Feeding the chicks, The Rookery, Saunders Island 3rd of February 2026
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Close up photo of a young penguin at the Rookery, Saunders Island – 3rd of February 2026
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Because there are no trees in the Falkland Islands, this photo is not able to indicate the constant wind in the Falkland Islands – The Rookery, Saunders Island – 3 February 2026.
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The flags at The Rookery on Saunders Island are the only guides to the walking track. Great care must be taken because the slopes are very steep and a wrong foot placement will lead to a fall down the cliff and
likely death – 3 February 2026.
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Another close up of an inhabitant of The Rookery, Saunders Island – 3 February 2026. The gleaming of the sea caught in this photo is not added by photoshop. The sea really did gleam like this that day on Saunders Island.
Photography by Samuel Acosta. @nvsn_creative
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Getting to the Falkland Islands is exhausting if you live in Adelaide.
First, I had to fly from Adelaide to Sydney, a two hour flight on top of travelling to and from the airport, plus all of the usual security screening to confirm I was not a terrorist intent on causing harm.
Once in Sydney, there was the 12 ½ hour flight from Sydney to Santiago, Chile. When the travel and processing time is included, this adds up to about 18 hours just for the trip to Santiago.
Once in Santiago, there is only about another 6 hours of flying to do, but there are some greater than usual obstacles to be overcome.
There is only one flight per week from Santiago to the Falklands and the flight from Santiago is subject to change at very short notice by the authorities in the Falkland Islands.
There is a twice weekly flight from England to the Falklands called the South Atlantic Air Bridge and it is managed by the Royal Air Force. Because it is a Royal Air Force flight, it always gets priority over the Latam flight from Chile.
The only international airport in the Falkland Islands is located at Mount Pleasant.
Mount Pleasant is a military base, and it has an international airport terminal inside the base.
Because Mount Pleasant is a military base, it caters to the needs of the British military and pays scant regard to the needs of international tourists.
Facilities at Mount Pleasant are primitive.
Mount Pleasant is located about one hour’s drive from Stanley and Stanley (officially a city) is the only town in the Falklands.
Our flight to the Falklands was supposed to leave on Saturday 31 January 2026. It was postponed at short notice to Sunday 1 February 2026. We had to find our own accommodation in Santiago for the night of Saturday 31 January to the morning of Sunday 1 February 2026.
Getting to the Falkland Islands on Sunday 1 February 2026 was exhausting.
I wrote this diary entry on the morning of Monday, the 2nd of February, after we had arrived in Stanley.
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Diary Entry
5.40 am Monday 2 February 2026
I have the blues. I have finally arrived in the Falkland Islands and I am writing this in the Malvina Hotel. Yesterday was so brutally hard. We caught an Uber to Santiago airport at 9.20 am, and did all the usual stuff. Sam had checked us in online and at the airport he checked in our luggage. I forgot to secure my luggage tag to my bag and I lost it while walking to the luggage loading bay. I panicked. Sam fixed it because he speaks Spanish, but it required waiting. We got to departure gate 02 at the Domestic Terminal. More waiting. The plane was 10 minutes late in taking off. We arrived in Punta Arenas airport about 3 ¾ hours later. We were booked to go to the Falkland Islands on the exact same flight on the exact same plane, but we had to get off. No signs or directions saying what we were supposed to do. Sam took us upstairs and we joined a massive queue being dealt with on Chilean Time. With Sam’s help, we got through the queue relatively fast, but that did not help. We waited for an hour on the plane before all of our fellow passengers were aboard. Our scheduled arrival in the Falkland Islands was 6.00 pm. It was 6.40 pm before we left Punta Arenas. Then there was a one hour flight to Mount Pleasant in the Falklands, an astonishingly slow Immigration process and then a 30 minute wait for my suitcase to appear on the luggage carousel. Then we got through Customs and met the Falkland Islands Holidays person. And then we waited in a bus for an hour before the other bus passengers were processed. Then there was a one hour bus ride to Stanley where we arrived at the Mavina Hotel at about 8.30 pm. The kitchen closes at 8.00 pm on Sunday but the hotel kept it open to feed us. We dumped our bags in our rooms and then went straight to the dining room to eat. It was 11.00 pm local time before I got to my room. I was totally exhausted and had a terrible sleep because of leg cramps. Today we fly to Saunders Island on Falkland Islands Government Air Service, meeting our FI Holidays rep at 9.40 am. We meet for breakfast at 8.00 am and it is now 6.00 am. As I lay in bed, memories came back. I have had such cruelly hard years. I walked the Camino in 2013 praying for Margaret’s life. She had a health recovery – 100% mentally and about 70% physically. Her heart was fixed, the alcohol was gone, but her spine kept rotting on her. Walking was so hard for her. I put together a year of wonder travel for us in 2014/ 2015. Christmas 2014 we spent in her favourite place, Ireland. That was magic. Life came back to her. My time out was my first trip to the Falkland Islands and Chile and Argentina. It was so very hard. Qantas left me stranded at Santiago airport and I missed the plane to the Falkland Islands. I then spent 2 weeks in the Falkland Islands on my own on a patched up itinerary. I then flew back to Punta Arenas where Nes and Ann Ryan met me at the airport. This was the same Ann who made sure I was completely cancelled in 2021. Back then, Ann was just winding up her fake romance with Nes. We walked most of the W Circuit and then got a bus to Argentina. They left me in a shithole town in Argentina while Nes took the woman he thought he loved to Brazil. When Nes finally got back to Chile, he had pneumonia and nearly died. I nursed him and got him back to Santiago. We finally got home safely. Then in September/October 2015, I gave Margaret her dream – a trip to the Canadian Rockies, a cruise ship to Alaska and a bus to the Arctic Circle. I loved being with her so much. And now here I am again in the Falkland Islands with Sam and Lauren. |
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