Mature Times travel writer Nigel Heath visits the bucolic Isles of Scilly
The saying about it being an ill wind that blows nobody any good, sprang easily to mind in a recent visit to the paradise Isles of Scilly.
My wife Jenny and I experienced the tail end of a particularly violent storm on our voyage out from Penzance to this small archipelago aboard the passenger and supply ship RMV Scillonian 111.
Stepping ashore in Hugh Town on St Mary’s, the largest of the five inhabited islands of St Agnes, Tresco, Bryher and St Martin’s, we always feel like we have made landfall on some sub-tropical paradise of dazzling white beaches, suspended between blue skies and turquoise seas.
On this most recent visit, the more settled weather represented the calm that had prevailed after that fierce storm, which had blown a particularly rich harvest of seaweed ashore in The Great Bay on St Martin’s, hence that reference about ill winds.
For nature’s bounty was most welcomed by a small group of enthusiasts on a seaweed foraging and pressing course in the island’s community hall.
It was being run by seaweed enthusiasts, Mel Molesworth, and Julia Bird, who were invited over to St Martin’s by islander Ella McLachlan, whose own enterprise called Phoenix and Providence, produces a range of skin care products made from seaweed.
Their workshop was all part of the annual Walk Scilly Week, staged to showcase much of what these beautiful islands have to offer.
We passed the community hall on our walk up from St Martin’s Higher Town Quay and on our way along the island’s single- track road, with its many fabulous views and vistas, to the Karma Hotel, which was to be our base for the next four days.
Had the tides been more favourable, then we and our luggage would have been landed on The Lower Town Quay, which is right outside the hotel at the top of a white, sandy beach, which would more than do justice to any desert island.
Built to resemble a row of stone-built cottages overlooking a myriad of islands, this hotel has arguably one of the best locations in the UK.
That afternoon we did a short walk over the headland to the sandy, and almost always deserted, Great Bay, before returning to the hotel’s seashore facing gardens for tea and later pre-dinner drinks.
Setting out again the following morning, we called in at the bakery, where Ella McLachlan’s husband, Barney, is the island’s baker, and treated ourselves to crab-filled roles.
They would certainly keep us going on our traditional circumnavigation of the island which takes us past the St Matin’s Vineyard and out along a sandy track that eventually trends around and up through riots of yellow coconut scented gorse to the islands unmistakable red and white ringed day mark.
This cone shaped structure was built back in 1683 as a navigational aid for seafarers and attracts island wanderers like bees to a honeypot.
From the day mark, the up and down, narrow and often rocky coastal footpath around a series of bays with magnificent ocean and island views and garlanded with an abundance of wild flowers, brings one back to the Karma Hotel.
All too soon our time on St Martins was over for another year, but this time the tide was in our favour and we had to walk no further than the slipway in front of the hotel to board the launch taking us back to St Marys.
Here we planned to complete the principal objective of our holiday, which was to participate in one of the main events of the Walk Scilly Week, namely the walk between the islands if Tresco and Bryher, which is only possible at times when the tide is at its lowest possible state.
Islanders celebrate by staging a festival or summer style fete midway between the two islands with live music a pop-up bar and cafe selling fresh crab rolls.
So, in order to make the very most of the experience, we joined a small group rock pool and seaweed foraging cross island expedition run by husband-and-wife team, Scott and Samaya Reid, and their young family, who live on St Mary’s where he is responsible for monitoring the archipelago’s water quality.
The family like nothing better than to spend their free time looking for crabs and a myriad of tiny sea creatures inhabiting pools and clusters of sea weed around the island shores and their enthusiasm for showing friends and visitors what was to be seen, eventually led to a business opportunity.
For Samaya went on to found Scilly Rock Pool Safaris inviting visitors to follow the falling tide in the crystal-clear waters and go looking for starfish, blue-rayed limpets and a host of other tiny sea creatures.
In order to participate in the crossing, something we had never done before, we took the launch going over to Tresco and joined Scott and Samaya and their three children and the other members of our small party outside the island stores.
From there, it was only a short walk to the beginning of the crossing where several hundred people had already started out and were heading for a line of distant flags, marking the half way point and the scene of the celebrations.
Scott and Samaya were soon introducing us to many of their tiny friends and by the time we reached the half-way point all the crab rolls were gone, but no matter because we treated ourselves to dressed crab served in a shell.
Saying farewell to our guide, we followed the line of people making their way to the sandy shores of Bryher and had enough time to walk around this delightfully wild island, passing high above Hell Bay where big Atlantic waves come crashing ashore, before returning to Church Quay in time for the 4.30pm boat back to St Marys.
