Not Brockley Central: Mount Tumbledown
Overlooking Stanley (the Falkland Islands’ capital and the southernmost capital city in the world) Tumbledown rises above a ruggedly beautiful landscape of soft peat, punctured by jagged rock and covered in a blanket of coarse grassy bristles.
One of the Islands’ most famous landmarks, there are no signs to guide you from town or help you identify the right rocky outcrop (the Falkland Islands credit their tourists with a good amount of self-reliance); the road simply runs out and you start walking.
Four of us made the climb, but the wind was so strong that it was a solitary experience, conversation was impossible. So when we reached the top, we’d all enjoyed an hour of introspection, making the war memorial – a pile of stones supporting a cross and decorated with plaques – all the more moving.
We climbed down, returning to our Defender to find horses huddled round it, sheltering from the winds.
13 comments:
While you're there why not try the 56 mile yomp the Royal Marines did from San Carlos to Stanley, carrying 80lbs of kit.
I spent most of the walk up there, thinking how amazingly hard that must have been.
Yeah, not the easiest terrain...
Apparently it's like wales....the horror!
And we think we have bad weather.
My buttler got a bit nippy collecting my ciabatta this morning so don't go getting all smug.
The day before and the morning we took this was amazing sunshine. The weather changes fast here.
Yes, but is there a deli?
Hope you come again.
Vive la resistance.
Isn't it mid summer down there at present?
What led you to the Falklands Nick? It isn't the typical holiday destination. Are you in the TA or are you into battlefield tours?
Sounds like an interesting place to go either way.
Most of my friends who've been there end up sitting in the air base, counting the days before they go home....
Bring a couple of penguins back for Hilly Fields please...
...we'll spit-roast them
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