A history lesson

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to visit Antarctica.  I think initially the desire sprang from seeing some spectacular photos of icebergs, then later the penguins became another draw.  & if you want to see penguins then there’s no point going all the way to Antarctica without detouring to South Georgia en route for the massive king penguin colonies … and it all gets a bit expensive.  But as the desire to go there was never going to go away, last year I decided to bite the bullet and signed up for a trip.

As is standard, this also included the Falkland Islands, in which I didn't have all that much interest, to be honest.  However it proved to be not only rewarding in terms of the wildlife but also in filling in some of the big gaps in my knowledge of the Falklands war and its aftermath.

The British are still not welcome in Argentina, it seems, or at least not in the town of Ushuaia.  The photo above reads “Mooring forbidden for English pirate ships” – and although I acted like most English tourists by laughing in delight and taking a photo, the intent is serious, as this prohibition has actually been written into Argentinian law.  For the Argentinians the whole of my three week trip around the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula have been in Argentinian territory.

I missed the Falklands war as I was volunteering on a kibbutz in Israel at the time, and with Israel having invaded Lebanon during the same period there was no news of the Falklands filtering through at all.  By the time I got back to the UK in September it was all over and my mind was too busy with all the novelty of starting at university to want to investigate this little bit of history that I had missed.  So I found the lecture on the ship about the geo-political history of the Falklands very interesting.  As a Canadian-operated ship with a multi-national crew and passenger list, I presume the lecture was unbiased – certainly they covered the African origin of the land itself, the history of British occupation and the claim of the Argentinians based on the short-lived settlement founded by a Frenchman born in Germany but at the time (in the mid-1820s) based in Argentina.  

But of course on the islands themselves everything is ultra-British, from the telephone and post boxes to the ubiquitous Land Rovers.  

& I was lucky enough to get a history lesson from a third-generation resident, after he had scuppered my plans to visit the museum by giving me a lift out to a place where it was possible to see the rufous-chested dotterel.  Much to the envy of the some of the more serious birders on my boat who were not so lucky.  This retired gentleman was kind enough to drive me, a guide and another tourist out to a rocky spit of land to see the bird, and then on the drive back he volunteered plenty of information about the war and the subsequent period.  I asked him whether the islands had gained in any way from the war and he explained how before the war the people had long been asking the British government to declare a fishery zone around the islands but this had not been done as it would have been counter to the secret negotiations over sovereignty between Britain and Argentina – but following the war a 150 mile zone was declared, resulting in a rise in the annual income of the Falklands government from £6 million to £35 million.  This transformed the islands, with a programme of capital investment including a new school and roads and full funding of sixth form education for islanders at boarding schools in the UK, and now the islands are self-supporting financially with no subsidy from the UK. 

It was a fascinating day, and probably the only time in my life when I could claim to be in two different countries at the same time.

Also very enjoyable was the mixed nesting colony of black-browed albatrosses and rockhopper penguins.  As you can see from the penguin photo-bombing the picture below, the albatrosses just sat calmly and serenely on their nests while the penguins squawked and waddled awkwardly around them.

The (flightless) Falklands steamer ducks were also enjoyed by many of us as they fed on the beaches.