When we approached the West Coast of the Falkland Islands everything was covered in heavy fog and we could only see shades of the island. Nevertheless, first stop was Carcass Island. We went into the zodiacs and practised what we will be doing quite a few times from now on – landings…
The Falkland Islands have about 1500 permanent residents which mostly farm cattle and sheep on the islands. On Carcass Island there is one family which also runs a little bakery. Mystical views over the bay in the foggy setup.
We wondered around a bit and were greeted by a variety of birds on the beach.
And the first friends of Pengu – the Magellanic Penguin.
We also experienced how quickly the weather can change. From a bit of fog we got into a proper thunderstorm with lightnings which made us turn around from our walk. Back on the ship we continued our journey to the second landing point – Saunders Island. The weather cleared up and we actually made it in the eye of a low pressure system having storms all around us and sunshine and almost no wind where we were. What a treat.
Can’t resist to just walk around in shorts and t-shirt when everybody is already wrapped in the arctic gear 😂
When we boarded the zodiacs a school of Commerson’s Dolphins came up to the boat and jumped around the zodiacs and followed us to the shore.
And then we landed at a small beach strip on Saunders Island. You could already see from a distance that the entire beach was full of penguins. It looked unreal. We had a wet landing on the beach and were dropped right in the middle of the colony. Completely surrounded by penguins. What an amazing scenery!
It’s a great timing to be here. There are all stages of different development stages of juveniles here. Some are still breading, some are growing up and some are already getting chased by the parents to go in the water. A lot of screaming, running and excitement was going on. And then I was able to witness how a couple of sea gulls were praying in the food which the parents were giving to there chicks. And they managed to steel it out of the parents mouth. As you can tell this penguin did not like it at all.
Well, I know – it’s a lot of penguin pictures. But what can I say. There was so much happening and there are just to many cool pictures of these amazing creatures. Which brings me to another story.
The story about Pengu.
Some of you might have noticed and seen Pengu already. It’s the little penguin who is usually attached to my backpack and accompanies me since the very beginning of my journey. But why am I carrying a 12 gram stuffed animal around when everything is about weight when I go trekking?
There is a German comedian named Eckhard von Hirschhausen who used to be a doctor but discovered his talent for entertainment and now is quite famous with TV shows. He once told the story of him on a land stop during a cruise. He went to visit the zoo and stoped at the penguins. He watched them walking around and asked himself what must have gone wrong when these animals were designed? How poorly can you design something? They can’t properly walk and because they are even missing knees they stumble and fall the entire time. What a big failure! And then they jumped into the water and suddenly shot through it like a torpedo!
To make a bit longer story short – he put into the room that it might not always be the right and most efficient thing to adopt and change to fit in your current environment but that the quest of life might also or entirely be to find YOUR environment. The one which enables you to play your strength instead of trying to do something you were not designed to.
Well, and when I set off my friend Eva gave this penguin to me and told me: “Find your environment that makes you happy!” And since then we have been a team… Of course Pengu was more then excited to meet his friends and family in real now!
Some more impressions of these beautiful King Penguins.
Saunders Island hosts four different penguin species in one beach. It’s such a hot spot. So next to the Gentoo, Magellanic and King Penguins there are also the Rock Hopper Penguins. They look like the evil bunch just about to come up with a plan to take over the island 😎
And there is also a colony of albatross breading.
And with the setting sun and the tide pushing in again we got an amazing mirror on the beach and some cool shots of the cool little fellows on the beach – including my shot of the day.
My favourite! “Wait for me – I am coming…!!!”
And at one point of time we had to leave the island again – unfortunately. We continued to Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, during the night to go on shore in the morning. Even though it is a sheltered bay the wind was strong and the waves were high. The crew still gave it a go. We all got soaked on the way to the shore because the waves just splashed over the zodiacs and trenched us. I made it to the pier when they deiced to stop and turn around again. So I can say I have been in Stanley but that’s also all I can 😉
But to be honest – it was one of the landings I cared least about. So if that’s the only one we have to skip and therefore get more in on the other islands I am more than fine with it. So, just to give you a quick impression of were all of this is happening:
Continue reading: Part 3
