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Globe hopping Falklands /
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Avoiding the
crowds Wild, rugged and remote the Falkland Islands are well versed in social distancing and offer bucket-list wildlife encounters aplenty, says Mark stratton
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off ledges by fearsome rogue waves. The day after, on the most divine broad beach at Volunteer Point, sands glistening metallic in low sunshine, I watched a condensed knot of king penguins huddling together to protect fluff-ball chicks between their legs. Sometimes the responsibilities of parenthood become all too much, and little gaggles of adults bolted for the surf for fun and fish, disappearing into the Atlantic like aquatic torpedoes.
Reopening for business? Whether penguins standing sentinel on windswept beaches or orcas patrolling
BENGooDE
s always, the Falklands is about life – survival on the edge. i recall sitting for many a chilled hour on the tussocky grass on Sealion Island, gazing offshore hoping to see the renowned killer-whale, Lucy, who has perfected a technique of sneaking behind a sealion colony, to snatch their pups from the rookery. She never showed but I was entertained throughout by the madcap antics of stunted rockhopper penguins with bright-yellow eyebrows, bouncing down cliff-faces risking life-and-limb, to reach the sea, sometimes washed
frigid sounds, the Falkland Islands’ ethereal landscapes and brilliant wildlife encounters lend a feeling you’ve reached the edge of the Earth. You can hike wild open spaces and deserted beaches, revel in the Britishness of the capital – Stanley, red phoneboxes and union-jacks – or contemplate memories from the battlegrounds of a tragic conflict with Argentina in 1982. But if you’re going to truly sell these subantarctic islands focus on the sublime wildlife experiences, because alongside South Georgia, the Falklands are the Galapagos of the South Atlantic.
king penguinS emBraCe the Choppy WaterS
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