Falkland Islands
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The price is per person, and is fully inclusive of return RAF flights Brize Norton-Mount Pleasant, internal flights, full board accommodation, ground transport, incidental tips, and the services of the leader.
The price excludes travel insurance, optional tips to local drivers and guides, drinks and other personal expenses. *subject to availability These trips will be operated in conjunction with Limosa Holidays Leaders: Tim Earl and local guides |
Journey with us to the most accessible of the sub-Antarctic Islands, a land of albatrosses, penguins, Sea Lions and Elephant Seals... plus a warm and very British welcome. |
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The rich seas of the South Atlantic are teeming with life - which means an abundance of food for the seabirds and sea-mammals. These are present in greater abundance and diversity than the North Atlantic but the problem for wildlife enthusiasts has always been the inaccessibility of the area and the islands which are home to many of the species.
With direct flights from the UK with the RAF, however, and a well-established infrastructure to accommodate special-interest high-quality tourism, the Falkland Islands are simply the most accessible place to see breeding colonies of true sub-Antarctic species such as Black-browed Albatross, Rockhopper, Magellanic, Gentoo and King Penguins, Snowy Sheathbills and Southern Giant Petrel. And, as with all the wildlife here, most are extremely approachable, giving unparalleled opportunities for photography. With a maximum group size of only seven or eight, places will go fast on this tour - so do book early! Tim Earl is one of the pioneers of Falklands tourism, and has led over twenty groups there, his first in 1987. Provisional Itinerary Please note that this itinerary may change according to flight schedules. Day 1 We take a late evening departure from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire. The approximate duration of the flight is eight and a half hours to the refuelling stop at Ascension Island where there is a chance of seeing the endangered Ascension Island Frigatebird. The onward flight to Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands, is seven and a half hours. Days 2 - 3 We arrive early afternoon at Mount Pleasant Airport - with luck a Typhoon jet escort will accompany us for the last hour. Our hotel in Darwin is a 40-minute drive away, where we'll be welcomed by our host Sheena Ross. Those not wishing to rest will have a chance to go out and get a first flavour of Southern Atlantic wildlife. We should see our first Upland Geese, Correndera Pipits and endemic Falklands Flightless Steamer Duck along the shore, with Southern Giant Petrel and Brown Skua out to sea. Hospitality in the Falklands is excellent and our first taste of it here will be a special treat. Darwin was once the largest settlement after Stanley, with almost two hundred working folk on the farm payroll. The settlement, named after Charles Darwin, who spent some time here during his travels, was established in 1859 as a centre first for cattle ranching, and later for sheep farming. Today, the number of residents is much fewer but it remains a large working settlement. Next day we will be walking the shoreline, looking for Magellanic and Blackish Oystercatchers, Black-crowned Night-herons, Rufous-chested Dotterels, Kelp and Ruddy-headed Geese and our first Magellanic Penguins. On the land we will start to familiarise ourselves with the Red-backed Hawks, Falkland Thrushes, Black-chinned Siskins, Long-tailed Meadowlarks and Dark-faced Ground-tyrants. In the company of local historians Ken & Bonnie Greenland we will visit San Carlos and Goose Green, and may persuade Ken to talk us through the 1982 Battle of Darwin. Note: some rooms here are not en-suite, but we have the hotel to ourselves. Two nights Darwin Days 4 - 6 We take a FIGAS (Falkland Islands Government Air Service) flight in a 9-seater Islander aircraft to the superb and wildlife-rich Carcass Island. With over a hundred years of habitation, Carcass named after HMS Carcass, and has had three environmentally-conscious owners who have avoided the introduction of predators, particularly rats and cats. This has allowed birds to thrive. Magellanic Penguin nest around the settlement and a Gentoo Penguin colony is only a short walk away. There is also a large number of Striated Caracara ('Johnny Rook'), many of them waiting right outside the windows of the accommodation for any stray biscuits, or other tidbits from the renowned Carcass home cooking: owners Rob & Lorraine McGill's farmhouse hospitality is legendary! King Cormorants and Black-crowned Night-heron are also to be found on the island in addition to the endemic Cobb's Wren and other small bird species. There is an Elephoant Seal colony, and pods of Commerson's and Peale's Dolphins are frequently sighted. While on Carcass we will enjoy (weather permitting) a day-trip by boat to West Point Island, which lies to the extreme north-west of the Falkland islands, and was formerly known as Albatross Island. A colony of over 2,000 pairs of Black-browed Albatross nest on the 'Devil's Nose' - a spectacular rocky outcrop. There is also a colony of Rockhopper Penguins. Dolphins are frequently seen from the boat and Orcas are possible. Three nights Carcass Island Days 7 - 9 We fly to the capital of West Falkland for a superb taste of old Falkland life. The lodge was built as the farm manager's house in 1952 and is a time capsule to that era. Sue Lowe's cooking is superb and will sustain us over day-trips to the White Rocks for penguins and large mammals and ponds which hold wildfowl such as Black-necked Swans, both Silvery and White-tufted Grebes, Silver Teal, Yellow-billed Pintail and Chiloe Wigeon. The inland ponds have occasional Flying Steamer Duck. There should also be time to see aspects of Falklands farm life, with sheep-shearing a possibility. Port Howard was once a regular stop on Tim's Falkland Islands tours and he is looking forward to returning to this beautiful spot. Three nights Port Howard Days 10 - 11 We fly to Sea Lion Island, the most southerly inhabited island of the archipelago, just five miles long by one and a half miles wide, with a resident population of five. Sea Lion has the only purpose-built lodge on the Falkland Islands with all rooms en-suite. We will be greeted with 'smoko' - tea and cakes in the lounge - no doubt. Beautiful plantations of spectacular tussac grass cover one fifth of the island and provide a perfect habitat and protection of much of the island's varied fauna and wildlife. Besides the tussac, there are dazzling white sand beaches, dramatic cliffs, fresh water ponds and heath land, all with their own populations and within distance of the lodge. Just five minutes walk away is a colony of breeding Southern Elephant Seals. They sometimes come even closer - the lodge has a picture of one at the entrance trying to get in! Although the huge 'beachmaster' males will have finished their monumental battles at this time, there will still be up to 100 impressive juveniles on the beach. However the breeding season of the island's eponymous Southern Sea Lions will be in full swing, with three-metre 'beachmaster' males guarding harems of females, which are pupping before coming into season. During our stay here we will be visiting Gentoo and Rockhopper Penguin colonies, with their ever-present Blackish Cinclodes (known as 'Tussac-birds' locally), Snowy Sheathbills and Brown Skuas. Land birds include the endemic Cobb's Wren and we will do a walk after dinner to look for Short-eared Owls, listen to drumming South American Snipe (a distinctly different sound to the display of European Snipe) and do some star-gazing. Offshore cetaceans may include Orca, seen from the lounge and beaches on many previous visits. On the land, one of the local specialities is Striated Caracara, a raptor which is now virtually restricted to the Falkland Islands having been almost wiped out of South America. 'Johnny Rooks' as they are called locally, can be embarrassingly tame despite their global rarity. Mind your sandwiches and gloves here - both have been stolen by curious Striated Caracaras on previous tours. Southern Crested Caracara can also be found here with Rufous-chested Dotterel abundant on the 'diddledee' moorland. Sea Lion Island is a remarkable wildlife reserve where nature is in charge! Two nights Sea Lion Island Lodge Days 12 - 13 We fly back to Stanley and check into our hotel Stanley situated in the north east of East Falkland. With a population of approximately two thousand (85% of the overall population !), this is the most remote and smallest capital in the world. Despite its relatively small size, Stanley offers all the amenities and interests expected of a capital. Weather permitting, we take an afternoon boat trip to Kidney Island on which we 'chum' for seabirds. We hope to attract some of the South Atlantic seabirds, especially shearwaters and petrels including, with luck, Wilson's Storm Petrel, which are hard to see from the shore. In the past we've had impressive gatherings of over a hundred Black-browed Albatross close in to the boat, and have recorded Royal or Wandering Albatross on six of our eight pelagic boat trips. We enjoyed a brief visit from two Northern Giant Petrels, our first in the Falklands, in 2008. The following day a three-hour Land Rover drive takes us to one of the biggest penguin colonies of the Falklands, at Volunteer Point. Here can be found more than 3,000 Gentoo Penguins, with a colony of several hundred King Penguins nearby. These immensely impressive birds are one of the specialities of a Falklands tour and we will get close to them here. At this time of year the King Penguin chicks are just hatching, and we should get views of the tiny black young peeping out from between their parent's legs. South American Fur Seals are an occasional sight here. Two nights Stanley Day 14 Early departure from Stanley to Mount Pleasant Airport to catch the mid-morning flight to UK, with a refuelling stop at Ascension Island, and arriving back at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire early on Day 15. Accommodation: We stay in comfortable lodges and hotels. En-suite facilities are available throughout, with the exception of one or two rooms at Darwin. We can offer a very limited number of single rooms, but these may not be available throughout. Numbers: Max. 8 clients UK Tel: 01305 267994, UK Fax: 01305 265506, International Tel: +44-1305-267994, International Fax: +44-1305-265506 email: info@naturalist.co.uk | |