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EXCLUSIVE: Tour guides on the British archipelago have told of what it's like running tour businesses.
Dan Biggs is a tour guide on the Falkland Islands (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Falkland Islands tour guides have spoken of what it's like showing people around the British archipelago, nearly 44 years after the invading Argentines were ousted. Tony Smith, 64, of Discovery Falklands said Mount Harriet is one of the most accessible places to see, and has been described as an excellent example of how a night attack should be conducted.
He has retraced the route of the battle with the commanding officer at the time, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Vaux, who was later promoted to Major General. He has done the same with the company commander who led the attack that night of June 11, 1982, and a section commander.
Mr Smith said: "I get a lot of different people on battlefield tours, some friends or relatives of military personnel who fought here in 1982, some currently serving military personnel and a variety of others with a more general interest in what happened here at the time."
Tony Smith shows people around battlefield sites on the Falklands (Image: Tony Smith)
But he added that some who have travelled over from the country that still claims sovereignty over what they call the Malvinas can cause trouble.
Mr Smith said: "In the past, I have taken a lot of Argentines on battlefield tours but I tend to avoid them mostly now as a lot are coming with a political agenda and are looking for any opportunity to display Argentine flags and to be seen here on social media with their flag."
But the guide has seen a shift of late. Mr Smith said: "However, more recently there seems to have been an increase in younger Argentines visiting more independently, and some of these are more open-minded and do not seem so obsessed with the Argentine claim on the Falklands."
Another guide, Dan Biggs, 42, of Falklands Outdoors, whose family has been on the islands for more than 180 years, explained that one flight a week travels from Santiago to Mount Pleasant, stopping in Rio Gallegos in Argentina.
Dan Biggs is an expert on the distinctive landscape of the islands (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
"We get a lot of Argentines and veterans and families that will come down and visit," he said.
"And obviously they're very keen to see the battlefields."
When asked if that could be a bit awkward, Mr Biggs said: "Generally, it works well, and it's important that they can visit these sites and pay their respects as well.
"There's always nervousness in the air that things can go wrong and people waving Argentinian flags and stuff is always pretty controversial."
He added: "They push the rules a little bit sometimes."
Speaking to The Express while looking over Mount Longdon, the Two Sisters, Mount Tumbledown, Mount William and Goat Ridge, Mr Biggs said he gets a "wide range of people", but predominantly it is Brits from the UK who book his tours.
View of Stanley from the top of Mount Tumbledown (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
"They were heavily involved as children," he added. "Veterans and families, and people who just saw it on the news and heard about it, and want to kind of see it for themselves."
When asked if this interest is set to endure 44 years after the conflict, Mr Biggs said: "I think so.
"I think there will always be interest. There's some incredible stories of bravery and fighting against the odds."
Sometimes, tours of the archipelago are described as "dark tourism" due to the violent nature of events that occurred there during the 1982 conflict.
The website darktourism.com rates the islands as an eight out of 10 on its "darkometer".
It says: "For those dark tourists who are really into the category of battlefield tourism there are few better places in the world to engage in this, though it takes determined planning in advance and good guiding on the ground."
It added that "peacefulness is the prevailing impression of the atmosphere" in the Falklands today, with "dark tourism... almost exclusively taking the form of battlefield tours – mostly indeed out in the field, but also including a number of museums".
Other "war-related sites scattered all over the rest of the islands" are highlighted, including "countless individual memorial stones or cairns as well as yet more plane crash sites e.g. near Paragon House and Hammond Point in Lafonia or on Pebble Island".
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Mr Smith refuted the label, calling it "a load of rubbish".
"In our case, he added, "it is just relaying historical facts of what happened here in 1982 and with the hope of educating certain people with the hope that this never happens again!"
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