A Penguin of a day with a whim of wool!

A Penguin of a day with a whim of wool!
We did not stop at Kidney Island as
we had hoped, as there was a lot of wind and swell and we were looking for a
slightly more sheltered alternative. We found this alternative in the settlement
Johnsons harbour. Stanley is the only place close to a city on the Falkland
Islands. Settlements are a small gathering of houses that from historical point
of view or economical (like farming) are closer together. Johnsons harbour is
now mainly a sheep farming settlement and we were in for a treat as it is
shearing time.

On Tuesday they started the sheepshearing and two man
constantly shearing they were hoping to be done on Saturday. 4 or 5 days of
amazing hard work! They still gather the sheep with dogs, but are on quad-bikes
themselves. It takes them a day to round them all up from an area of about
15.000 acres. Then they gather them at the sheds where two men sheer, one helps
with getting the sheep in and two are working on the wool itself, checking it
for flaws and getting it into the bags. When we landed with the dinghy we took
the opportunity to have a look at work. It is a well oiled machine that amazes
even the sheep when they get pulled on their backs for a shave. There is loud
music on in the shed that covers most of the noise of the shearing machines and
sheeps noise, that gives a real work fibe.
There is no bub in Johnsons
harbour and I do not think they need a pub in these days.. at the end of the
working day, I think all they want to do is sleep!

As it was almost
blowing the sheep of the hills we decided to stay at anchor for another day and
explore the county side some more. We ordered 2 landrovers to take part of the
group to Volunteer Point and part of the group wanted to walk their way to
Volunteer Point. Sam and I were in that first group and set of early in the
morning with Emily, Richard and Virginia. Just follow the car tracks, they said,
almost all tracks lead to Volunteer Point they said, could be a 3 hours walk
though, they said.. Well we found out not all tracks lead to Volunteer point and
the tracks are far from obvious, its not like they made a road or something..

We headed out and had an amazing walk. The wind was in our back and we
crossed country like it was nothing, like we had not just spend 40 days on a
ship wasting our leg muscles. Around 10:00 in the morning the cars would have
left with the rest of the group, so around 10:15 we started looking out for
them. They had an hours drive ahead of them. At 11:00 two cars came our way, but
it was not our group, in the car were passengers of the Oosterschelde. The man
said, hop on in, we can take 3 more, the rest of your group is already at the
point… so 3 got in and Sam and I got picked up slightly later by the warden of
Volunteer Point.
Somewhere we had taken a wrong turn that had lead us to a
creek instead of the real inlet we were looking for and had we continued on foot
we would have gotten there, but it was still an hours walk.. So it took us a bit
longer, but we had an amazing walk. Cross country passing shaven sheep and
unshaven sheep with lambs, jumping over small water streams, stepping into soggy
peat ground and feeling like a track finder trying to figure out which track was
the youngest!

But the car drive was amazing as well! We did not travel
fast as the ground was to bumpy, but we know now why everybody drives a 4×4
here! We got to Volunteer Point and spend most of the afternoon with the
Penguins. They have 3 colonies there. A King Penguin, Magellanic Penguin and
Gentoo Penguin colony. The King penguin were amazing with their beautiful
colored heads. They are majestical, stretching out their necks at full lengths,
hitting their rivals while walking back wards with their wings and stumbling
over bumps with their short feet. They look almost embarrassed when they fall
and get up and look around to see if anybody noticed!  The Magellanic live in
burrows in the ground, they stick their heads out, but are less curious and more
scarred then the King. Same goes for the Gentoo, a black penguin with a white
spot on its head. And where one of them goes, all of them go! On land in the
water, anywhere! The colony is set close to a beach, penguins run to the water
hunt and shoot out of the water at any time. Although they do not bread
together, they do walk around mixed, not bothered by each other at all.

When we left I think almost all our cameras were full of pictures or low
on battery! It was amazing, penguins really are as funny as they look in the
pictures!

Right now we are at anchor at Port Louis, not the one on
Mauritius, but the one just a bit more into the Berkely Sound. Today was a windy
day again with a bf 8 we were happy to be at anchor again in solid
mud!A Penguin of a day with a whim of wool!
We did not stop at Kidney Island as
we had hoped, as there was a lot of wind and swell and we were looking for a
slightly more sheltered alternative. We found this alternative in the settlement
Johnsons harbour. Stanley is the only place close to a city on the Falkland
Islands. Settlements are a small gathering of houses that from historical point
of view or economical (like farming) are closer together. Johnsons harbour is
now mainly a sheep farming settlement and we were in for a treat as it is
shearing time.

On Tuesday they started the sheepshearing and two man
constantly shearing they were hoping to be done on Saturday. 4 or 5 days of
amazing hard work! They still gather the sheep with dogs, but are on quad-bikes
themselves. It takes them a day to round them all up from an area of about
15.000 acres. Then they gather them at the sheds where two men sheer, one helps
with getting the sheep in and two are working on the wool itself, checking it
for flaws and getting it into the bags. When we landed with the dinghy we took
the opportunity to have a look at work. It is a well oiled machine that amazes
even the sheep when they get pulled on their backs for a shave. There is loud
music on in the shed that covers most of the noise of the shearing machines and
sheeps noise, that gives a real work fibe.
There is no bub in Johnsons
harbour and I do not think they need a pub in these days.. at the end of the
working day, I think all they want to do is sleep!

As it was almost
blowing the sheep of the hills we decided to stay at anchor for another day and
explore the county side some more. We ordered 2 landrovers to take part of the
group to Volunteer Point and part of the group wanted to walk their way to
Volunteer Point. Sam and I were in that first group and set of early in the
morning with Emily, Richard and Virginia. Just follow the car tracks, they said,
almost all tracks lead to Volunteer Point they said, could be a 3 hours walk
though, they said.. Well we found out not all tracks lead to Volunteer point and
the tracks are far from obvious, its not like they made a road or something..

We headed out and had an amazing walk. The wind was in our back and we
crossed country like it was nothing, like we had not just spend 40 days on a
ship wasting our leg muscles. Around 10:00 in the morning the cars would have
left with the rest of the group, so around 10:15 we started looking out for
them. They had an hours drive ahead of them. At 11:00 two cars came our way, but
it was not our group, in the car were passengers of the Oosterschelde. The man
said, hop on in, we can take 3 more, the rest of your group is already at the
point… so 3 got in and Sam and I got picked up slightly later by the warden of
Volunteer Point.
Somewhere we had taken a wrong turn that had lead us to a
creek instead of the real inlet we were looking for and had we continued on foot
we would have gotten there, but it was still an hours walk.. So it took us a bit
longer, but we had an amazing walk. Cross country passing shaven sheep and
unshaven sheep with lambs, jumping over small water streams, stepping into soggy
peat ground and feeling like a track finder trying to figure out which track was
the youngest!

But the car drive was amazing as well! We did not travel
fast as the ground was to bumpy, but we know now why everybody drives a 4×4
here! We got to Volunteer Point and spend most of the afternoon with the
Penguins. They have 3 colonies there. A King Penguin, Magellanic Penguin and
Gentoo Penguin colony. The King penguin were amazing with their beautiful
colored heads. They are majestical, stretching out their necks at full lengths,
hitting their rivals while walking back wards with their wings and stumbling
over bumps with their short feet. They look almost embarrassed when they fall
and get up and look around to see if anybody noticed!  The Magellanic live in
burrows in the ground, they stick their heads out, but are less curious and more
scarred then the King. Same goes for the Gentoo, a black penguin with a white
spot on its head. And where one of them goes, all of them go! On land in the
water, anywhere! The colony is set close to a beach, penguins run to the water
hunt and shoot out of the water at any time. Although they do not bread
together, they do walk around mixed, not bothered by each other at all.

When we left I think almost all our cameras were full of pictures or low
on battery! It was amazing, penguins really are as funny as they look in the
pictures!

Right now we are at anchor at Port Louis, not the one on
Mauritius, but the one just a bit more into the Berkely Sound. Today was a windy
day again with a bf 8 we were happy to be at anchor again in solid
mud!