Saunders Island, The Falklands, Monday 24th October 

Turned out to be another lovely day. Our flight was mid day so we walked past the stone corral and into Goose Green to the shearing sheds. We walked in and watched the five shearers at work skilfully manipulating the sheep to keep them immobile whilst they used the clippers.

After shearing one of five girls would gather the offcuts and fleece, trim the fleece of the dirtiest bits and leave to women in charge and chief grader to sort the fleece by quality. Meanwhile the shawn sheep was encouraged down a shute to a holding pen below to be counted as the shearers were paid per fleece.

Bag packing and final product for the next process.

Firecrew and trailer, namely Tenorsaw and Alan our hotel manager, battlefield tour guide and fire crew awaiting the arrival of our airplane, an Islander called bravo Mango.

Darwin House and the defensive line along Darwin Ridge with the Gulley and the place where Lt Col H Jones was killed.

The rest of the defensive line  ending at Boca House on the shoreline bottom right.

Picture of Fran in the co-pilots seat and a elfie inside aircraft. It seats nine passengers and can be cramped.

Disinfecting footwear on arrival on Saunders Island, to ensure nothing is transferred from other islands.

View from tSaunders Island from the col back to East Falkland.

Our cabin at The Rookery although we were off to see some wildlife as soon as we arrived as the weather was good and the weather here is unpredictable so don't wait for tomorrow.

An albatross sitting on its unique tower of mud and grass made nest and me to give an indication of how close you can get if you are patient and move slowly..

A rare Striated Caracara, the local bird of prey.

Just lots of Rockhopper Penguins!A view of the Rockhopper colony above the cliffs.

It wasn't all Rockhoppers as there were a few shags or cormorants nesting within the colony.

There was a penguin highway that linked the colony and the cliffs with a constant stream of penguins going down to the sea to fish or making their way back to the colony.

A penguin

Close up of head

The real action was down at the base of the cliff.

There was one spot where the Rockhoppers stopped to rinse the salt out of their feathers and to drink called The Shower and they would fight for the best positions and sometimes just queued up.

A pair of Dolphin Gulls watching a Rockhopper go past and a better picture of the pair.

A lucky shot of an albatross in flight about to swoop just over my head.

A view of the base of the cliff with albatross and Rockhoppers all mixed in together.

One penguin stretching its legs and showing off its single egg.

A view of the colony at sunset.