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Sunday 22 January
It is Sunday so in the best tradition of the British hotelier breakfast was available to late - 0930. The Falkland Island Government Air Service has a 20kg weight limit so we off loaded some of the necessary luggage and as pick up was after 1100 headed to the West Cafe for coffee. The domestic airport is just outside Stanley and the FIGAS fleet consists of Briton Norman Islander planes. It seems that this morning there had been an aircraft change but the Port Howard flight was still going ! Duly weighed and all our luggage labelled we headed out to watch the pilot check the plane - which seemed to have just returned from Fishery Patrol ! It turned out we were the only passengers and after our safety brief and much revving of the engines we headed off down the runway and were off. For the 40 minute minute flight we flew at a leisurely 1700 feet so got a good view of the miles of empty space and the odd set of farm buildings. We headed across the Falkland Sound and started to loose height as we approached Fort Howard - no runway was visible. As it turned out there wasn’t one just a field with a few white marks and a wind sock. As we landed a couple of Land Rovers raced towards us to collect us and board the departing passengers. The Pilot cum Luggage Handler off loaded our bags and we met Sue out host from the Port Howard Lodge. Port Howard is a small farming settlement - sheep and cattle - and the first thing that greets you at the Lodge are a couple of abandoned Argentine Field Guns and the wing of an Argentine plane ! After tea, cheese and branston pickle sandwiches and cake we headed off to explore. At 1500 the ferry was due to arrive at the new jetty so we headed that way. The bird life is abundant and very unafraid allowing some good photos especially as the sun was out - the Night Herons were particularly good at posing for a photo shoot. The ferry is not quite a roll on - roll off and was not so busy but in its wake came a school of dolphins who proved much more challenging to photograph. |