It is Christmas Day and it is bright but very windy out there.
Today many people are working in and around Stanley as two more cruise ships are here for the day: the museum is open; the restaurants are busy; and a steady stream of local Land Rovers are passing along the waterfront taking people to Bluff Cove and other sites for wildlife spotting.
Despite the activity around us our plan was for a slow and relaxed day. I quietly nursed my hangover in the large sitting room - lots of photographs of Royalty, luxurious red deep-pile carpet and the flags of the United Kingdom and the Falklands either side of the large fireplace - and waited for Emma and Nigel to surface. We headed off in the car to walk the dog before breakfast, our destination Surf Bay which is a beautiful long arc of white sand and turquoise-blue water only a few minutes drive along the peninsula from Stanley. We walked the length of the beach, watching dolphins swimming lazily past despite the rolling and breaking waves. We stopped and watched a family swimming in the sea, apparently a long standing tenth generation island family fulfilling a personal Christmas tradition. And as we walked back it struck me – as it had decades before on other Falkland beaches - that the whole scene could have been a picture from the Caribbean. Apart from the brisk wind, the blue sky, azure sea and white sands could have been from an island paradise postcard. I guess the three Typhoon aircraft from Mount Pleasant flying in formation overhead were also somewhat out of place.
We drove back via other sites of interest on the peninsula. York Bay, another stretch of bright white sands and surrounding tussock covered dunes was once the beach of choice for locals to visit but is now fenced off because of minefields. Mine clearance has been going on since the end of the conflict although the priority has been to clear the areas in the 'camp' thereby allowing use by farmers and hence helping the economy. There is a noticeable reduction in the number of minefields since my last visit here; at that time minefield warning signs were ubiquitous, hanging from barbed wire fencing along tracks and roadsides and throughout the countryside. It is planned to have all mines on the Islands cleared by next year so maybe the Islanders will get their beach back soon. As I walked along the track above the bay I passed a group of people from the liners huddled in a stone shelter having returned from walking to Gypsy Cove, another sandy bay further around the peninsula. The cruise ships visitors get everywhere.
We returned to Stanley, passing the Lady Elizabeth, the large three masted iron boat lying on the beach at the end of the harbour that has appeared in many iconic photographs of the islands. Her rusting hulk sits close to the shore looking complete and today, at low water, it looked like a couple of locals were trying to wade out to her. She is one of many victims over the years of the South Atlantic weather and one of many hulks in and around the harbour.
We got back to Government House and set about digging up some potatoes and carrots for lunch from the extensive gardens, largely set over for growing flowers and food for the house. Nigel took some to an ageing woman who lived over the road, a member of the house staff who was serving at the time of the conflict and with many stories to tell. When he hadn’t appeared back 45 minutes later Emma and I went to get him and we too ended up chatting and drinking with her and her family. We eventually got back at 2pm to start our own celebrations.
It was a relaxed afternoon. We chatted and drank and opened a few presents and then collectively prepared dinner. In the late afternoon Masatake, the son of a Japanese friend of Nigel's, arrived for a lightning three day visit and we closed our relatively informal celebrations with dinner in the main dining room surrounded by more royalty looking down upon us from the walls.
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