San Carlos Water – Sunday 23 Jan 11

Ajax Bay

San Carlos Jetty

I wanted to visit Ajax Bay and see the ruins of a refrigeration plant, a project from the early 1950s which had intended to produce mutton for transportation by sea between the Falklands and Southampton. Sadly the plant survived for a little less than two years, sheep in the Falklands had been bred for wool and their meat was not necessarily the right quality. In 1982 these buildings were used as a military hospital. It was eerie walking around the site, now very derelict. In fact the only sound was corrugated iron creaking as it was tugged by the wind. Even the RM Commando flag burled silently. On the opposite side of San Carlos Water, a half an hour’s drive by road (well I say road but it is more like a yellow grit track), is San Carlos settlement. San Carlos was one of the landing sites used by the Task Force. Seeing the landing site today with blue sky and sunshine, it is quite impossible to imagine the noise and the activity that must have taken place back on 21 May 1982.