Monday 10 April 2006
Back to the UK
I've been back home for two weeks now, but before I get to that I should write about my last few days in the Falklands and the journey home. Before leaving I visited the Stanley museum, which contained an unusual mixture of naval history, wildlife, the Falklands war and the history of Antarctic exploration. One of the more interesting things for me was an old BAS hut that had been recovered from the peninsula and reconstructed in the museum grounds. It contained all kinds of supplies that were used back in those days, some of which (such as the Primus stoves and Tilly lamps) we still make use of now.
The inside of a BAS Hut at the museum.
The day before I left I went on a flight around some of the smaller islands in the Falkland group. The Falklands government run a few small Islander planes to hop between the remote islands for the benefit of the locals. Tourists can pay to complete the full circuit as a way of seeing some of the more remote locations. We flew from Stanley airport, then stopped at Mount Pleasant airport before heading across to the West Falklands. We landed on small grass runways on Pebble Island and Carcass Island before returning to Stanley.
A view of Stanley from the air.
A remote farm in the West Falklands.
The next day we left Stanley early for the RAF base at Mount Pleasant. We flew home on an unmarked military 747, to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, with a single stop to refuel on Ascension Islands in the South Atlantic. The flight was very much like any commercial flight, and fortunately was less than half full which meant we had plenty of room to spread out. Arriving in Ascension Islands was strange. We went from a grey day in the Falklands to a warm humid night on this small island. We were shepherded into a small enclosure for a couple of hours while the plane refueled then we were on our way. I arrived Sunday morning, to find my family waiting for me at the airport.
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