Dawn of a new day breaks over a new island, West Point Island. Unlike the previous islands that were owned by conservation trust West Point is still privately owned and, although much of it is managed for conservation there is still some small scale sheep farming. The owner of the island who is now 94 lives in Stanley, he was given the island as a 25 birthday present by his mother. We were welcomed ashore by the farm / island manager who lives at the settlement just above the harbour. The settlement here is tucked into a small hollow and surrounded by introduced trees that act as a wind break, really quite idyllic. As a reminder of the strong ties with the UK tucked away behin the settlement sere several decaying Land Rovers :-).
After returning to the ship we motored round to a new anchorage at Grave Cove for an easy landing on a shelving white sand beach (anywhere warmer and these beaches would have been completely degraded by holiday developments) to visit the largest Gentoo colony in the Falklands and for a cliff top walk too a small Albatross colony.
The walk around above the cliffs (to visit another albatross colony) was on steeply sloping ground but with good footing and certainly well within the capability of anyone who has been mountain walking before. Although some of them claimed to be seasoned travellers and trekkers some of the group complained about being exposed to this level of risk. I explained, supported by Maria one of the guides, that they were not obliged to go on and that they should just move out of the way of those of us who were happy to proceed and join with us again on the way back as we had to return by the same route. This had already been explain to them previously. Not sure if my advice was well received 🙂