IThere is a red telephone box in the harbor and row houses made of dark brick stand side by side. A few steps further a pub and a small tea house. The wind whips the rain through the streets, tea and scones are waiting inside.
Folk music sounds discreetly from a loudspeaker, photos of the sea, green hills, fences and sheep hang on the walls. Britain as it could hardly be more British. But the small coastal town of Stanley is at the other end of the world.
The almost 2000 inhabitants do everything to keep up the spirit of the Empire. But at the latest when you look in the souvenir shops, where stuffed penguins are snuggling up against each other on the shelves, it becomes clear: the gray sea that slaps its waves against the pier is not the North Sea, but the South Atlantic. And the island not Britain but East Falkland.
Source: Infographic WORLD
The fact that the Falklanders are so clearly demonstrating their ties to the United Kingdom is easy to explain: the trauma of 1982 runs deep to this day, when the Argentines unexpectedly occupied the islands and instigated a war with bombs, skirmishes, mines and raids.
The South American country took possession of the islands in 1820, which had been uninhabited before the arrival of the first European settlers from France. In 1833 Great Britain followed suit, stationed a fleet on the islands and forced the Argentine administration to withdraw.
Argentina calls for “end of colonialism”
Since 1837, the Falkland Islands have belonged to Great Britain as a British overseas territory, which still has around 1,700 soldiers stationed there as a deterrent. in the Historic Dockyard Museum fishermen, shepherds, housewives and soldiers talk about the 72 days of war in an interactive exhibition.
All exhibits are labeled in English only. Which is entirely in the interests of the islanders: In a referendum in 2013, 98.8 percent voted to remain with Great Britain. Argentina has rejected the referendum as “illegal” and is demanding an “end to colonialism” from the British.
In Argentina, the islands are still called Malvinas and continue to claim them officially. Which is also likely to be related to the rich fishing grounds and the oil deposits suspected in the South Atlantic.
No cruises to Antarctica due to Corona
But not only the ownership claims between Argentina and Great Britain have shaped life on the 200 islands. The Falklanders have also experienced Antarctic expeditions such as that of seafarer James Weddell and the bloody business of the whale and seal hunters at close range.
Hard work under harsh conditions determined everyday life for centuries. Tim Miller, for example, comes from a family of sheep farmers and ended up in Stanley from West Falkland. Sheep are not his thing, he says and grins.
Stanley is the only city in the Falkland Islands. It is in East Falkland
What: Getty Images/Westend61
With a hunched back, he walks through the long rows of his greenhouses in the hinterland, stroking the skin of the aubergines, plucking a leaf from the tomatoes. He proudly demonstrates the aquaponic system, thanks to which he grows more than 50 different types of lettuce, herbs and vegetables – without any soil at all.
“Everything eco,” he says, and beams with the one eye that the Falklands War left him. “We also don’t use any pesticides, we fight pests purely biologically.” An organic farmer in the middle of the Atlantic.
For 20 years, he says, he has been heating his greenhouses exclusively with waste oil from fishing boats and cruise ships – it may not be entirely clean, but it is at least a secondary use. In general, the crusaders: Before Corona, many ships sent their cooks ashore in Stanley.
Tim Miller was her last chance to board fresh vegetables and lettuce for the journey to Antarctica – a business the farmer lost because of the pandemic. The shipping companies will probably not set course for the Antarctic again until winter 2021/22.
The mines on the Falkland Islands are now cleared
Back in solitude, the view sweeps over the beach. White sand, blue sea – the sun has burned a hole in the clouds. The sea has calmed down. A ship rots picturesquely in shallow water, two whales swim along the coast and snort fountains of vapor into the air.
An abandoned ship rots on the beach on New Island
Quelle: Getty Images/Darrell Gulin
Thick ropes limit the hiking trail, signs warn: “Danger – mines!” It is estimated that 20,000 land mines were buried on the islands during the war. At least the last mines were cleared at the beginning of November, three years earlier than planned, and the signs will soon disappear as well. But the memories, the thoughts of the war, will live on in the Falkland Islands for a long time.
Luckily, at this moment, a rustling in the bushes distracts from the dark past. A Magellanic penguin peers curiously out of its nesting hole. He’s not alone. The colony huddles together on the beach, throaty roars ring out as the waves carry a newcomer ashore.
Signs still warn of the landmines that were buried on the islands during the war. But they will soon be gone
Quelle: Getty Images/Paul Grace Photography Somersham
The islands have been a favorite spot for nesting and migratory birds since the Falkland fox was exterminated in the 19th century. A million penguins gather here, 63 different bird species build their nests. Not just commonplace birds, as ornithologists assure: With the Falkland steamer duck and the Falkland wren, the islands have also produced endemic species – i.e. those that only occur there.
Penguins mix up the birds
A special paradise for bird lovers is New Island, a small island in the far west where the storm rips waves in the brown grass. He has shrunk the few trees to gnarled bushes. Kelp geese crouch in the bushes.
The king penguins of the Falkland Archipelago also live under the Queen’s crown
Quelle: Getty Images/Paul Grace Photography Somersham
A black-browed albatross enjoys the stiff breeze. It lets the thermals carry it 80 meters up to the edge of the cliff and then hovers in place as if pinned to the sky. The giant bird, wingspan at least two meters, looks to the left, to the right – and then performs a clumsy landing manoeuvre.
He waddles two or three steps and he’s already beaking at a large gray cotton ball: his chick. Isolated from thick down, it has waited for hours for its mother to return, occasionally stretching out a leg or shooing away an intrusive rockhopper penguin with its beak.
The penguins can take it. They hop busily back and forth, annoying a cormorant here, an albatross there – and stirring up the bird colony. If they get too hungry, they hop down the steep slopes to the sea.
A constant coming and going on the steep face, including minor falls. For the rockhopper penguins, the arduous renewed ascent pays off: birds of prey such as the caracara and giant petrels, which could be dangerous for the penguins, do not dare to enter the realm of the albatross.
The mother albatross finally gets fed up with the screeching of the penguins, spreads her wings and throws herself off the cliff into the wind. She glides away without flapping her wings, beneath her the small boats, the fountains of the whales – and the gray waves of the South Atlantic.
A million penguins cavort on the Falkland Islands – there is a need for communication
What: Getty Images/Enrique Aguirre Aves
tips and information
Getting there: The Falkland Islands are served by many cruise companies, mostly as part of an Antarctic cruise, such as Hapag-Lloyd Cruises (hl-cruises.de) and Hurtigruten (hurtigruten.de), which will offer expeditions again from autumn 2022.
Accommodation: The tourism website (falklandislands.com/accommodation). Guests are usually picked up at the airport, but rental cars, public transport, and inter-island ferries are also available.
Crown-Info: Anyone planning a trip should check the islands’ government website for entry and quarantine regulations, currently a 10-day quarantine is required upon arrival (fig.gov.fk/covid-19).
Participation in the trip was supported by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. Our standards of transparency and journalistic independence can be found at axelspringer.de/unabhaengigkeit.
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Source: World on Sunday
This article was first published in January 2021.