Falkland Islands

Globe hopping Falklands / 19

Avoiding the crowds

Wild, rugged and remote the Falkland Islands are well versed in social distancing and off er bucket-list wildlife encounters aplenty, says Mark stratton

As 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 off shore 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 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 fl uff -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 fi sh, disappearing into the Atlantic like aquatic torpedoes.

Reopening for business?

Whether penguins standing sentinel on windswept beaches or orcas patrolling 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 confl ict 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.

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king penguinS emBraCe the Choppy WaterS

Globe hopping 20 / Falklands

Striated CaraCara providing that money Shot

The million-dollar question is when will the Falklands reopen? After a first case of Covid-19, the Falklands shut its borders to international arrivals in late March 2020.

Routes linking South America, including the new LATAM flight from Sao Paolo, have been suspended, leaving only the RAF Brize Norton airbridge in operation for essential travel only. After a peak of 72,000 cruise arrivals in 2019, the Falklands received no ships at all during 2020.

“Currently no decision has been made on reopening to international visitors. The vaccination roll-out for its 3,500 inhabitants has begun but there will be a lot of outside factors the Falklands Government needs to consider before welcoming back tourists,” explains Stephanie Middleton, Executive-Director of the tourist board.

“The flight from Brazil was very new when Covid-19 hit so promotion of this route will be a priority, its mid-week flight will make the Falklands more easily accessible and provides many more seats into the islands,” she says.

Likewise, the tourist board is continuing to promote walking trails and the islands’ position as the preferred gateway for cruise expeditions for Antarctica.

“The Falklands will appeal to international travellers post-pandemic because we offer wide-open spaces, with amazing wildlife, and a safe environment,” adds Middleton.

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roCkhopper penguinS keeping guard on Sealion iSland

Top experiences

Island hopping: Recommend travelling between November and February, when temperatures may nudge 20ºC, and the fearless wildlife is experiencing birth and renewal.

For visitors, this is seen at its most intimate and visceral by island-hopping around the Falkland archipelago utilising the Government-run F.I.G.A.S air-taxi, allowing clients to linger for a few nights on each tiny island where farmsteadstyle full-board accommodation is cosy old-fashioned although not luxurious. Bleaker Island: It may be bleak by name but it teems with the comedic joy penguins bring. Advise your guests to bring sturdy boots as visitors are left to their own devices to explore their very own private nature reserves. Sitting on the yellowy sands of Sandy Bay crowded by penguins, clients can expect to watch on as the imperial-cormorant colony valiantly defended their offspring in life-and-death struggles against predatory skuas. Sealion splendour: Also unmissable, and with a larger lodge if you’re sending a group, is the fabulous Sealion Island. It’s the island to get up-close-and-personal to humungous elephants-seals.

It’s possible, if a bit unnerving, to get near to these colossal giants hauled out of water, with males weighing up to 3.5 tonnes, exhausted after breeding, tetchy, and bristling with aggravated testosterone, yet placidly content for a close-up. Twitchers’ paradise: You’ll tempt bird-lovers to West Point Island, with its pasture green mountains, and renowned for one of the greatest avian spectacles imaginable. From September to April, a colony of over 10,000 pairs of black-browed albatrosses, the great navigators of the skies, raise chicks on the tumbling cliffs.

Remarkably, they are untroubled by birdwatchers sitting among their nests,

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BlaCk Sandy BeaCheS line dyke Bay

where you can watch in awe the spectacle of the adults feeding hungry chicks trilling with excitement each time food appears. War-torn past: After a hearty full English breakfast at perhaps one of the two best hotels in Stanley – The Malvina House and The Waterfront Boutique – take an excursion to Volunteer Point with a local guide. on route are poignant reminders of 1982’s Falklands War, such as a downed Argentinean helicopter, a twisted metal casualty of war. If your client is interested in this history, there’s a great little museum in Stanley with paraphernalia from those dark days that shouldn’t be missed.

Where to book it

Rainbow TouRs – 0208 131 5060

one of the highlights of this 15-day Falklands in depth tour is an island-hopping experience to the likes of Sealion and West Point islands to enjoy some of the premium wildlife spectacles on offer. Costing £4,695pp it includes all transfers, including from Chile, and domestic arrangements. But not international flights. rainbowtours.co.uk •

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lounging elephant Seal on CarCaSS iSland

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