I
left
From
the airport it is about an hour's bus ride into
The following
day I walked along the coast, finding below the potato fields of Stanley
Growers what proved to be another new addition to the island flora. Watercress had escaped from cultivation and
was now lining the banks of a small stream.
As there were passing showers I stopped at the Lighthouse café for a cup
of tea, before continuing on to Gypsy Cove, famed for its penguins and a top
spot on the tourist agenda. From here I
walked on past the minefield protecting
On
Friday I headed off in the other direction, climbing Sapper Hill, followed by
Tumbledown, where I found a couple of uncommon ferns in a rock crevice. I cut back to Moody Brook and then followed
Wireless Ridge to Penarrow Point, crossed back to
My plans for
Saturday morning changed when I received an email requesting me to obtain
specimens of the two new plants for the National Herbarium. On the way I spotted Mountain speedwell
growing below the cemetery, before continuing on to the two sites. Altogether in the few days that I was in the
Falklands I found around 150 of the 380 known species for the
We arrived off Bird
Island at breakfast time on February 8, and it was a quick rib ride to my
home for the next few weeks, where I was welcomed by Sarah and Vicky and all
the fur seals. The
station has been rebuilt since my last visit, and is quite a change from the old
huts. Unusually for
On
Sunday, February 12, I decided it was time to install the new AWS, so in the
morning I commenced dismantling the old system and preparing the new one. Once the old AWS had taken the 15:00 readings,
Sarah downloaded the final data and switched it off. Vicky and I then cut the remaining bolts and
removed the cabinet from the tower and made a start on getting the frame for
the new one in place. This was easier
said than done, but once I found a few additional spacers, I made it secure,
and then with help from Vicky and Donald went to collect the new AWS to put in
place. We were distracted by two seal
pups from the study beach that needed tagging, but once done it was relatively
straightforward to put the new cabinet in place. After that it was just a question of fitting
sensors and cables in place, but this is when the
We have to take it in turns to be cook for the day. Its not such a big task as on the other stations as there are only 8 of us, and the cook only has to make bread and do dinner in the evening, as well as some cleaning during the day. The standard of catering is excellent, rivalling that in many restaurants. Although lunch isn’t expected I made some soup on my first turn, with Donald making bread rolls and also made parkin for afternoon smoko (tea). For dinner I made a mince stew, with potatoes, carrots, onions and leeks. Eight days later it was my turn again, this timing applying a variation on the theme with cottage pie, with flapjack and fudge for “goodies”. These didn’t last very long!
By way of a
side line I looked for the local flora of the island, and produced an illustrated
guide. This includes two new species
for the island, both common on
All too quickly my
time on the island drew to a close, and the Sigma reappeared, bearing the
Governor of the
I continued
my botanical sideline at KEP, with Ali, the Base Commander, showing me the
alien invader – Wavy bittercress (Cardamine flexuosa), which is spreading quite
rapidly round the station. In all I
found 42 different plants in the area, around half
of which have been introduced from the
Life on Shackleton soon settled down, but we encountered a force 8 storm, which kept most people in their bunks. I started off doing the met observations, but as we have five observers on board I decided that a rota would be a good idea. Not that the observations take very long - around half an hour 3 times a day. There isn't that much to do on board, apart from "gash" once every ten days or so, and "scrubout" for Captain's inspection once a week. This has left me time to get on with several pending tasks (such as updating this page) and dealing with a large backlog of emails. We visited Signy Island to close down the station for the winter, then headed for Cape Geddes to inspect a landing site. Visibility was too poor to see anything, so we slowly steamed for the Falkland Islands.
We arrived at Mare Harbour on March 18th. We had a day here, which I spent wandering around a peninsula to the south of East Cove looking for plants. I found one that I'd been asked to keep an eye out for (Rumex magellanicus or Southern dock) and also found what might be a new native species for the island (Limosella aquatica, a mudwort). The next day we were taken by bus to Stanley for a couple of days at the Goose Hotel. On the final day I crossed the Murrell River by wading across and found a small bomb near Drunken Rock.
As I wasn't due to fly north with BAS until March 25th, I arranged with the local travel agents to fly to Ascension Island on March 21st and spent four days on this tropical island. It was baking hot, with temperatures in the high twenties. I hired a car and drove out to Green Mountain, the highest spot on the island, which is mostly in cloud and has a quite different climate. One evening I joined the turtle tour and saw a turtle laying eggs, and also lots of hatchlings. One objective that I set myself was to see the six endemic plants in the wild. Five occur on Green Mountain and I found four quite easily, with another on display as part of a conservation scheme. This was quite hard to find in the wild, but with some help from the Conservation office I managed it. The final one grows on the coastal plain, so I combined a trip to Mars Bay, where Gill had measured the solar parallax during a close opposition of Mars in 1877, with a hunt for it. After a couple of kilometres walk to the beach and back in searing heat I hadn't found it, and was on the point of giving up when I spotted it barely a hundred metres from the car. I took photos of many of the plants I saw and compiled them into a compendium. All too soon it was time to leave and join the BAS group for the return to the UK.
Jonathan Shanklin |
Updated 2006 May 16 |