I arrived in the Falkland Islands on Saturday afternoon, thoroughly exhausted after 2 days of long haul travelling. The journey so far though has already been amazing, the people from BAS that are travelling with me are great fun and any fears I might have had about not being part of a scientific team have completely disappeared……everyone so far is enthusiastic and supportive of the writers and artists program.
The flight across the Andes mountains into Santiago, and from Santiago down to Punta Arenas on the southern tip of Chile was, I thought , going to be what I'd be waxing lyrical about in this entry……. great brown paper crunckles of desert landscape gradually developing into mountainous peaks interspersed with grey blue glaciers. The mountains just seemed to keep on coming. Punta Arenas was not what I had expected from my mum's old photograph albums, it was gritty, hard working, cold and windy. I liked it though, it had a lively young population, and a 'take me as you find me' unpretentious feel.
The complete and utter show stopping, absolute winners so far on my trip (after a two and a half hour off road trip yesterday to Volunteer Point on a the north east inlet of east Falkland island) were the penguins!!!! People talk about the experience of swimming with dolphins as being a profound and moving experience, I think walking with penguins must be up there in the same league. There were 3 species of penguins, the inquisitive Gentoo's gathered quietly around me in a circle as I sat on the beach, I felt like a very honoured guest, and a little embarrassed by the intensity directed at me. The Magellan's slept at the entrance to their burrows and hurriedly crept away to scrutinise me shyly from below. The King penguins were stately and super model professional at standing is exquisite poses.
I have quite fallen in love with the penguins, especially the Magellans.
