Yesterday we called in again at the Falkland Islands and I signed up for the Falkland Battlefields tour. The Falklands are of course famous for the 1982 war between Britain and Argentina over the sovereignty of the islands (known in Spanish as Las Islas Malvinas).With so much talk in the media over the last few weeks about global warming I was beginning to think we live on some sort of revolving oven, with melting glaciers, rising sea levels and increasing desertification. So what would the Falklands Islands be like in the middle of summer? Blazing sunshine? Lashings of highly dangerous UV rays? No, I arrived on the dock huddled up against the rain, freezing wind and sleet. It was so bad that our guide Frank kept apologising for the weather and he told us it was their worse summer season here for years.

There were three jiggers (asian fishing boats) in the harbour. They were small and rusty and I jokingly said to someone as we passed ‘How would you like to work on there?’ We learnt during the day that some 14 crew members had jumped overboard during the night and the day in an attempt to swim ashore and claim some sort of asylum. The thing is the ocean water is so cold that hypothermia can kill a man in five minutes. Two out of those 14 people never made it. I can’t even imagine how bad the conditions must be on those boats to make men risk their lives to escape. It seems to me sometimes that there is a lot of misery in the world that we know nothing about.

The tour bus took us to along a narrow road to Fitzroy settlement. Frank told us some interesting things, and we learnt that all the land on the islands had been owned by the Falkland Island Company before the war. He told us how people would come here to be shepherds, and were given a house to live in and a minimal salary which they were only able to spend it in a local store. Guess who owned that? That’s right, the same company. After the war Margaret Thatcher forcibly purchased the land and gave it back to the farmers who had been working very hard for so little. The FITC never bothered making any roads across the islands (or even bridges across the streams) so they were all built after that time.

We also learnt the Falkland Islands are financially self sufficient, making a 25 million pound annual income from the sale of fishing licenses, and have been so since 1833.

Along the way Frank talked about the battles of the Falkland Islands and we gazed outside at the bleak wintery landscape as we listened to the stories of the men who fought and died on this desolate moorland 25 years ago.

We finally arrived at the Fitzroy Settlement for tea and biscuits, and then we went to Port Pleasant to see the war memorials erected to the Welsh Guards and Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Frank explained to us that Port Pleasant was anything but, as thousands of men lost their lives here, mainly in World War II in battles against the Germans but also the Falklands war.

It was cold and desolate and bleak, and I found it impossible to imagine this empty and inhospitable place would be the scene of so much conflict, tragedy and death.

Fitzroy Settlement

Memorials at Port Pleasant

Bluff Cove