Gypsy Cove

It was a beautiful day, so when I got home from the hospital I made the spontaneous decision to head out on a walk to Gypsy Cove, a beach local to Stanley which a number of people had mentioned and home to magellanic penguins, and possibly more exciting to me, black crowned night herons.

Time was going to be a bit tight as I set off just before 5pm and the cove is about 4 miles away, so I figured that I could just about make it out and back before it got dark. It turned out, though, to be a further walk than I’d anticipated, in part because I lost the path at one point so had to follow the road which was less direct, not to mention, less enjoyable. Although much of the path out of Stanley passes through industrial areas, there are good views across the water and some interesting wrecks to be seen. 

Christ Church Cathedral

I decided not to use the stile!

Approaching the beach were some very attractive dunes, but they were all fenced off due to the risk of mines in the area. What I hadn’t realised is that Gypsy Cove itself is inaccessible for this reason and that you can only walk around the top of the cliffs, looking down to the beach. So much for my image of photographing the magellanics close up. By the time I arrived, though, there was beautiful evening light the sun was already too low in the sky to reach the beach in any case. When I finally reached the cove I’d walked about 9km, so rather further than originally anticipated and it was closing in on 7pm, which only left me with just over an hour of daylight for the walk back. Fortunately a couple arrived in a car as I was returning to the car park so I very cheekily asked for a ride back to Stanley and occupied myself photographing some Falkland Thrushes and a Dark-faced Ground-tyrant (wonderful name! but I didn’t manage to get a decent photo) whilst I waited for them to finish their walk.

Yorke Beach

Falkland Thrush