Under way with the preparations Toby Tyrrell, January 8, 2013
Welcome from the James Clark Ross in Port Stanley! We are well under way with our preparations. As with the last cruise in this project, there has been lots to do: stores and equipment to load, instruments to set up, numerous items to tie down and make secure in case of the likely bad weather. Some of the scientists arrived several days ago, some a couple of days ago, the last of us yesterday. A few came via Chile( it’ s not possible to come via Argentina because of the dispute over ownership of the Falklands), but most via the‘ Land Bridge’, the name for the direct connection from the UK. This consists of travel via military flights( actually a chartered commercial airliner, but unusually one with no logos or in fact any markings at all) from RAF Brize Norton in the UK via Ascension Island in the equatorial Atlantic. The stopover in Ascension is quite odd: while travelling from mostly cold and wet( UK in winter) to mostly cold and wet( Falklands in summer), one has two hours at tropical temperatures. Most passengers were not appropriately dressed for the eventuality and consequently rapidly became overheated.
James Clark Ross in Port Stanley @ Jeremy Young
Port Stanley is the main town in the Falkland Islands( the Malvinas if you prefer), but still a small place with only about 2000 inhabitants. During our hour-long drive from the airport to Port Stanley we saw a good deal of the landscape – quite flat moorland reminiscent of Scotland, sparsely populated with humans but more densely with sheep. Port Stanley itself has an old-world charm to it, with lots of gift shops( servicing in particular tourists en route to Antarctica – the cruise ship Hamburg is here at the moment) and a quiet and relaxed feel
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