East Falkland

The day before mum left we went for a drive around East Falkland. We had been told that the road to Port San Carlos and the road to San Carlos had been recently joined, even though the road was not on the maps, which meant that we would be able to drive in a loop and visit the main settlements on the island. The landscape is very moor-like and roads are very windy and generally not surfaced but they are comfortable enough. This is the view just after we have passed over the hills outside Stanley, heading towards Estancia.

Just off the road from where this photo was taken are two Argentinean helicopters that were shelled during the conflict. They are in an increasingly poor state due to souvenir hunters.

On the way to Port San Carlos we saw this red-backed hawk sitting beside the road.

When we arrived at Port San Carlos we found a very small settlement and nothing really that appeared to be of interest. We asked for directions to San Carlos and then went on our way. To get to San Carlos we had to ford the San Carlos river.

We eventually got to San Carlos, after a brief argument over whether such a small collection of houses could in fact be San Carlos. Mum won as it was, and we drove to the British war cemetery where 14 soldiers are buried. It was beautiful, overlooking San Carlos Water and it was hard to think that this place was the location of so many deaths and injuries.

We drove on towards Darwin and Goose Green and visited the Argentine Cemetery. From what I understand the Argentinean government didn’t allow repatriation of the soldiers killed in the war and so they were buried in the Falklands (they said that they didn’t need to be returned to Argentina because they were already in Argentina).

It’s a very strange place. The cemetery is on the top of a small hill and commands a fine view. It could easily have been an emotionless with every cross identical and evenly spaced, but somehow it wasn’t. Every cross had a rosary draped over it, and there were small crosses placed in front of many of them. A large number of the men buried are un-named and their gravestone says ‘Argentinean soldier – known only to God’. Yet even on these graves people have placed crosses and flowers. The thing that struck me more than anything was the number of men killed – there was a role of honour along the back of the cemetery and I found it so sad that they died fighting for a lie. They truly believed they were coming to liberate the Falklands and instead found that the allegiance of the people was firmly towards the UK. It seemed such a waste.

In all it was a strange day. The weather was at times quite dubious but we never had anything more than a few spots of rain; the map-reading swung from the simplest you can get to totally frustrating with me wanting to chuck the map out of the car; and the emotions went from perfectly fine and feeling happy while looking at amazing scenery to feeling quite sombre and moved when looking at the graves of all those men. I really enjoyed getting out of Stanley and seeing these places. It was really interesting to finally see some settlements (a word I now realise means a farmhouse!). Although we were never more than a couple of hours away from Stanley it felt very remote and if the weather turned bad I think we would have found the going very difficult. It was great to show mum the ‘real’ Falklands but we were glad to get back home!!