Arrival at Port Stanley, The Falklands, Thursday, 3rd November

Our FIGAS flight to Stanley was due at midday. It was coming from Pebble Island and it landed and dropped off Roland and Irene who we had last seen on Sea Lion Island. The plane picked up Phillip and Shona to fly then the ten minute trip to Sea Lion Island before returning to Bleaker to pick Roland and Irene, Fran and myself up and fly the thirty minute flight to Stanley. We took off from Bleaker and looking back we had an aerial view of the Southern Giant Petrels nesting on the beach on the point at the end of the airstrip.

 Another picture of kelp beds, the brown and turquoise colours remind me of the Pink Floyd album cover for Meddle.

 The flight into Stanley flies over the water front and gives a great view of the town. The n=main road runs parallel with the shore. The irregular shaped building with the brown rough towards the right is the Malvina House Hotel.Diagonally opposite it with a white roof is the Museum, the blue roofed building is the Post Office. The light brown coloured roof to the left is the Standard Chartered Bank, the only bank on the whole of the Falklands. The to red buildings opposite the bank is the local church to the right and the police station and prison to the left.The town bypass is the road at the top of the picture.

 The cathedral is on the front to the right of the picture ad the docks on the far left  and the building behind it belong to The Falklands Island Company, established by charter in 1852 which runs or has a finger in the pie of most things on the islands.

 The town cemetery and at the top left of the cemetery is the 1982 Memorial Wood.

 A cruise ship in the harbour (passengers are taken by Zodiac from the ship to shore).

 The Lady Elisabeth, an iron barque built in 1879 in Sunderland. She rounded Cape Horn in 1912 suffering damage and changed course for Stanley but struck rocks en route and was declared unseaworthy. She was used to store coal until in a storm in 1936 she broke her lines and drifted to her current position.

 The plane coming into land. The Lady Elisabeth is just viewable in line with the blue paint on the engine cowling and beyond the water, the town.

 A view of Lady Elisabeth from the airport road.

 There are plenty other wrecks at Stanley.

 The Totem Pole, actually just a post with signs giving the mileage to a number of destinations. Bonham was the nearest to home. I added Murmansk as I will be there next summer.

It as early afternoon so the first stop was to be the museum as it shuts at 4pm. It is compact but it tells the story about the Falklands, live on the island, its maritime history, its connections with the Antarctic and the 1982 conflict.

A view of Government House.

Several of the monuments to the fallen.

Then it was a walk around town getting a few photos, such as The Jhelum, another wreck in the harbour.

The Post Office.

The Police Station, centre and the prison on the left.

 The cathedral and the whale bone arch.

 Very British, a double decker bus.

 The cemetery.

 A old house

 A general street scene of vehicles parked in the road. I include it as most of the vehicles everywhere in the Falklands seem to be Japanese 4x4 or Land Rovers, there are very few actual cars which stand out as there are so few of them. The roads don't help as only Stanley has sealed roads and only some sections of the main road out to Mount Pleasant Complex are surfaced, all the others are gravel or true off road.