Volunteer Beach

YAY! We made it ashore.

We had a 50/50 chance of being able to do so, but the weather gods favored us today. But you already know that we were able to tender into Stanley because I turned the day on its head and started from the end of the day. Now for the first part of our day.

Our luck followed us ashore and we managed to get on the first tender to begin our exciting adventure.

I am of the ilk that believes that there is no such thing as seeing too many penguins. In 2007, we visited Gypsy Cove where a colony of Magellanic penguins nest. So, today we went to Volunteer Point to see not one, but three species of penguins — the kings (next largest after the emperors), gentoos, and Magellanics.

Volunteer Beach is an Important Bird Area. It was named for a ship by the same name that called on the Falklands in 1815. The nature reserve is located on the Johnson’s Harbour Farm. Established in 1870, this 52,000-acre sheep property is the largest surviving farm that is still privately owned. I understand that the owner charges an entry fee that is included in the tour cost.

To get to the beach, Mui and I joined a public tour operated by Patrick Watts. There are other operators who do the same tour, but his name seems to be synonymous with Volunteer Point. The trip requires a 4WD to get out to the beach … with good reason.

Normally, four people are squeezed into each vehicle. But we lucked out. Robert, a segment passenger on Insignia, was traveling solo, so the vehicle we were assigned to had just the three of us. Thank goodness … it would have been an incredibly uncomfortable ride otherwise.

I’m not sure what the distance was to get out to the beach. It doesn’t matter really because the terrain is such that the last 10 km or so took us about 1.5 hours to accomplish. With our driver, John, at the wheel, we started out on the paved roads in Stanley. Then we connected to a dirt road for the remaining distance to the farm. Here we had a potty break. And also took advantage of the “Bake Safe” to get ourselves a couple of the most delicious cherry muffins we’ve eaten in a very long time.

And then the adventure to get out to the beach began in earnest.

We went bumpity-bump-bump over boggy terrain covered with grass, clumps of tussock, and diddle-dee berry bushes (the latter is an acquired taste). We went up steep hills. Down even steeper hills. Crossed heavily rutted, wet ground where boards were placed over heavier run off water to ensure we didn’t get stuck in the mud. There were five gates that we had to open and close. That job fell to the first and last vehicle. We were in the middle of a convoy of 6 4WDs … traveling together for safety reasons.

It was interesting to watch the vehicles doing a dance of sorts as we moved further onto the farmlands, jiggling this way and that … but always courteously maintaining their position in the convoy. Along the way, we passed herds of sheep staring at us … perhaps wondering why on earth we were putting ourselves through the gyrations of going out to the beach.

(I’m uploading a video of the 4WD portion of the drive, but it does not reflect how bumpy it was because the camera has built-in stabilization that eliminated the worst of the shake.)

Finally, about 2.5 hours after leaving Stanley, we arrived at Volunteer Beach. It was now getting on towards 11:00a. After a quick stop to swish our shoes in a special solution to kill any invasive species, we parked in the area set aside for the vehicles … very neatly organized, with each tour operator having its own designated space.

John gave us the basic rules — don’t cross into roped off areas; don’t step inside areas encircled by rocks painted white. That’s it. We were then free to roam amongst the penguins, maintaining a 20 foot distance from all wildlife. But the penguins could approach us. Which they did with equanimity … going about business as usual as though we did not exist.

The kings and gentoos are apparently at the reserve year round, and we saw plenty of them. They are 4,000-strong, including 600-700 chicks reared annually. The other two species are in the thousands. The Magellanics migrate, and we saw just a few of them … mostly those waiting to complete their annual molt so they could swim away to points north. We were OK with that since we’d been to a Magellanic colony in Punta Arenas. There were also Falkland skuas, upland geese, dolphin gulls, South American terns, and ruddy-headed geese, Except for the upland geese, they were all at a distance, so we did not see much of them.

We had 1.5 hours at Volunteer Point and spent most of that with the king penguins in their nest area. Yes, it stunk to high heaven, but the wind was blowing strong — and getting stronger by the minute. By positioning ourselves downwind, we minimized the assault on our olfactory senses. It was wonderful to see chicks at different stages of growth amongst the adults. No eggs, however, as the incubation period, for the most part, is between December and January.

Eventually, we left the kings to go down to the beach where we saw the gentoos. By this time, the wind was blowing so strong that the white sand looked like the beginnings of a blizzard. The gentoos were hunkered down and gave us some nice photo ops. Soon, some of the kings made their way to the beach. They were fairly clean, so I imagine they were some of the “bachelors and bachelorettes” we saw in a small cluster. They waddled their way to the shoreline, looking like they were trying to decide if they wanted to go hunting for food. They were still there when we finally had to leave to return to the vehicle.

John had picked up lunch bags for each of us. We ate our egg salad sandwiches, chips, and sweet treats as we went bumpity-bump-bump back to the farm. A dirt road never looked as good as it did today!

The adventure of getting to Volunteer Point was definitely worth it for the up-close penguins we saw today. Hands down the best tour yet!Read more