The Falkland islands have become a
regular port of call for the growing market of
cruise ships
with more than 36,000 visitors in 2004 (Which is how we came to
visit the Falkland Islands).
Attractions include the scenery and wildlife conservation with penguins, seabirds, seals and sea lions, as well as visits to battlefields, golf, fishing and wreck diving. In short, it's worth the time and effort to visit but...I sure don't want to live there.
The Falkland Islands
Government Health and Social Services Department provides
medical and dental care
for the islands.
The King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) is Stanley's only hospital. It was partially military operated in the past but is now under complete civilian control. EVERYTHING has four wheel drive.
Specialist medical care is provided by visiting ophthalmologists, gynecologists, ENT surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, psychiatrist, and oral surgeons from the United Kingdom provide specialist care. Patients needing emergency treatment are air-lifted to the United Kingdom or to Santiago (Chile).
We spoke to several people (especially our tour guide) who had to be transported back to the UK for major surgery and the UK government picked-up the tab for transport and the procedure...Still, I wouldn't want to get sick anywhere in the Falkland Islands or anywhere else around Antarctica for that matter.
Port Stanley
Stanley
is the main shopping center on the islands and the hub of East
Falkland's road network. Attractions include the
Falkland Islands Museum,
Government House,
built in 1845 and home to the
Governor of the Falkland Islands,
a
golf course, and
is known for its
whalebone arch, a
totem pole,
several
war memorials and
the
shipwrecks in its
harbor.
The
Falkland Islands Company
owns several shops and a hotel. Stanley has four pubs, eleven hotels &
guesthouses,
three restaurants, a
fish and chips
shop and the main tourist
office. There are three churches including the
Anglican
Christ Church Cathedral
the southernmost cathedral in the world. The cathedral makes tiny
Stanley a city. A grim reminder of the minefields to the south is the
bomb disposal unit.
The town hall serves as a post office, philatelic bureau, law court and dance hall. The police station also contains the islands' only prison, with a capacity of thirteen in the cells.
The community centre includes a
swimming pool (the only public one in the islands), a sports centre,
library, and school. A grass football pitch is located by the community
centre and hosts regular games.
Stanley Racecourse, located on the west side of Stanley, holds a two-day horse racing meeting every year on the 26th and 27 December. The Christmas races have been held here for over one hundred years.
Stanley
Golf Course has an 18 hole course and a club house. It is also located
to the west of Stanley.
King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is the Islands' main hospital, with doctors' practice and surgery, radiology department, dental surgery and emergency facilities.
Several bus and taxi companies operate out of Stanley.
Stanley is also home to the Falkland Islands Radio Station (FIRS), the Stanley office of the British Antarctic Survey, and the office of the weekly Penguin News newspaper.
A nursery and garden centre is also here, in whose greenhouses some of the islands' vegetables are grown.
The Falkland Islands
The
Falkland Islands comprise two main islands,
West Falkland
and
East Falkland
(in Spanish Isla Gran Malvina and Isla Soledad respectively),
and about 776 small islands.
To give you some perspective of where the Falkland Islands are they are located 185 nautical miles (343 km; 213 mi) from the Isla de los Estados in Argentina (and 250 nautical miles (463 km; 288 mi) from the Argentine mainland); 264 nautical miles (489 km; 304 mi) from Chile; 582 nautical miles (1,078 km; 670 mi) west of the Shag Rocks (South Georgia) and 501 nautical miles (928 km; 577 mi) north of the British Antarctic Territory (which overlaps with the Argentine and Chilean claims to Antarctica in that region).
The total land area is
4,700 square miles (12,173 km2), slightly smaller
than
Connecticut
or
Northern Ireland,
with a
coastline
estimated at 800 miles (1288 km).
The two main islands on either side of Falkland Sound make up most of the land. These are East Falkland, which contains the capital, Stanley, and most of the population; and West Falkland. Both islands have mountain ranges, the highest point being Mount Usborne, 705 metres (2,313 ft) on East Falkland. There are also some boggy plains, most notably in Lafonia, on the southern half of East Falkland.
Strange Rock Striations
Virtually the entire area of the islands is used as pasture for sheep.
Smaller islands surround the main two. They include Barren Island, Beaver Island, Bleaker Island, Carcass Island, George Island, Keppel Island, Lively Island, New Island, Pebble Island, Saunders Island, Sealion Island, Speedwell Island, Staats Island, Weddell Island, and West Point Island. The Jason Islands lie to the north west of the main archipelago, and Beauchene Island some distance to its south. Speedwell Island and George Island are split from East Falkland by Eagle Passage.
Numerous flora and fauna
are found on the Falkland Islands. Notable fauna include
colonies of the
Magellan Penguin.
The islands claim a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) and an exclusive fishing zone of 200 nautical miles (370.4 km; 230.2 mi), which has been a source of disagreement with Argentina. Biogeographically, the Falkland Islands are classified as part of the Neotropical realm, together with South America. It is also classified as part of the Antarctic Floristic Kingdom.
Climate
The January (summertime, that's when we were there) average maximum temperature is about 13°C (55°F), and the July (winter) maximum average temperature is about 4°C (39°F).
The average annual
rainfall is 573.6 millimetres (22.58 in) but East Falkland is
generally wetter than West Falkland.
Humidity
and winds, however, are constantly high. Snow is rare but can
occur at almost any time of year.
Gales are very frequent, particularly in winter (The wind blows ALL the time).
Lois's hair is blowing straight-out from the steady wind (and it was a clear day).
The climate is similar to that of the Shetland islands in the United Kingdom, but with less rainfall and longer and slightly more severe winters.
Money
The Falkland Islands Government
issues the
Falkland pound,
the local currency that is fixed at parity with the
pound sterling.
Falkland notes and coins are produced in the United Kingdom
and are equivalent to the United Kingdom
sterling
coinage but with local designs on the reverse. Both the
Falkland Pound
and the
pound sterling
circulate interchangeably on the islands.
They also readily take American dollars.
The Falkland Islands also issue their own stamps, which are a source of revenue from overseas collectors. Several folks we were traveling with collected stamps and said these were a "rare" find. I'm not a stamp collector so I can't vouch for the validity of that observation.
Falklands War
The Falklands War
also called the Falklands
Conflict/Crisis, was
fought in 1982 between
Argentina and the
United Kingdom
(UK) over the disputed
Falkland Islands
and
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
The Falkland Islands consist of two large and many small islands in the
South Atlantic Ocean
east of Argentina; their name and
sovereignty over them
have long been disputed.
The Falklands War started on
Friday, 2 April 1982 with the Argentine invasion and
occupation of the Falkland Islands
and South Georgia, and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June
1982. The war lasted 74 days, and resulted in the deaths of 257 British
and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and three civilian
Falklanders. It is the most recent conflict to be fought by the UK
without any allied states and the
only external Argentine war
since the 1880s.
The conflict was the result of a
protracted
diplomatic confrontation
regarding the sovereignty of the islands. Neither state officially
declared war and
the fighting was largely limited to the territories under dispute and
the South Atlantic. The initial invasion was characterized by Argentina
as the re-occupation of its own territory, and by the UK as an invasion
of a
British dependent territory.
Britain launched a naval
task force to
engage the
Argentine Navy
and
Argentine Air Force,
and retake the islands by
amphibious assault.
The British eventually prevailed and at the end of combat operations on
14 June the islands remained under British control. However, as of 2010
and as it has since the 19th century, Argentina shows no sign of
relinquishing its claim. The claim remained in the
Argentine constitution
after its reformation in 1994.
The political effects of the war
were strong in both countries. A wave of patriotic sentiment swept
through
both: the Argentine loss prompted even larger protests against
the
ruling military government,
which hastened its downfall; in the United Kingdom, the government of
Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
was bolstered. It helped Thatcher's government to victory in the
1983 general election,
which prior to the war was seen as by no means certain. The war has
played an important role in the culture of both countries, and has been
the subject of several books, films, and songs. Over time, the cultural
and political weight of the conflict has had less effect on the British
public than on that of Argentina, where the war is still a topic of
discussion.
Relations between Argentina and UK were restored in 1989 under the umbrella formula which states that the islands sovereignty dispute would remain aside.
Landmines and ordnance
Depending on the source,
between 18,000 and 25,000
land mines
remain from the 1982 war. One source says that Argentina placed
18,000 landmines. The British Government stated that all but one
of their anti-personnel mine were accounted for. The land mines
are located in either 101 or 117 mine fields, that are dispersed
over an area of 7.7 sq mi (20 km2) in the areas of
Port Stanley, Port Howard, Fox Bay and Goose Green (these areas
are now well marked). Information is available from the EOD (Explosive
Ordnance Disposal)
Operation Centre in Stanley.
Some beaches were mined,
and there have been concerns the tides could have moved some
mines. Mines near rivers may also have been washed out of the
marked area by flooding. As well, there is
ordnance
from the war. Between 1997 and 2002, 248 antipersonnel mines
were destroyed in the Falklands, 16 were destroyed in 2003, one
in 2005 and six antipersonnel mines were destroyed in 2006.
In February 2005, the
charity Landmine Action proposed a
Kyoto-style
credit scheme, which would see a commitment by the British
government to clear an equivalent area of mined land to that
currently existing in the Falklands in more seriously
mine-affected countries by March 2009. This proposal was
supported by Falkland Islanders, for whom landmines do not pose
a serious threat in everyday life.
The British government has yet to declare its support or
opposition to the idea.
In November 2008, Landmine
Action opposed Britain's request for a ten year extension on the
deadline for clearing the landmines. It accused the British
Government of not demonstrating "any evidence of serious plans
to complete, or even begin, this work" and stated "Allowing a
well-resourced, technically capable State such as the United
Kingdom to effectively ignore its responsibilities would set a
dangerous and ethically unacceptable precedent." However, in
2008, the UK Government argued that in stark contrast to
minefields
elsewhere, "There have never been any civilian
injuries in almost 26 years" in the Falklands.
On 30 November 2009 the Falkland Islands Government announced that mine clearance was due to begin at Surf Bay on 2 December 2009, and further clearances were to take place at Sapper Hill, Goose Green (monument above) and Fox Bay.
The British company BATEC International was chosen to carry out the project, "The work began on 4 December 2009 and is expected to be completed in the middle of 2010." (Hansard 5 January 2010).
The workers are using Argentinean and UK records to help determine the location of mines. Photo to the right was three horses that came to watch us as we waked through the battlefield and gazed at the monuments.
Just like our Civil war battlefield at Gettysburg...But instead of finding a musket ball, I found a rare spent .223 round...And I brought it home.
