Blog #5b The Falkland Islands A mini-series 2 of 5 (not 4!)
April 2024
I’ve changed my mind…..this is going to have to be a 5 part series, this one is already quite long and was supposed to have another couple of days in it!
In part 1, I left you at Surf Bay with some ICM images, well part 2 couldn’t start any differently, we’re talking the behemoths that are Southern Elephant Seals (or as I like to call them ‘Mirounga Leonina’). The ones I encountered were located at Whale Point, around 35 mins drive from Stanley to the entrance of the private land that this location is on…..it’s another 35 mins or so off roading from there, you won’t get away with your mini metro, it’s 4x4 from here on in! It’s an interesting concept if you’ve not properly driven off-road previously, whilst this section of land is probably not the most demanding to experienced off-road drivers, for the novices amongst us, I’m talking about my brother here, this is not something to be taken lightly, especially when you’re driving someone else’s car!
You have to pay a minimal fee to visit this location but it’s 100% worth it, believe me. After the drive, you end up at possibly the remotest car park I’ve ever seen…as you can see for yourselves below. I’m not sure it is ever full and I’m damned if I could find the ticket machine!
Certainly the remotest car park I’ve ever been to!
ISO320 100mm f5,6 1/1600
At the back side of the car park (where I’m standing to take that image), a sand mound hides the wildlife beyond, and what wildlife it is…. experiencing the smell before the sights, there is a colony of Southern Elephant Seals (SES) here. In fairness, I’m not certain they are here all year round but if you visit the Falklands, I’d guess it’d probably be in ‘summer’ season and I’m sure they would be here then (but you’d have to check). Whilst there appear to be a lot of juveniles, there are some adults, and recalling back to part 1, I mentioned that the Sea Lions at Cape Pembroke are large, SES are in a different league, with adult males (Bull) getting up to 20 feet (6 metres) in length and weighing up to 4 Tonne (8800lbs)!!
Something a little more intimate to start with photographically, a group of SES’s had taken shelter from the wind in a little hollowed out space within the sand bank system, 15 or so of them, all laying atop each other, I have no idea what the ones on the bottom much have thought of it all (with all that tonnage on top of them), but at least they were warm I guess.
In individual, isolated, amongst the mass that was the group of Southern Elephant Seals
ISO200 400mm f5.6 1/200
At one point, one of Seals took note of me and gestured as if to move toward me, I was a good distance away, as was the norm, but even without my running spikes on, I would have still fancied my chances against that mass.
The major activity on the sand was the male juveniles practicing their fighting skills in preparation of adult life and the encounters they’d undoubtedly have with other Bull’s when looking to build a harem of females to mate with (I feel like David Attenborough all of a sudden), the images below capture this action, with the first one being one of my favourite images from the trip. They rock back & forwards to gather some momentum and whilst there isn’t, whilst they’re this size, a huge clash of blubber, it’s still an impressive sight to watch. Some action involves biting and I witnessed blood being drawn too…..so they mean it.
One of my favourites from my trip…..Juvenile SES’s having a scrap!
ISO125 142mm f5.6 1/400
They do love a fight……
ISO125 176mm f5.6 1/400
I have another trip to Whale Point to document in another blog, so whilst I could continue with the action shots, I’ll leave this visit with an alternative behaviour from the day…. another juvenile, happy to leave the fighting to others (perhaps this is a female….I’m not so David Attenborough there am I!), he/she was happy just to have a snooze and a yawn!
Fight….no thanks, I’d rather have a kip!
ISO200 400mm f5.6 1/400
Driving back through some of the beautiful landscape coming away from WP, I couldn’t resist asking my brother to stop for a minute whilst I took an image of the ‘Landie’ on a flatter piece of ground, I’d noticed the sky was amazing (and huge) and the overall expanse of nothingness, I captured it in colour but it just screamed out at me for a Mono conversion. I think Zak’s dad is fond of this image…..the Landie, pride & joy.
The ‘Landie’……what a workhorse, and extremely popular around the Falklands!
ISO250 17mm f8 1/125
I only managed a couple of images the next day as I mostly spent it out with family, what I did capture however was an image of a couple of small mountains that, due to the 1982 conflict, hold special significance on the island. Mount William and Mount Tumbledown are names that may or may not bring back memories from the Falklands war, it was surreal to be there and photographing this place, in beautiful sunset conditions, that was fought for so bravely by soldiers from both sides over 13th & 14th June 1982. I would encourage you to read about the battles or watch videos on YouTube, I know as a 12 year old at the time of the conflict, to see a war taking place and being televised was mesmerising (although I wouldn’t class it as magic). As per a lot of the FI’s terrain (that I’ve witnessed), it looks bleak, but it has its own beauty, always in the eye of the beholder, the grasses that cover a lot of the land are a landscape photographer’s friend and when they catch the light, they are gorgeous. The images show Mount Tumbledown in the midground on the right, with William on the left (both of which my family and I summitted during our stay)….with distant hills behind that being Mounts Harriet & Challenger.
The winding road runs from Mount Pleasant (the main MOD base on East Island) to Stanley….there are cars driving along it in the images below, these can give you some scale.
One of only a few Tarmac roads on East Island……it links Mount Pleasant Military Base and Airport to Stanley, the last section to be tarmacked was finished whist we were there.
ISO100 70mm f8 1/30
Mounts William (left) & Tumbledown, both significant in the 1982 Falklands conflict
ISO100 56mm f8 1/60
The next day, a friend of mine, David, arrived from the UK (via Santiago) as per my journey…his issue, no cancelled flight but someone had taken his luggage from the conveyor belt at Santiago (in error, nothing sinister) and it had some important camera gear in it (lesson learnt), he wasn’t sure at that point if it would have been worth continuing to the FI’s. Fortunately, after a lot of phone calls and taxi rides, he managed to get it back and was relieved to be back on track again. That second week of my stay was going to be based around much more photography with David…..Libby & Zak were going to be working and Paul, my brother, had plans of his own…that may have involved some walking, chilling and visiting all of the public houses that Stanley had to offer!
I’ll pick up in part 3 the adventures from when David arrived…..there’s lots more to tell and many images to share from this amazing place.
Thanks for reading…..& cheers for now.
Lawrence
