A town called Egmont

NINETY MILES WEST-NORTH-WEST of Stanley, Saunders Island is home to the Pole-Evans family, 6,500 sheep, cows, both pet and working dogs, some horses, one pig plainly being fattened up for Christmas, albatross colonies, Johnny Rooks, countless penguins, the occasional dead whale, and the site of the oldest British settlement on the 780 islands that comprise the Falklands.

Thanks to the infamously changeable Falklands weather, our little red FIGAS air taxi had been delayed for the morning, so once David Pole-Evans and his wife and daughter (see also: the fire service) had collected us from the airstrip, and we’d driven the few hundred metres over to “the Settlement”, and had a cup of tea, there was only really a couple of hours of mid-autumnal light left in the day.

“How far is it to Port Egmont?” I