an East Falkland, 2 big islands, and many small ones around them. The first day (after 2 days of open sea with a lot of seasickness for some of the passangers) we visited New Island and Weddell Island. On New Islands there was a huge colony of Black browed Albatrosses and also some king shags (also a big bird) and Magallenic penguins. The cliffs on this island was amazing! Step drops into the ocean. On this island there are some scientists that do research about the birds. There is also one local couple with their little son.
During eight days we landed (with Zodiacs (gummibatar)) on 2-3 places each day. We saw penguin colonies of Magellanic, Gentoo, Rockhopper , Macaroni and King penguins! I love the King penguins! They are so beautiful! We also saw animals introduces by man: the Patagonian fox (introduced 1926), Guanacos (1937), sheep and Reindeers (introduced by the Norwegian whalers for food, sport and hunting to South Georgia Islands (further south-east from the Falklands) and just recently they brought 16 reindeers to Beaver island on the Falklands. There is a longterm plan to remove all reindeers from South Georgia)!
There are an enormous amount of different birds on the Falklands. We saw different species of albatrosses, the Antarctic tern, the Caracara, Upland goose, diving petrels, king shags, prions, sooty shearwaters, black-crowned Night Heron and more, more, more! The Swedish names I donīt even know yet. Well some I know. We came very close to a lot of all this animals to watch them, takes photos and just study the wildlife and beauty!
Other animals that we saw was Sea Lions, Fur seals, Elephant seals, Peale dolphins. The Peale dolphins swam around our Zodiac when returning to the ship. The male Elephant seals are enormous!!!! A lot of blubber!!! I witnessed a terrible "pedofile Elephant seal" when he "attacked" a poor Elephant seal pup! He suddenly got horny and run...(cralled?) towards the closest pup. I thought the pup was going to be crashed under the tons of blubber! The pup was totally soaked after the males act...
The weather: I think itīs been hailing (haglat) every day. I have used my long-johns every day. On the ship I borrowed a warm jacket and Wellingtons (rubber boots).
History
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I guess all remember the Falkland war. It was 1982 against the Argentinians who claimed the Falklands as their territory. In Argentina it still says "Islas Malvinas (Argentina)" on the maps! And when you leave from here to the Falklands they sometimes say that you donīt need a departure stamp in your passport as you donīt leave the country... I just talked to a guy from the Falkands who told me that this happened once when he returned from Argentina to the Falklands. He then stayed 8 months at home before sailing back to Argentina. The custom in Argentina said that "your visa has expired"! (You get 3 months when you arrives). When he explained what happened they told him to get an Argentinian passport as he is Argentinian. He was born on the Falklands, I mean Malvinas...
We were able to visit a lot of historic places. Some from the war, for example where Argentinian planes had been shot down. One propeller plane and one Sky-hawk. One place we visited was the first settlement (1765). Sailors from UK. We also visited a settlement established by missionaries that took native South American indians from Tierra del Fuego (Eldslandet i sodra Patagonien) for teaching them in the ways of Christianity... From 1856/57.
We met a lot of interresting Falklanders! People who could tell stories how they were kept locked in by the Argentinian military during 1982. And people who told us about life in the Falklands. We visited a sheep farm were I of course had the give them a hand with shearing the sheep :o)) Well I did half a sheep at least :o)
It was a fun trip with all from birdwatching to salsa party with the crew :o) Saturday the 30th of November I had to leave the ship in Stanley, the capital (or only city) of the Falklands. I was lucky to be able to stay with Andrew who was one of the passenger. Write more about that later plus who I left the Falklands. Multanovskiy continued to South Georgia and the Antarctic peninsula before going back to Ushuaia. But it was to expensive for me. But I will definately go to South Georgia one day! Itīs supposed to be even more beautiful than the Antarctica!!!
Tell you more another time :o)
Kicki / Kina
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