Exploring the Falkland Islands
World-class wildlife tourism is just one of the many intriguing reasons to visit this otherworldly archipelago.
When many people think of traveling to South America to observe wildlife, their first thought might be Ecuador’s celebrated Galápagos Islands, with its array of endemic birds, marine mammals and reptiles. They may think of Patagonia, with its pumas, guanacos, penguins and renowned whale watching. But what about the lesser known Falkland Islands, the remote archipelago 500 kilometers (about 310 miles) east of the continent?
On the 780 islands that make up the Falklands archipelago, just a handful are inhabited by the nation’s small population of 3,398 people. This is a naturalist’s paradise. Along t he coasts, cormorants, albatrosses and other
birds abound. There are vast numbers of marine mammals, especially elephant seals and southern sea lions. Most attractive, it is one of the most accessible places in the world to see enormous colonies of penguins up close in the wild. Throughout the Falkland Islands, the enigmatic penguins can be found easily, and en masse. Home to more than a million penguins altogether, they far outnumber their human neighbors, that is 294 penguins for each person that lives in the archipelago. This is a penguin nation.
The Falkland Islands host the world’s largest population of gentoos and 40 percent of the southern rockhoppers. Time your visit right, you may come across five of the world’s 18 penguin species here. Two species, the gentoo and the king,
live in the Falklands year-round. Meantime, the southern rockhopper, Magellanic and macaroni penguins arrive for breeding season, which nicely coincides with high season for tourism, occurring during the Southern Hemisphere’s late spring and summer months, from September to March.
Situated on the Patagonian shelf in the South Atlantic, which because of its highly productive waters hosts a great diversity of fish and squid (the country’s top export), the Falkland Islands is also considered part of Insular Patagonia. In fact, much like continental Patagonia, there are vast grassy steppes in the
“Most striking is the tree-less landscape and stone runs. It looks like your on another planet.”
Falklands interior, and they predominate with sheep farms and constant winds influenced by the Furious Fifties, the strong westerlies at 50° latitude.
The Falklands are characterized, too, by undulating hills, their highest point 705-meter ( 2,313 feet) Mount Usborne. The craggy coastline in some sections show off dramatic cliffs and sandy beaches. But most striking is the near- treeless, desolate landscape here dotted in some parts with the periglacial “stone runs.” It almost looks like you’re on another planet. During the last ice age, intense freezing followed by thawing gave rise to the stone runs, which are extraordinary, long lines of boulders. The English naturalist Charles Darwin, upon visiting the Falklands in 1833, dubbed them “streams of stones.” Occurring mainly on hillsides, they are the largest of their kind in the world, sometimes extending up to four kilometers (2.5 miles) in length and several hundred meters wide.
Stanley and around
Wildlife may be the main draw for tourists, but the capital of Stanley – home to more than three-fourths of Falklanders – deserves attention in its own right. Many visitors arrive to this coastal hamlet in cruise ships, spending merely only a few hours at a time on land, but that’s less than ideal — especially given the time necessary to shuttle passengers ashore and back to the ship. It’s even more time-consuming for larger cruise ships, which can’t enter Stanley’s harbor.
On a sloping site overlooking its namesake harbor, Stanley
hosts architecture ranging from 19th-century stone houses to brick Victorians to metal-clad prefabs imported from England, and there are monumental buildings like the sprawling Government House, and Christ Church Cathedral, with its striking Whalebone Arch on the adjacent green. There are also maritime landmarks, including shipwrecks like the freighter
Lady Elizabeth— grounded since 1913 at Whalebone Cove, at the east end of Stanley’s harbor. A short distance farther east rises the Cape Pembroke Lighthouse.
Don’t miss the impressive Historic Dockyard Museum. A visit here is a crash course on the Falkland Islands’ natural history, the evolution of an immigrant society dominated by large sheep ranches and the commercial power of the Falkland Islands Company, a surprisingly impartial presentation on the 1982 war between Britain and Argentina, their links with Antarctica, and the fishing industry’s powerful economic and social impact in recent decades.
In the vicinity of Stanley are also some of the island’s very best outdoor excursions. The most popular is a full-day trip to Johnson’s harbor and Volunteer Point, which features a large colony of majestic king penguins year-round. In summer, there’s also a large colony of elephant seals nearby. And just a short distance from Stanley is Kidney Cove, with its numerous Magellanic, rockhopper and Gentoo penguins, plus the occasional king and even a rare Macaroni. As well, at Murrell Farm, one can observe the fascinating sheep shearing in summer months.
It’s worth adding that Stanley offers modestly priced accommodations (including B&Bs) and dining options. Two outstanding services are the recently expanded Malvina House Hotel and the cozier Waterfront Boutique Hotel. The former’s Lounge Bar & Restaurant, and the latter’s Waterfront Kitchen Café (overseen by Chilean chef Alex Olmedo) provide surprisingly sophisticated cuisine stressing local ingredients. Calamari, lamb and Patagonian toothfish — often erroneously labeled “Chilean sea bass” — are top local choices, but there’s also the occasional oddity such as reindeer burgers, from West Falkland.
Most Falklanders are visibly British in their appearance and manner, and they value their status (and perks) as an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. There is also a noticeable British influence around town, with the red phone boxes and a sociable pub culture at spots like the Victory Bar and the Globe Tavern, where it’s
“This is a naturalist’s paradise. Along the coasts, cormorants, albatrosses and other birds abound.”
possible to sample excellent micro-brews from Falklands Beerworks (do try their truly hoppy golden ale “Rock Hopper”). But many families can also trace their islander heritage back eight or nine generations and profess a local identity at least as strong as their European origins.
Offshore islands
Almost everyone claims that the “real” Falklands is the “camp,” or countryside (the term “camp” is derived from the Spanish campo). At one time, the sheep ranching settlements were beacons of hospitality where nobody ever dreamed of charging for room and board, though it was customary for visitors to bring gifts — preferably in bottled form. Nowadays, there are more formal accommodations for tourists, some of these are on the two largest islands, East and West Falkland, but the offshore islands are the most popular, and with the best facilities.
Exploring the nature on the outer islands is a must. Sea Lion Island, located off the south coast of East Falkland, is particularly noteworthy because its gentle terrain and relatively small size —about 9 square kilometers (3 square miles) — make wildlife spotting luxuriously easy as everything is a short walk from the centrally located lodge. In summer, thousands of elephant seals haul themselves out of the South
“Almost everyone claims that the “real” Falklands is the “camp,” or countryside.”
Atlantic to breed on the sandy beach just minutes away from the lodge.
Sea Lion is moreover a good place to see native tussac grass, which grows tall and dense enough along the shore that some early mariners mistook it for a forest. The tussac shelters sea lions ( the imposing bulls can be agitated when surprised), and smaller birds that don’t get the same publicity as the massive mixed (and malodorous) colonies of rockhopper penguins and king cormorants. There are also breeding populations of southern giant petrels, rather homely-looking birds but which look elegant when in flight.
Northwest of Sea Lion, Bleaker Island is a more affordable option with gracious ownership, contemporary accommodations, and excellent food service (with a self- catering option except in peak season). It is still in part a sheep ranch, but the Rendell family have removed cats, so that Bleaker has more small birds than some other islands, and rat eradication is underway. All five penguin species of the Falklands can be spotted here to varying degrees, with the island having particularly large colonies of Magellanic, rockhopper and gentoo penguins. There is also a significant population of king and rock cormorants.
Bleaker has no breeding populations of sea lions or elephant seals, but those species and even the occasional fur seal put in appearances. Because it’s considerably larger than Sea Lion, getting to all the best sites may involve arranging a tour or hiring a 4WD vehicle from the owners.
At Carcass, in the far northwest of the archipelago, Rob McGill greets his guests at the airstrip in his beaten Land Rover with chocolates and juices. The renovated house that constitutes Carcass Lodge contains comfy rooms and the Chilean chef makes outstanding dishes from locallysourced vegetables and meats. Curious striated caracaras loiter outside the doors, to scavenge scraps, while bright yellow gorse and other plants makes the sheltered settlement beach seem almost subtropical — at least when the wind isn’t up. Abundant wildfowl, including flightless steamer ducks, Patagonian crested ducks, Upland geese and kelp geese, frequent the area.
Carcass offers scenic hikes on its hilly terrain ( the highest point is
“The Falkland Islands offers an extraordinary geography for travelers who crave solitude, yearn to explore and seek to see abundant wildlife in unfettered landscapes.”
213- meter ( 698 feet) Mount Bing) to wildlife sites such as Northwest Point, a breeding site for elephant seals and loaded with penguins and cormorant colonies. From Carcass, it’s also possible to arrange day trips by boat to visit a largescale colony of black-browed albatrosses at nearby West Point Island numbering more than 140,000 pairs.
East of Carcass, the elongated Saunders Island is the second-largest offshore island so getting around there is more of an effort. Two or three days here would be ideal. At Saunders’ east end, there are several simple accommodations, either self-catering (there’s a store) or with prepared meals. Nearby are ruins of the Falklands’ first British settlement, dating from 1765.
While at Saunders, i t ’s worth hiking four hours or even paying for a lift to go to The Neck, an isthmus with a large colony of gentoo penguins, a smaller congregation of kings, and a converted container that sleeps up to eight people (tent camping is also possible nearby). The real reward, though, is making a full-day’s hike return along the steep north coast, where throngs of albatrosses land to court and nest and, when necessary, soar off the cliffs in search of food. These birds are undaunted by humans, you can simply take a seat and they may meander within easy range of your cell phone camera.
The hike is not hazardous in itself but be prepared for strong westerlies beneath Mount Richards t hat can knock you off balance. After a couple hours, you will also reach The Rookery, where rockhoppers bounce ashore and up t he slopes, some reaching a stony spring where they spontaneously shower to remove traces of the salty South Atlantic water. There are also accommodations here.
Adventure travel
Tourism is a far second to the fishing sector in the nation’s economy, but the rich natural wealth on the islands implies plenty of possibilities for growth, and not just for ecotourism. Adventure travel is still in its infancy in the Falklands, but with tons of potential as there is so much yet to be explored.
Not yet slickly marketed and packaged to global fly fisherman like other destinations, it could be. It’s definitely a worthy place for the discerning fly fisher. Local fly fishermen rave about the large-sized (10+ pounders are common) sea-run brown trout on isolated rivers in the country, such as at West Falkland, where you could organize an independent stay at cabins or book a room with Port Howard Lodge which offers guided fishing trips.
For trekking, there are the unforgettable day hikes to be done all over the islands, but interesting multi-day treks are also possible, such as along the coastal mountain ridge from Fox Bay to Port Howard, or at Wickham Heights, a chain of hills that passes below Mt. Usborne between San Carlos and Stanley on East Falkland.
Recently, surfers are beginning to discover the Falklands. It was featured late last year in the venerable Surfer magazine and is the subject of a new documentary released in March by the “Gauchos del Mar,” two brothers from Argentina who have done awardwinning surfing documentaries around the world. The Falklands offer an inspiring combination of good, surfable waves together with beauti
ful, wild scenery. Access is sometimes difficult, though, as special permission is needed to cross private lands.
Yet, it is sea kayaking around the islands that promises the greatest allure. The Falklands are an outright amazing place for practicing the sport. Although the volatile winds can be a significant obstacle, there are no shortage of sheltered areas that make the sport doable for beginners and advanced paddlers alike. Kayak trips are offered out of Stanley, and there is growing interest in longer, expedition-style trips to untap the wild coast elsewhere in the archipelago. “What really blows people away on our trips is the untouched nature of the Falklands. It makes it very, very special. You will go kayaking and be the only people on the water, and there is so much wildlife,” says Daniel Biggs, owner of Falklands Outdoors, the country’s first adventure travel specialist which started up only just last year, in October 2018.
Not whether to go, but how long
Going to the Falkland Islands is a must. The archipelago offers an extraordinary geography for travelers who crave solitude, yearn to explore and seek to see abundant wildlife i n unfettered landscapes. It’s not whether a week is too much time to stay in the Falklands, but whether two or three weeks — or more — are enough.