West Falkland Island Port Howard, Falklands UK
Falkland Islands
Frequently Asked Questions
Expedition ships anchor offshore and zodiacs run to the small jetty. Commerson's dolphins, black and white, sometimes escort the boats through the cold water of the sound.
A hamlet of about twenty people beside a sheltered arm of the sea, and the oldest working farm on the island. The estate covers nearly 80,000 hectares, grazed by more than 40,000 sheep.
Low moorland bleached by wind, fences running to the horizon, tin sheds and the dark mass of Mount Maria behind. Almost no trees: the Falklands have made that bareness a landscape in its own right.
Yes, the residents open it willingly. In season, the shearing teams work at an impressive pace: fleeces come off in one piece, are sorted on the grading tables, then pressed into bales. You watch the work up close, in the warm smell of lanolin.
Yes, and it is often the most applauded moment of the call: the dogs gather a flock to a whistle, out on the moor, exactly as on any working day.
A modest collection housed in a half-round corrugated iron hut. During the 1982 war the settlement was occupied by Argentine troops and its people lived for weeks under watch. Helmets, rations, equipment and photographs from both sides make up a display moving in its very plainness.
Walk the shoreline looking for upland geese and oystercatchers, glance at the tiny golf course kept on the moor, or take tea at the lodge, the old farmhouse turned guesthouse.
The nearby Warrah river is known to regulars of the archipelago for its sea trout. The fishing has a fine reputation, but it takes time and arrangement beforehand: it is not something improvised on stepping off the zodiac.
Yes, by a daily ferry from the jetty across Falkland Sound to East Falkland. It is the only regular link with the capital.
For travellers who like places that stage nothing. There is no visitor attraction and no shop here: a tiny community sharing, without ceremony, a daily life measured in wind, animals and seasons. A ship's visit doubles the day's population.
