Another popular question before I moved was, “Will you need a car?” The answer is definitely yes! Obviously I didn’t have a car when I arrived. It was still the very early days of spring (think early March) and the weather was extremely variable, cold and sometimes rainy. My house is only 2 miles from the centre of Stanley – but walking into a stiff, head on wind and rain is not that enjoyable – the wind direction is generally westerly, which is the direction I walk to get to work. Fortunately others were quick to give me lifts – in fact I didn’t manage to get anyone to let me walk home for the first few days.

When I insisted on walking home the first time, I noticed that this is definitely odd behaviour – in 40 minutes of walking, I met precisely one other person who was walking their dog. It was going home time so lots of people were about, but they were all in their cars. Others confirmed that it’s true, locals drive everywhere even a few hundred metres. I can see that this is probably a good thing in winter but I’m not so sure that it’s necessary all the time in the summer.

There are no buses in Stanley (apart from tourist ones) and a few taxis, so really to get out and about – to go to the supermarket, or to walk near Stanley or to see the penguins you do need a car. But what sort can you buy and what’s a good idea?

The only brand new vehicles sold here are Landrovers – there is a dealer in town, who will get you whatever you want. They and another garage import used cars and sell them on – pretty much everything is at least All Wheel Drive. You can also decide to ship a car from the UK to the Islands – which might be how I’ve seen a Fiat Uno and an old Jaguar in the streets of Stanley – non 4WD cars are referred to as summer cars – and households with garages may have one. The other way to buy a car is to buy one off someone else and there’s a Facebook group for car sales (there’s a Facebook group for everything important here – it’s a key part of how the Islands operate!). I started to take a keen interest in what everyone was driving to try and get my eye in.

At the end of my first week I bought a car! Someone who was leaving the islands in October was selling their car, someone else told me it was a good deal, bizarrely the person selling and I had met once in the UK at a Further Education meeting in Hampshire. I managed to agree an appointment to see it first on the Saturday. We sat in the (enormous) car and shared how we both knew nothing about cars. He told me its history, I drove it round the block, they told me what they wanted and I agreed to pay it – I knew there were two other people coming that afternoon and cars go very quickly here. So that was it, I’d bought a car. Reassuringly both the other people who came to see it wanted to buy it as well and they’d opened the bonnet and had a look. Only slight issue was that I wouldn’t get the car until 22nd October and that was quite a long way away.

So for a week I used a pool car to get around – which turned out to be a Discovery

This was quite a change in size from my Seat Ibiza…. the bonnet seemed to go on for ever.

Then my very kind PA said, ” I could lend you my “spare” rover – so she did – for 4 weeks. I’m not sure she’s going to let me give her anything for the loan, so I’ve filled it up.

I’ve grown fond of the rover – although it has one particular hazard… it’s had a lift kit fitted to give it height off the ground for more clearance and you might notice it doesn’t have any steps… so getting in and out is a challenge. Fortunately I’m tall and the steering wheel helps me haul myself in.

Finally, this week I took delivery of my own car and dropped its previous owners off at the airport. It’s a Mitsubishi Pajero, with 5 seats and a large boot – or 7 seats! It is vast but it’s easy to drive and should do everything off road that I want to do.

It’s definitely a Japanese import as all the useful information on how to put the extra seats up, are in Japanese – as is the screen information system! Some time on Google ahead I feel, trying to work out which menu option is the language choice…

Effectively my little journey through these cars does demonstrate what you’re likely to find in the average car park here. It’s definitely a 4 wheel drive world and there’s a reason for that – but I’ll save that story for another day.