The Peak, from the north.
A littlie but a goodie. At the southern end of West Falkland lies Port Stephens, the attractive harbour is sheltered from the Southern Ocean by a hilly peninsula and the most distinctive of these is the 700 foot Stephens Peak, 'the Peak' as its referred to has 2 distinct rocky summits connected by a saddle. Further along the peninsula to the east is the unusual rock formations of Indian Village, to the west is the sand beach of Wood Cove and beyond impressive sea cliffs culminating in Calm Head.
Approached from the north its an easy walk up to a large gorse bush about half way up, it then gets pretty steep to the first peak with a little bit of a scramble if thats your thing. The exposed quartzite of the peak is fantastically eroded by the prevailing wind, very different from the outcrops further inland. Between the 2 peaks is a grassy saddle that almost appears to be mown (I guess partly due to the rabbits that inhabit the area, much to Booms excitement).
Wood Cove, can't see from the photo but theres a big Gentoo penguin colony down there.
Eroded quartzite on the second peak.
Second peak, from just below the saddle.
Looking across Port Stephens to the NE from the sandbeach below the peak.
Calm Head, over 700 feet high, been there but didn't have the nerve to go out onto the head itself (very narrow indeed)
Looking over Port Stephens toward Mt Alice in the distance.
Me & Boom on the top, very windy.
Hi Benco, this looks like being a really interesting Blog, great to see and learn a bit more about the Falkland Islands. Looks quite similar to parts of Northern Ireland and the West Coast of Scotland.
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ReplyDeleteHi Mac.
ReplyDeleteYep, windy & treeless, nice in the summer though, that day a Pt Stephens was stonking weather.
I've just started this blogging stuff so I posted a couple of last summers walks to dip my toe in, more will be coming once the weather bucks up.
Look forward to it, I'll have to hunt up a map of the Falklands to put everything in perspective.
ReplyDeleteNot many decent maps of West Falkland to be had I reckon, I'll dust off my creaky drawing skills and post a map with enough info to find the locations.
ReplyDeleteI think we might have to extend the parameters of our mission and come bag some islands out there, the scenery looks fantastic, and the beaches look just like Northern Scotland. Perhaps after the Hebrides, Shetland and Orkney this will have to be our next major British archipelago to visit!
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