Getting to the Falklands 21st - 22nd October  

PS Internet is expensive and slow so I wrote the text but can't load the photos. Therefore my apologises but it will be text only until I find a better signal perhaps somewhere else on the island as I travel about.

It took two days to get to the Falklands from Heathrow. Eleven hours to Sao Paulo, then five hours to Santiago where I had a lay over for sixteen hours but luckily in a hotel then an early morning flight for seven hours to Mount Pleasant on the Falklands via Punta Arenas for an hour and a half to process us out of the country.

We flew done the spine of the Andes. At last I had a window seat and through the window I took a few photos.

A river and a lake glinting in the early morning sun.

A volcano with its caldera filled with snow and ice.

The edge of the Southern Icefield next to an inlet.

A couple of the many glaciers.

It wasn’t a non stop flight as we landed at Punta Arenas near the very tip of South America. Here we landed and all got off the plane carrying our luggage with us. We had to go through immigration, handing over our passports and travel documents.

At Punta Arenas I took a photo of a Dakota DC10 taking off on wheels but it also had skies as it was taking supplies to some expedition in the Antarctic.

There was cloud over the sea but after an hour of flying over the ocean the clouds thinned and we saw our first glimpse of the Falklands.

I met up with Fran and we were taken to Darwin House which was to be our first hotel. This is situated at Darwin, just a headland away from Goose Green, the second largest settlement on the island after Stanley. I had taken the cheaper but longer method to get to Stanley flying LATAM. Fran had taken the shorter but more expensive route flying from RAF Brize Norton with a two hour refuelling stop on Ascension Island (this is the air bridge link to The Falklands for the military but it also takes civilians subject to operational requirements).

The hotel is the building with the green roof.

Pier outside the hotel.

A ruddy headed goose.

Goose Green from a distance.

The place opposite where HMS Beagle is alleged to have moored and the gully in which Darwin is supposed to have camped.

Monument to 2 Para overlooking Goose Green in the background.

 Some of the thousands of sheep with the hotel in the background

 A close up of a sheep...A pity about the fence post in the middle of its back.