Denis and I spent the first two weeks of February 2014 in the Falkland Islands. We used International Tours and Travel (ITT) to book our trip to the Falklands, working with them to create our preferred itinerary. After looking at their wildlife calendar we timed our visit to coincide with when the Gentoo, Magellanic, Rockhopper and King penguins (the four main penguin species breeding on the islands) and the Black-browed albatross would have chicks.

I chose our destinations primarily for the abundance and accessibility of the wildlife, not only Penguins but also Striated caracara, Southern elephant seals, South American sea lions, many sea birds and a host of waterfowl and passerines.

We spent our first night in Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, and then visited the following islands for 2 or 3 nights: Sea Lion, Pebble, Saunders and Carcass with a day trip to West Point. We spent one night at Port Howard before flying back to Stanley for our final two nights, with a grand finale visit to the King penguin colony at Volunteer Point on our last full day in the Falklands.

We also spent the month of February 2015 in the Falklands on a photographic expedition for our book LAND ROVERS OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS.

Flights to and from Chile only leave and depart on Saturdays with LAN. It is possible to fly with LAN to and from London, UK via Madrid. All internal flights in the Falklands are operated by Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS) which operates on demand.

In the gallery below you will find images of Stanley.

This video was taken by Denis on Pebble Island to the north of West Falkland. During our stay we had a full day tour of the eastern part of the Island where there are many penguin colonies including Gentoo, Rockhopper and Magellanic. Our guide explained that if we sat still near a colony the penguins, who are very curious, would probably come to see us. It was an amazing experience to be surrounded by these Gentoo penguins.