Stanley – The Amazing Race

18 November 2022 – Late afternoon

I had a few things I wanted to see/buy/do in town and precious little time to do it.

Priority #1 – Postcards and Fridge Magnets

I went up the road past the red public phone box and the Globe Tavern. Honestly, I literally went into the first shop I encountered that sold gifts and souvenirs. There I purchased and mailed some postcards, fridge magnets and a brightly coloured Falklands Beanie with a little penguin mascot – the red matches the jacket – it was meant to be, ok?

Somewhere between the Gift Shop and the Visitor’s centre I bought a book about Falklands and South Georgia wildlife – the long term plan being to at some time visit South Georgia.

Priority #2 – Church

Then I set off to the Church and the whalebone structure. A quick walkthrough – admiring the stained glass windows.

Priority #3 – The West Store

On recommendation from the expedition team I had a look around the department store and ran into a South African expat in the “Mrs Balls” isle. We had quite a giggle. There were countless familiar items in the store – #ProudlySouthAfrican seem to be well represented – in bottled form at least.

During dinner that evening I jokingly showed the pictures to one of the Future Cruise Consutants – who happens to be an South African expat – she burst into tears when she saw the Mrs Balls (South African condiment). Apparently she’s been craving it for months and her mother has been unable to ship some to Europe – her new home. Had she known it was on offer, she would have stocked up – but she walked by the shop – opportunity missed. She vowed to patronise the shop during the next Stanley stop on this assignment.

Priority #4 – Visitors Centre

Luckily the Visitors Centre is right next to the dock, so I could have a quick look around without having to factor in too much travel time to catch the tender. I had a quick look around at the handicrafts, books and souvenirs.

Some random Stanley photographs:

Then it was off to patiently wait in line to board the tender back to our floating home.

The evening following our “Next Day Briefing – West Point Island” Luis gave us a quick photography refresher to enable us the make the most of the opportunity to photograph the Black Browed Albatros fest tomorrow – shutter speed settings are key to get that “frozen in mid air” shot… not like this one with Luis all blurry, but at least I got the ‘cheat sheet’ on the screen.