Unique Places in Falkland Islands

As I have already explained virtually every place in the Falklands is off the beaten track. Some places such as Darwin will attract maybe as many as three Rover's full of people at a weekend .. by Falklands standards that's a crowd. Other places remain largely undiscovered, one such place is Green Patch on the Berkley Sound, East Falkland. The shoreline here is probably one of the best in the islands for fossils as they are littered everywhere. Interestingly the Falkland Islands rocks are very similar to some of those found in South Africa this is because approximately 400 million years ago the Falklands were joined to what is now South Africa along with South America, Australasia and Antarctica. This was the giant continent we call Gondwanaland. Some people believe that diamonds and/or gold may yet be discovered in the Falklands, after all South Africa has them so it follows that the Falklands with it's similar geology could have them too. Earlier this year (2004) aerial surveys were being carried out across the entire length and breadth of the islands to determine what hidden resources may lie beneath the ground. I for one hope they find NOTHING because I would hate to see "my" Falkland Islands ripped apart for shiny metal or gems (or oil for that matter)

Green Patch can be reached by driving along the Mt Kent road as far as Estancia then taking the right hand fork for a further 8 miles (approx).

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I suppose the last place you would expect to find a suspension bridge is in the middle of nowhere in the Falkland Islands. Nevertheless there it stands quietly rusting approximately six miles out of the settlement of Goose Green. The bridge was manufactured in London and shipped out to the Falklands where it was assembled by the Falkland Islands Company workforce work completed in July 1925. The idea behind the bridge stemmed from the decision to centralise all the sheep from Darwin and Walker Creek in Goose Green and to get the Walker Creek sheep across a bridge needed to be built. The bridge remained in use up until 1997 when it was closed due to it becoming unsafe. It may or may not be the southernmost suspension bridge in the world, I do not know of any further South but if anyone knows of one then I will stand corrected. The bridge is infrequently visited by personnel based at MPA just to say that they have seen it, it's a bumpy and uncomfortable Landrover journey along rutted and boggy tracks to get there. As far as I know it is not on any Falklands tourist itinerary.

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Gypsy Cove is one of the most visited places in the Falklands so perhaps this shouldn't go in Off the Beaten Track? Except I got the feeling that people tended to overlook this war time relic in favour of obtaining their first sighting of a Penguin. Understandable I suppose but spare a thought for this rusting piece of ordnance that has stood guarding this position since the Second World War. It hadn't a hope of repelling a determined German invasion but it was placed here as a bit of reassurance for the locals. Built by Vickers in the UK it is one of a pair that defend the Port William harbour outside Stanley. On 8th December 1914 a German fleet was defeated in battle by the Royal Navy to the South East of the Falklands, the German ships closed within 10 miles of the Falkland coast line. Not wanting to let the Germans get that close again these guns were placed here at the start of WWII. The nearest naval battle in the 2nd war was the Battle of the River Plate off Uruguay where the pocket battleship Graf Spee was sunk in December 1939.

Cape Horn was discovered in 17th century by the Dutch.
It was the Dutch East Indian Company which then held the monopoly to the sea route leading from Africa Sea to the Spice Islands.

Cape Horn is now a national park but not many land here as the wind & high waves made the journey a very difficult one.
We didn't since it was not on our itinerary but we got a fantastic view of it.
We were very lucky on this trip! :-)

"Ushuaia - The End of the World, Beginning of Everything" it says on the seafront.

It is probably Argentinian southernmost city.
Scenic, resort-like & clean.
Snowcapped peaks & relying on tourism, Ushuaia is pretty.

Not an entirely off the beaten path as you have to get here & find the port to board all cruise ships. & I wouldn't be in Falklands if I didn't get to Ushuaia first!

USHUAIA, ARGENTINA is a nice walkable city with friendly people. Well, most of them are on vacations or trying to sell you something ;-)

Still, I like it. It's compact & it has lots of nice souvenir shops. If I had known it to be such a nice town, I'd have come a few days earlier & stocked up those winter clothing I need instead of getting them all the way from Canada!

But anyhow, Ushuaia, or rather Argentina has been very affordable since the country started facing financial difficulties in the last 2 years or so. I was told the Peso used to be pegged to the US$ at the ratio of 1:1. Now, it's only less than 30% of that! Incredible. I had never taken a taxi at US$1 a ride!!!

For almost anyone who arrived in the Falklands on a cruise, this is part of the journey.

ANTARCTICA - the 7th continent!
One can't just describe Antarctica in a single tip. Not even an entire page on it is enough! So, instead of saying what I need to say here, I direct you to 225 tips of it on my Antarctica page. Hopefully you'll enjoy the virtual tour. It's something no one on earth will ever forget should they be lucky enough to embark on the journey of a lifetime!

As Stephen Pyne says it so well in A Journey to Antarctica:

To enter Greater Antarctica is to be drawn into a slow maelstrom of ice.
Ice is the beginning of Antarctica & ice is its end.
As one moves from perimeter to interior, the proportion of ice relentlessly increases.
Ice creates more ice & ice defines ice.
Everything else is suppressed...
Earth - the fabled water planet is also an ice planet.

A great way to join the Falkland way of life is to visit a farm during the sheep shearing season.

Normally, they cut the sheep three times a year: the males, the females and the lamb, and any of these are a great way to watch the ancient skills of the islanders in full flower.

These days, the conventional scissors are replaced by mechanical razors, however, it's still very much a manual job, carried out by some very hard-working men, assisted by some equally hard-working woman working as "rousies". These are the ones taking care of the "fleece" from the moment it has been cut of the sheep and until it ends up in a big back, sorted by fibre length and quality.

There isn't really any "beaten path" on the Falklands, so anywhere you go, you are very likely to be the only tourist.

However, once a cruise ship arrives, stay away from Stanley downtown. These all-too-weaalthy tourists with lots of money and no time are a pest, but getting away is very easy - in particular if you swallow the pain and take a jump to West Falkland or any other, out-lying island.