This morning we arrived at the British town of Stanley on the eastern side of the Falkland Islands. There were a number of shuttle buses arranged to take us from the port into the town or out to Gypsy Cove, but a few of us decided to walk to the cove ourselves given that Expedition Leader Julio said it was only about 2kms and should only take about 20 minutes. The sun was shining in a clear blue sky and we set off.

Well an hour and 10 minutes sweaty minutes later we finally arrived at the cove :) It was a long walk but there were some gorgeous sies on the way such as the ship wreck. When we arrived at Gypsy Cove we were surprised to find a lone King Penguin on an otherwise empty beach. He looked a little sad and sorry for himself but the Ornatholigist Frank Todd explained that that was because he was moulting. While the penguins are moulting they cannot swim and therefor are unable to eat so must stay on land until the process of replacing all of their feathers is complete.

A little further along the boardwalk we came to what we really had hoped to see here - the Magellenic Penguin colony. These cute little guys nest in burrows on the ground. we were able to carefully walk amoung the burrows down to the beach (which by this time looked very inviting for a swim!). On the beach we could watch these penguins turn from funny looking waddlers on the shore into fast, sleek torpedos in the water! A juvenile was going through is final molt before becoming an adult and looked quite strange with his brown coat on watching his elders swim in the cool water.)

I just missed the shuttle from the cove back to the town and rather than walk for 2 hours to get there I opted to hang out and keep the King Penguin company - albeit from the vantage point of the viewing platform as the beach itself was out of bounds (possibly due to unexploded ordinances left over from the war - oops conflict). While I was watching the strangest thing happened. I heard what looked like bleating and looked around and sure enough, there trotting along the beach was a sheep! Well the poor King was also a bit shocked and took off doing this funny waddling run as the sheep got closer an closer. The penguin couldnt run to is normal refuge of the sea so instead there was just this comical chase of sheep after penguin across the beach. I couldnt help but laugh! Turns out the sheep wasnt interested in the penguin at all and when he finally got close he just kept trotting right on by and up the hill while the bemused and no doubt exhausted King watched on.

Eventually the next shuttle arrived and I went into the town of Stanley proper. Its a cute little town that looks like what I imagine and English village would. The houses are very British, British flags fly, everyone speaks with an English accent and the prices are in pounds (although they do have their own falklands currency which is equivalent to British pounds but isnt accepted anywhere outside the islands).

I wandered around town for a while and caught up with a few of the other passengers before catching the final shuttle back to the ship to start our sail towards South Georgia.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Falklands and I wasnt even looking forward to them that much. If they are that good I cant wait to get to South Georgia!!!