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Colleen & Tom's Explorations
Leisurely start to the day - the ship is running quite late due to the heavy weather we've had over the last couple of days, so we had time for a good brekkie up in the Lido. When we went down to the lounge to join our shore excursion we caught up with a few of the Bunniks Crew. Warren and Mel are going on the same tour as us. We went ashore by tender and then were put into a coach for our drive across the island. As we made our way (one and a half hours each way) the local tour guide gave us a rundown of the events leading up to the Falkland Islands war of 1982, when Argentina wanted to take ownership of the little group of islands. The 2xgreats grandfather of our guide moved out to the Falklands back in the 1800s from England. The Falkland Islands people are very grateful to Maggie Thatcher for having put together the support and backup needed to reclaim the island and fight for their freedom. The battle was quite fierce, with some battles being fought with the bayonets on the end of the rifles. We went out to a remote place where we saw two memorials to the soldiers on ships that were set on fire. We also saw graves of soldiers whose families let them be buried on the island. Our tour guide lost an eye in the battle when the Brits dropped a bomb in the wrong place. We were also taken to a farming community's local hall for tea/coffee and cookies, and served by the little man's wife. He then took us to the memorial to a Welsh soldier who had been a Hell's Angel before the war and whose memorial still gets visited by ex-fellow soldiers from his company. We saw men de-mining the land. They have teams come in from Zimbabwe (they're very experienced at de-mining) to do the de-mining every summer. This summer they found 2,500 mines and they figure there's still 20,000 to go. They're not in a hurry because innocent people are not getting killed by their anti-personnel land mines as they are in other countries. Only one of this year's mines was damaged/rusted - the rest were in perfect condition. They take them down to the quarry and burn them. We also saw their government buildings, their school, their hospital and their new housing estate! We may have bought a souvenir or two as well! When we returned to the ship we had time to freshen up and go to dinner - which was just awesome! Peanut Butter cake for desert (tasted like Reece's cups). And a scoop of mango sorbet! The kiwi/Aussie chef came out and chatted to us again.
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