Watching a moon rise while camping

Team Saunders will be pleased to know that today we visited their Island! In the morning we visited Saunders Island, home of multiple types of penguin. We walked part way up the hill, saw Gentoo, King, Magellenic and Rockhopper penguins. The Rockhoppers are so cute and are true to their name, they literally hop up cliff faces. We were sat at the top of the cliff watching them, with their yellow tufts on their heads. On the way up, we had to be careful where we tread as Magellenic penguins use burrows to nest, so we got to see them in bed, and hoped not to fall through their roof. The view from the hill was fantastic, Falklands has the most amazing beaches I’ve ever seen. 

The afternoon was spent at Carcass Island, named after HMS Carcass which patrolled here, rather than anything animal related. We were the first off the ship, and the first boat to land, which was handy because we were on a mission. Leopard beach was 5 miles away and we only had a couple of hours to get there and back. The route march started, we had to keep a fast speed, interrupted by walking through peat bogs, up hills, down hills, through the Diddle-dee. We got 85% there and ran out of time, we could see the beach but couldn’t descend to get there and back for camping. Luckily we found an Tomas in the expedition team who asked for a little extra time for us to get back. Phew! 

We were one of the first on the beach and what a stunning place, pure white sand, crystal clear waters. Hundreds of Magellenic penguins in the colony. A sea lion was in the surf hunting penguins which were coming in on rafts. Thank goodness we got to the final point. There was just the tricky part of getting back. By this time, my soggy feet were blistered and facing a 2.5 mile march back. We were on a mission, head down and just go. It’s by far the fastest I’ve ever walked and my feet were screaming at me. We got back 30 minutes late but no matter, we had just enough time to put up our tent on a mound overlooking the bay, get back on the ship for food and shower, then on with the thermals to get back to the Island. 

Tonight we were lucky enough to win places to camp overnight on the Island. There are four English speakers, myself and Ali, Melissa from the US and Elizabeth from Danish. To say we were excited about camping would be an understatement. From the boat that took us to the island, to the boat that brought us back, we were brimming full of happiness. We were given sleeping bags and thermarest so we set up home and then sat on our sofa, aka the grass in front of our tents. We were joined by the expedition team and we watched a wonderful sunset. 

The residents of the Island invited us into their house for some tea and cakes. We kindly accepted and had a fabulous time sitting with American visitors and the expedition team. It was fantastic to speak off the ship, without the hustle and bustle of getting on/ off boats etc. I could have spent hours chatting and eating scones with jam and cream. However, we needed to get to bed. 

As we got to our camp, our mouths dropped. We looked up and saw the most amazing night sky. I’ve never been anywhere so dark as it was. As such, we could clearly see the Southern Cross and the Milky Way. I had no idea there were so many starts in the sky! Then we saw the moon rise, I’ve never seen the moon rise before, it was bright orange and glowing. We all led on the sofa, looking up and were silent. None of us could believe what we were seeing. The shooting stars were an added bonus. Melissa and Elizabeth decided to sleep under the stars so took their mats and four season sleeping bags outside.

Ali and I slept in the tent. What I didn’t expect was to be absolutely boiling in the night. The sleeping bags go down to minus 30 and today we had a daytime temperature of +13 degrees. The kit provided was fantastic. The trouble was, I didn’t want to sleep and miss anything.