11. Cape Pembroke Half Marathon

In February I ran in the local half marathon, the Cape Pembroke Half Marathon. It was a tough course, starting on a road, then switching to off road and rubble track. It was very windy and not my fastest half marathon. The local TV company made a short video about, so I thought I would put it here.

10 - Bag the Bruck

Hi all. I thought I would do a short blog on Bag the Bruck. It is summer here so the weather is perfect for getting outside and cleaning up a little. There is a lot in the news at the minute about the problem of plastic waste and how the world might go about solving it, so it is an interesting time to be thinking about this.

Once you have watched the blog I have a few questions for below that you might think about. I also went through my pictures from the Christmas holiday and found pictures that I took of penguins that were unfortunately in close proximity to plastic in their habitat. You can see them below.

Do you know why reducing plastic waste in nature is important?

Can you think of a way of reducing the waste on beaches, both here and in Orkney?

Can you think of ways of reducing your class’s plastic use in a normal week?

9 - A trip to Kidney Island

Last Friday I took an evening trip to Kidney Island. The island is approximately a 35 minute boat journey from town. There are no current inhabitants, just an old hut remaining from when people used to head out there to cut the Tussac grass.

It was a fantastic evening where I was able to watch Rockhopper penguins up close. Until now I had only really seen them in the distance. 

8 A Short Christmas Post

This was a short video made on Christmas Eve but I forgot to post it. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday! The next video should be early in the new year.

7- Beach Stuff and Bag the Bruck

Hello all.

I am watching Blue Planet II and there is a clown fish playing with an old plastic bottle. It got me thinking of Bag the Bruck and the beaches here in Falkland Islands. This term my class will be learning about natural habitats and we will be talking about the effect of pollution and in particular plastic on the environment and the oceans.

The beaches here are quite different to home. They tend to vary depending on their location and the tides. Some beaches are pristine and you see no human waste whatsoever. Other beaches particularly those around towns and settlements can be quite messy just like we see at home.

I thought I would show you some of the items which I have found in the hills and on the beaches here, especially things that we would not find at home. I have picked up lots of sea glass and lots of driftwood. I do not know if that is because there is more of it here or because people are less interested in collecting it than they are in Orkney.

Have a great week!

This is a whale bone which my friend was kind enough to give me.

I think this is a penguin skull from a Gentoo penguin.

There are shells here but they tend to be quite small.

Another whale bone!

These bullets come from the hills around the town. Some are blank practice rounds but some have been fired and those ones probably date from the war 35 years ago.

There is a lot of sea glass here and a lot of it has writing on it.

I always pick up the pieces that say Scotland. Presumably these are whiskey bottles.

I like to pick up lots of driftwood, both big and small.

This little fishing weight caught my interest. There is often waste plastic on beaches, just like we see on our beaches at home. 

There is lots of very old black glass on beaches here. This bottle will be well over 100 years old.

These bullets probably come from the war 35 years ago. There are lots of these in the hills just a ten minute walk from my house.

I think this is the remains of an Argentine helmet from the war. I found it on a beach. I took it home because I didn't think it would last too much longer getting smashed up by the waves.

6- My Half Term Holiday and Snowy and Romeo Go Home

Hello all at Glaitness

I hope you all had a lovely holiday. I had a week off here also, so I took the chance to head out into the countryside. In the Falkland Islands the countryside is called ‘camp’ after the Spanish word for countryside, ’campo’. Camp is very big and very quiet. There are only a few hundred people living out there and for that reason there is no where to buy petrol and the food shop only opens for a few hours a week. You have to remember to take everything with you. 

The roads are also very different. They are not nice tarmac ones like in Orkney, they are quite rocky and rubbly and you need a 4x4 to drive on them. This picture shows road being worked on. There are no traffic lights, you are expected to drive straight through the road works.

This weeks main video is penguin based again! I will move on from penguins to show you more of the Falkland Islands soon! Enjoy!

I also had the chance to visit the southernmost suspension bridge in the world. It was made almost 100 years ago so that farmers could get their sheep across the rived Bodie. Nowadays there is a road that goes via a different route and it is a three mile walk across rough countryside if you want to reach the bridge. I did not cross it though, I touched it with my foot and the boards shook from side to side!

On our drive home we came across sheep being herded in for shearing. The farm that was doing the herding has 17,000 sheep, and a lot of them went straight past us on the road. If any of you like Take That (or even know who they are!), you will like the second video of them streaming past my car!

5 - Peat Day Outing - Sea Lion and Gentoo Penguins

I spent my Peat Cutting bank holiday out looking for wildlife. Here is a quick video and some pictures of what we found. I'll aim to get a video sorted about life at my new school for sometime next week.

On the way to Surf Bay I popped in to see SnowDrop and Romeo. They are very well and are now very accustomed to humans. They waddle over happily and eat as much fish as you will give them. They should be heading back to the wild in 3 or 4 weeks.