Last day with our golf cart so we are heading to the southern part of St. Mary's today. There looks to be a lighthouse on the small peninsula that way out of Old Town and I do like a good lighthouse. We figure to park in the same area by the beach and the path looks fairly straight forward around the end of the island to the lighthouse. Our Scilly Cart map has a couple of local features marked on it that we will pass as well.
As today is Monday, we figure we can head back to the pottery place as well and go to another craft store that is close to the golf cart place. I love looking at crafts and such even if I don't buy anything. Gives me inspiration for trying to do some things.
So we left our BnB and walked to pick up our cart once more
. We took the long way around to get to Old Town and that way we were able to go by the pottery place. He had some wonderful pots there. What we liked the most were his glazes. Really would have loved to get this very tall thin vase but just wasn't sure at all how to get it home and while he probably would have shipped it, we just don't need a tall thin vase. It would have to be stored as one of the cats in our house is rather clumsy and very inquisitive so many of my breakable items have been put into boxes for later enjoyment. We did get a small vase and a candle holder with the glazes that we liked.
Now we've got a package in our cart and while the Isles seem very calm and trustworthy, we still decide to take it back to our room before continuing. No sense leaving it in the cart for temptation. Then we head to the parking at Old Town and start down the path to the end of the island and the lighthouse.
On the way is an old church and a cemetery. As there is a fence in front of us, we guess that the path must go through the cemetery somehow. The church is very small but it is open so we walk in to see the small stained glass windows
. Only has about 5 pews on either side but it appears to still be a working church. The cemetery is rather extensive and while overgrown some, not totally and has a beloved but faded English garden feel. A man is working on the yucca plants and trimming the trees and pulling weeds. We stop to talk to him. He asks my hubby if he wants to help. Ever the gentleman and helpful person, my hubby says of course and asks what he would have him do. Luckily, the guy was kidding and was more than happy to stop work and talk to us for awhile.
He told us some of the history of the area and of the cemetery. He's retired now but he used to work there taking care of the gardens all the time. Now he only does it a couple of days a week for pay but says he seems like he's there much more. Takes a lot of maintenance with all the trees and trimming between gravestones. Finally we get around to asking about the path. He tells us that we go back to the fence and there is a stile over the fence. He recommends that we take that path until we get to the second stile then we go uphill and away from the coastal path because it is narrow and muddy today and probably slippery. Sounds like good advice.
As we climb over the stile, a family comes along behind us heading the same way and since I'm rather slow, we step aside to let them pass
. We are walking along the Old Town Harbour and the tide is almost all out so not a lot of boats in the harbour but lots of exposed rocks and seaweed. As we go around the corner there is a rock beach where people have done the stacking stones ritual. We come across this phenomenon in many places around the world where people have stacked stones just cuz. Originally stones were stacked as cairns and then later as directions. now there are many different stores and histories of stacking stones, too many for this small short blog but you can look it up in Wikipedia but just typing in stacking stones and get all kinds of info. Often when we come across a lot of stacked stones, we will make our own stack as well or if it is one big stack, we will add to it, such as the cairns we have come across in Nepal. But today we stopped for some photos and then went on our way.
We are moving away from the seashore as we climb higher. There is a path that is still running along the edge of the shore but we think that's where the churchman meant that it got wet and muddy. There are people still taking this path but I'm all for keeping it safe and slow these days. As we get higher, we can see the lighthouse across the small plateau. doesn't look like much of a lighthouse but hey, the views are great and we can see off both sides of the island from here
.
There are several points where you can meander down on the rocks and even get down to the water's edge in many spots but that's a lot of up and down and clambering around on rocks so we're just going to do the ole folks meander across what looks like a moor with the short lavender and other ground plants. We get to the lighthouse and sit down to watch the boats and the sea. There are some bird rocks offshore (lots of birds sitting on the rocks). Ought to be some seal rocks too but we can't find any. Some of the rocks are named in our map like Pulpit Rock. Not quite sure which one it is but there are some that look rather like a pulpit - with a good imagination.
We have some fruit and a drink and enjoy the scenery and the wind and the sun. We're not alone up here as there are a few families wandering around and some couples on the rocks. But it's still a lovely place and feels very solitary. The lighthouse itself has a small building with it but it's not a house that would have ever had people living in it or working in it. just an automatic short tower on a high spot.
After a bit, we head back via almost the same path. There are some stones that could be Standing Stones or they could have been part of a fence at one time. We are choosing to believe that they were Standing Stones in the manner of Stonehenge or Avebury. When you have nothing to go on, why not make it match your desires!
Back at our cart, we head for Hugh Town and stop in the industrial park to find the craft center. It is a center and a workshop and people are inside doing stained glass, my favorite. There are some paintings and jewellery as well but nothing much that we liked. Some of the stained and fused glass was excellent though as it gave a real feeling of waves. I must figure out how to do that!
get some sandwiches to eat on the beach where we can see the quay and watch boats coming and going. A small sailboat comes into the harbor and we watch the sailor tie up to a buoy and take down the sails. We are watching to see how the sailor gets from the boat to show. The person disappears and then comes around the back of the boat in a small dingy
. Don't know where it came from because it wasn't tied to the buoy before the sailboat arrived and it wasn't being hauled behind the sailboat. As the person is rowing into shore, for the first time,we can see that it is a woman. Yea, go girl! She's probably about late 50's from her looks or else she's much younger but has spent a lot of time in the wind on the water. She did really handle that sailboat expertly.
Tonight is our night to eat on the beach on the opposite side of Hugh Town, at the take away trailer of fish and chips so we don't need to make a booking. By now we have walked about 5 miles every day - for me - with my hubby adding the extra miles on golf cart days to return the cart and walk home to the BnB. That's probably about 4 miles more than my knees have been happy with each day so we're done for today too. One nice thing a day is all I've been able to manage but at least I got here and saw stuff which is much better than a lot of the Brits we know (yes, I know, you never go visit what is in your backyard!). So I get dropped off again at our BnB and hubby takes back the cart for the last time.
Some more relaxing with the feet up and then we walk down to the beach to get our fish and chips
. The mobile food truck is quite busy and popular and we are told it will be 45 minutes before we get our meal. wow. Hardly ever will we walk into a restaurant and stay if the wait is that long but this is the thing to do tonight so we find a seat and sit and watch the beach and the waves and the seagulls while we wait.
On the beach is a very unusual sailboat. It has been pulled up on the beach and is sitting about 5 or 6 feet off the beach on "feet". Probably not the technical term and I was also informed that a sailboat of that size (probably at least 35 feet long) is now a yacht!. This boat is from France and comes over here every year about this time. the "feet" are two extensions off the bow that have flat platforms on the bottom so the boat can rest on it. The boat has also a double rudder in the stern that it is resting on as well. My hubby goes down to walk around it. really interesting boat but I'd really love to see how they get it up on the beach like that.
As the sun is going down, it is getting chilly and windy so I move over to some built in indentations in the wall with seats for people. The seagulls are very interested in what everyone is doing on the beach. As there have been a lot of seagull attack information in the news lately, we are being very careful to watch them as well. Think it is Brighton that the gulls will swoop down on people and steal their chips. It's so bad that it has been compared to Tippi Hendron in The Birds. We don't want that.!
Our fish and chips are finally done and hubby brings them down for us to eat. There is a crepe truck there as well but by the time we were done with our dinner, all the trucks had already cleared out and left so no dessert. Good meal and we only had a couple of seagulls try to walk up to us and were quickly shooed away.
Ah foo - only one day left in the lovely Isles of Scilly.
Showing posts with label St. Mary's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Mary's. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2015
Friday, August 7, 2015
Rainy Day on Tresco
Our plans for Scilly was to spend a lot of time relaxing due to my bum knee. That had not included the hike up the hill and stairs to reach our room every time we wanted to take a break but that's pretty much what it was going to have to be. We had also thought that we would just spend one day going to a different island. Per our book, it looked like there was enough to do on St. Mary's that we wouldn't have to jaunt around to the different isles plus there are always the "round isles tours" that take you out to see sea birds and seals and such. Of course, we had learned upon arrival that the puffins (my favorite bird of all times) had already left the isles and gone out to sea. dang it. I figure all the people who have gotten fantastic photos of puffins and put them into calendars have all left their calendars with the puffins so that the puffins know when the end of July is, when they are supposed to go to sea, and even though it was just the first week of August, the puffins have all followed the calendar and left. Well, it's either that or the sun and weather tells them to go
. I like my explanation better.
So we have our breakfast at our BnB and head down to the quay to sign up for a day trip to Tresco which is just "next door" as isles go. Tresco has an abbey garden that is supposed to be wonderful and we like gardens so thought it would be a good stop and not too much walking. The queue to get tickets for the boats wasn't too bad but we decided we'd take the 12:30 trip over so that I wouldn't be on my feet quite so much. We got our tickets and have a couple of hours now to kill before going to Tresco.
We are looking at the various signs and see that there is a "gig race" tonight for 5 pounds. Not sure what a gig is other than the vernacular for a musical engagement. Pretty sure they are not talking about that. We walk back to the High Street of Hugh Town (not very busy as there is the steady flow of people heading to the quay in the morning and empties out the town). I'm a bit cold and see a couple of things in a store that look warmer than stuff I have so we go into the store and I end up with a really nice denim jacket. I needed another coat like I need another umbrella but we always seem to buy umbrellas and jackets when we travel because we've mis-calculated the temperature or the rain
.
Into the Atlantic Hotel to make a booking for dinner. We are lead into the area next door which is where the restaurant actually is and make our booking. We ask him to explain what a gig race is. it's a boat race! Officially it's a "pilot gig boat". History: when the Isles of Scilly were a major stopping point for ships coming and going from England and Cornwall, pilots were needed to get the ships into and out of harbors because of all the treacherous rocks around the Isles. Gig boats would race out to the ships to get their pilot out there first because if you didn't get your pilot there first, you would be out of a job and then no money. So the gig races have continued into the modern day as a sports competition and the Isles now host world championships. The gigs have a 6 person crew (there are female crews and male crews. The females races are on Wed night and the male races on Fri night) and a coxswain. it's all rowing. the boats are ocean going longboats like long dorys or tenders. Anyway, it all sounded quite exciting so we thought we'd head out to go to the races tonight and made our dinner booking accordingly so we'd have time to make the boat. Watchers go out in boats and follow the gigs back to shore. The gigs row out 3 miles from St. Mary's and race back to the harbor.
Getting ahead of myself a bit. We still had a lot of time before our ride to Tresco so back up the hill, back up the steps and relax and read time in our room. Then back down to the harbor for our 12:30 boat. This is the first time we've actually seen the boats. We are going with the St. Mary's Boatmen Association which runs a good many of the boats between the Isles and on the tours around the Isles. There are other organizations that have boats as well but we didn't use any of them. The boat is open, as in no top or shelter. It holds some 80 people overall on all the benches and seats. I am very glad I have purchased my denim jacket and also I got a plastic poncho as it continues to drizzle on us.
The boat is pretty full and we head to Tresco which takes about 15 minutes. There are two landings on most of the Isles, one for high tide and one for low tide. I had thought we would go into the landing that is at the town on Tresco and we would then slowly walk down the Isle through the town and to the gardens BUT we landed instead at the far end of the island. I am messing around with my plastic poncho and umbrella to keep the camera dry and we are the very last ones to walk up the hill and around the sand dunes and by the time we got to the long walkway that takes you towards the town and the gardens, there are only about 6 people left on the walkway in front of us
. Very eerie to be almost the only ones in sight. As we stopped to take some photos of the dunes and the tors (large rock formations on the Isles), we were then by ourselves amongst the aggapanthas and the tors and dunes.
Luckily it was super easy to find the gardens as there is no way to go anywhere from that landing without passing them. We paid our money and headed into the gardens. This is what the Abbey Gardens website ( https://www.tresco.co.uk/enjoying/abbey-garden/ ) has to say about themselves:
"" The sub-tropical Abbey Garden is a glorious exception - a perennial Kew without the glass - shrugging off salt spray and Atlantic gales to host thousands of exotic plants.
Many of these tender floral gems would stand no chance on the Cornish mainland, less than 30 miles away. Yet even at the winter solstice more than 300 plants will be in flower. All in all, the tropical garden is home to species from 80 countries, ranging from Brazil to New Zealand and Burma to South Africa.
By building tall wind-breaks, Augustus Smith channelled the weather up and over the network of walled enclosures that he built around the Priory ruins and the three terraces he carved from the rocky, south facing slope looking towards St Mary's
. You can learn more about the history of the garden here. The hotter, drier terraces at the top of the garden suit South African and Australian plants; those lower down provide the humidity that favours flora from New Zealand and South America.
EXTRAORDINARY DIVERSITY
The diversity of plant life to be found within the Abbey Garden is extraordinary. Fringing the lush grid of paths which criss-cross the gardens are a host of succulents, towering palm trees and giant, lipstick-red flame trees. Here you can find flowers of the King Protea and the handsome Lobster Claw. Walk amongst the great blue spires of Echium, brilliant Furcraea, Strelitzia and shocking-pink drifts of Pelargonium.
The treasures to be found within the Abbey Garden are not limited to the floral kind. The garden is also home to a collection of shipwrecked figureheads, which are displayed at the Valhalla Museum.
At the entrance to the garden is the Garden Visitor Centre with a well-stocked gift shop, a large cafeteria and a history room.""
We wandered the gardens in the rain, sometimes very hard rain where we would stop to stand in a shelter of any kind (man-made, natural), and sometimes just a drizzle. There were other people about enjoying the gardens but not many. Just when we had decided we had seen almost all the trees and flowers we could stand, we saw the sign pointing to the Valhalla Museum of figureheads and headed in that direction. A very good museum of figureheads and signs from shipwreaks. It was all an open air museum so a good many of the figureheads were on the walls in the rain, as well. My favorite was a fish. If they had just figured out how to make the rain appear to be coming out of its mouth, it would have been the pinnacle of the figureheads.
To the gift shop and then a sandwich for lunch but no places to sit so we went out to the entryway courtyard and found some benches under shelter to eat. We had a little over an hour for the next ferry back or two hours for the last ferry back. Debating whether to go to New Grimsby, the town or not, but decided that my knee would not hold up to going in both directions and there was a large beach that could use some beach combing if we wanted to spend an hour doing that before the ferry. so the beach it was.
Nice walking along the beach and finding limpet shells, mostly. Not much sea glass but limpet shells are cool. One other couple only on the beach. Luckily we could find a way off the beach and to the sidewalk to the ferry pick up point. And it is now raining hard again. And not quite time for the ferry. And a line of people already waiting. And a boat unloading some stuff so we can't even get on the quay yet. But we did get on the boat back to St. Mary's and got back in time to go back to the room for another spot of feet up and knee pampering before back down the hill for dinner.
Good dinner at Atlantic Inn and then back to the quay for the gig races. The gig races are popular as there were three boats being filled. We picked the closest one and sat on the left side. Once all three boats were filled and there didn't appear to be anyone else coming, we all left and headed out to the gig race spot which is west of St. Agnes (the Isle on the other side of St. Mary's) and starts close to three rocks sticking out of the sea. There was a lot of maneuvering around before the boats started racing. There were 6 gigs. Couldn't really tell where the starting point was or exactly who was starting them. The three boats that had come out from St. Mary's were not alone to watch the races. All together, about 7 large boats full of people and half dozen smaller private boats. Some of the boats had cheering crews for one or another of the gigs.
We are sort of drifting along with the motor at idle. The rowers are almost ready to go and most of the men who are rowing take off their shirts. My hubby and I are bundled up in most of the warm clothes we have brought with hats and zipped up to the chin. It's not raining now but it is very chilly. Suddenly, somehow, all the rowers heard the start and we are off. Our chase boat revved up the motors and we are going lickety split now! I never realized people could row that fast but we seem to be going quite a good pace to keep up with them. Our boat is on the left side of the gigs so we are sitting on the further side away from the gigs. dang. Wish we'd sat on the right side of the boat.
Of the six gigs, two gigs are left behind quickly. Three are keeping neck and neck for a mile or more. One is kind of trailing the three leaders but they slowly fall behind. It's a three nautical mile race (I think that is slightly less than three land miles). People in other boats are chanting and cheering. People in our boat are cheering for Bonnet (one of the boats). Two of the gigs pull ahead at about 2 miles finished mark. One of the leaders is Bonnet. We are getting close to St. Mary's now and people are lined up around the Garrison (the old fort on top of the hill) to watch the races come home. This is really exciting!
As we get closer to the harbor, Bonnet is slowly pulling ahead. Our boat is keeping pace and we haven't slowed down once so these men have been rowing fast for almost 3 miles now. No wonder they took off their shirts before starting. They must be really sweating by now. We head into the harbor and as they pass a certain point, a horn goes off signaling that they have reached the finish. Bonnet wins by more than a boat length but not much more than that. Second place comes in and third place isn't too far behind. We sit in our boat and wait for all six gigs to finish even though it is several minutes before the last two boats come past the finish line. When every boat passes the line, everyone in the chase and watch boats all cheer and applaud. It's cool that everyone is doing that because even the last boat over the line worked hard and rowed hard. my gosh, this is a very, very hard race.
When the last boat is in, our boat goes back to the docks as well and everyone piles off and leaves. good night. we head back up to our hotel, back up the hill, back up the stairs. We haven't done that much, overall, but my knees are saying enough. thank goodness you've decided to go to bed. lovely day in spite of the rain. exciting race. a very good day in Scilly.
. I like my explanation better.
So we have our breakfast at our BnB and head down to the quay to sign up for a day trip to Tresco which is just "next door" as isles go. Tresco has an abbey garden that is supposed to be wonderful and we like gardens so thought it would be a good stop and not too much walking. The queue to get tickets for the boats wasn't too bad but we decided we'd take the 12:30 trip over so that I wouldn't be on my feet quite so much. We got our tickets and have a couple of hours now to kill before going to Tresco.
We are looking at the various signs and see that there is a "gig race" tonight for 5 pounds. Not sure what a gig is other than the vernacular for a musical engagement. Pretty sure they are not talking about that. We walk back to the High Street of Hugh Town (not very busy as there is the steady flow of people heading to the quay in the morning and empties out the town). I'm a bit cold and see a couple of things in a store that look warmer than stuff I have so we go into the store and I end up with a really nice denim jacket. I needed another coat like I need another umbrella but we always seem to buy umbrellas and jackets when we travel because we've mis-calculated the temperature or the rain
.
Into the Atlantic Hotel to make a booking for dinner. We are lead into the area next door which is where the restaurant actually is and make our booking. We ask him to explain what a gig race is. it's a boat race! Officially it's a "pilot gig boat". History: when the Isles of Scilly were a major stopping point for ships coming and going from England and Cornwall, pilots were needed to get the ships into and out of harbors because of all the treacherous rocks around the Isles. Gig boats would race out to the ships to get their pilot out there first because if you didn't get your pilot there first, you would be out of a job and then no money. So the gig races have continued into the modern day as a sports competition and the Isles now host world championships. The gigs have a 6 person crew (there are female crews and male crews. The females races are on Wed night and the male races on Fri night) and a coxswain. it's all rowing. the boats are ocean going longboats like long dorys or tenders. Anyway, it all sounded quite exciting so we thought we'd head out to go to the races tonight and made our dinner booking accordingly so we'd have time to make the boat. Watchers go out in boats and follow the gigs back to shore. The gigs row out 3 miles from St. Mary's and race back to the harbor.
Getting ahead of myself a bit. We still had a lot of time before our ride to Tresco so back up the hill, back up the steps and relax and read time in our room. Then back down to the harbor for our 12:30 boat. This is the first time we've actually seen the boats. We are going with the St. Mary's Boatmen Association which runs a good many of the boats between the Isles and on the tours around the Isles. There are other organizations that have boats as well but we didn't use any of them. The boat is open, as in no top or shelter. It holds some 80 people overall on all the benches and seats. I am very glad I have purchased my denim jacket and also I got a plastic poncho as it continues to drizzle on us.
The boat is pretty full and we head to Tresco which takes about 15 minutes. There are two landings on most of the Isles, one for high tide and one for low tide. I had thought we would go into the landing that is at the town on Tresco and we would then slowly walk down the Isle through the town and to the gardens BUT we landed instead at the far end of the island. I am messing around with my plastic poncho and umbrella to keep the camera dry and we are the very last ones to walk up the hill and around the sand dunes and by the time we got to the long walkway that takes you towards the town and the gardens, there are only about 6 people left on the walkway in front of us
. Very eerie to be almost the only ones in sight. As we stopped to take some photos of the dunes and the tors (large rock formations on the Isles), we were then by ourselves amongst the aggapanthas and the tors and dunes.
Luckily it was super easy to find the gardens as there is no way to go anywhere from that landing without passing them. We paid our money and headed into the gardens. This is what the Abbey Gardens website ( https://www.tresco.co.uk/enjoying/abbey-garden/ ) has to say about themselves:
"" The sub-tropical Abbey Garden is a glorious exception - a perennial Kew without the glass - shrugging off salt spray and Atlantic gales to host thousands of exotic plants.
Many of these tender floral gems would stand no chance on the Cornish mainland, less than 30 miles away. Yet even at the winter solstice more than 300 plants will be in flower. All in all, the tropical garden is home to species from 80 countries, ranging from Brazil to New Zealand and Burma to South Africa.
By building tall wind-breaks, Augustus Smith channelled the weather up and over the network of walled enclosures that he built around the Priory ruins and the three terraces he carved from the rocky, south facing slope looking towards St Mary's
. You can learn more about the history of the garden here. The hotter, drier terraces at the top of the garden suit South African and Australian plants; those lower down provide the humidity that favours flora from New Zealand and South America.
EXTRAORDINARY DIVERSITY
The diversity of plant life to be found within the Abbey Garden is extraordinary. Fringing the lush grid of paths which criss-cross the gardens are a host of succulents, towering palm trees and giant, lipstick-red flame trees. Here you can find flowers of the King Protea and the handsome Lobster Claw. Walk amongst the great blue spires of Echium, brilliant Furcraea, Strelitzia and shocking-pink drifts of Pelargonium.
The treasures to be found within the Abbey Garden are not limited to the floral kind. The garden is also home to a collection of shipwrecked figureheads, which are displayed at the Valhalla Museum.
At the entrance to the garden is the Garden Visitor Centre with a well-stocked gift shop, a large cafeteria and a history room.""
We wandered the gardens in the rain, sometimes very hard rain where we would stop to stand in a shelter of any kind (man-made, natural), and sometimes just a drizzle. There were other people about enjoying the gardens but not many. Just when we had decided we had seen almost all the trees and flowers we could stand, we saw the sign pointing to the Valhalla Museum of figureheads and headed in that direction. A very good museum of figureheads and signs from shipwreaks. It was all an open air museum so a good many of the figureheads were on the walls in the rain, as well. My favorite was a fish. If they had just figured out how to make the rain appear to be coming out of its mouth, it would have been the pinnacle of the figureheads.
To the gift shop and then a sandwich for lunch but no places to sit so we went out to the entryway courtyard and found some benches under shelter to eat. We had a little over an hour for the next ferry back or two hours for the last ferry back. Debating whether to go to New Grimsby, the town or not, but decided that my knee would not hold up to going in both directions and there was a large beach that could use some beach combing if we wanted to spend an hour doing that before the ferry. so the beach it was.
Nice walking along the beach and finding limpet shells, mostly. Not much sea glass but limpet shells are cool. One other couple only on the beach. Luckily we could find a way off the beach and to the sidewalk to the ferry pick up point. And it is now raining hard again. And not quite time for the ferry. And a line of people already waiting. And a boat unloading some stuff so we can't even get on the quay yet. But we did get on the boat back to St. Mary's and got back in time to go back to the room for another spot of feet up and knee pampering before back down the hill for dinner.
Good dinner at Atlantic Inn and then back to the quay for the gig races. The gig races are popular as there were three boats being filled. We picked the closest one and sat on the left side. Once all three boats were filled and there didn't appear to be anyone else coming, we all left and headed out to the gig race spot which is west of St. Agnes (the Isle on the other side of St. Mary's) and starts close to three rocks sticking out of the sea. There was a lot of maneuvering around before the boats started racing. There were 6 gigs. Couldn't really tell where the starting point was or exactly who was starting them. The three boats that had come out from St. Mary's were not alone to watch the races. All together, about 7 large boats full of people and half dozen smaller private boats. Some of the boats had cheering crews for one or another of the gigs.
We are sort of drifting along with the motor at idle. The rowers are almost ready to go and most of the men who are rowing take off their shirts. My hubby and I are bundled up in most of the warm clothes we have brought with hats and zipped up to the chin. It's not raining now but it is very chilly. Suddenly, somehow, all the rowers heard the start and we are off. Our chase boat revved up the motors and we are going lickety split now! I never realized people could row that fast but we seem to be going quite a good pace to keep up with them. Our boat is on the left side of the gigs so we are sitting on the further side away from the gigs. dang. Wish we'd sat on the right side of the boat.
Of the six gigs, two gigs are left behind quickly. Three are keeping neck and neck for a mile or more. One is kind of trailing the three leaders but they slowly fall behind. It's a three nautical mile race (I think that is slightly less than three land miles). People in other boats are chanting and cheering. People in our boat are cheering for Bonnet (one of the boats). Two of the gigs pull ahead at about 2 miles finished mark. One of the leaders is Bonnet. We are getting close to St. Mary's now and people are lined up around the Garrison (the old fort on top of the hill) to watch the races come home. This is really exciting!
As we get closer to the harbor, Bonnet is slowly pulling ahead. Our boat is keeping pace and we haven't slowed down once so these men have been rowing fast for almost 3 miles now. No wonder they took off their shirts before starting. They must be really sweating by now. We head into the harbor and as they pass a certain point, a horn goes off signaling that they have reached the finish. Bonnet wins by more than a boat length but not much more than that. Second place comes in and third place isn't too far behind. We sit in our boat and wait for all six gigs to finish even though it is several minutes before the last two boats come past the finish line. When every boat passes the line, everyone in the chase and watch boats all cheer and applaud. It's cool that everyone is doing that because even the last boat over the line worked hard and rowed hard. my gosh, this is a very, very hard race.
When the last boat is in, our boat goes back to the docks as well and everyone piles off and leaves. good night. we head back up to our hotel, back up the hill, back up the stairs. We haven't done that much, overall, but my knees are saying enough. thank goodness you've decided to go to bed. lovely day in spite of the rain. exciting race. a very good day in Scilly.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
First Day in Scilly
Ask a Brit about the Isles of Scilly and you get (or at least we did), "I hear they are lovely but I've never been there". We got this from about 25 people that we surveyed. Not once did we find anyone among our acquaintances that had actually been there but they all knew they were lovely. So either the Isles of Scilly (I was warned NOT to call them the Scilly Isles) have been doing a bang up job of promotion or they really are lovely.
Idiot that I can be, I'd been housebound for several months due to a bad knee and had surgery on July 15. Of course I was thinking that by Aug 6 I'd be fine and ready to go plus I really had to get out of the house. I was going bonkers just sitting and reading every day. My kindle bill on Amazon has been quite high. I knew that one of the major things to do on the various Isles was walking and hiking but I had also found on line that you could rent a golf cart to get around so I happily set up a trip and rented the cart in advance, found the BnB and got flights from Gatwick to Newquay and then the Skybus from Newquay to St
. Mary's. Our BnB hosts advised us to get the travel insurance from Skybus as there are times when they cannot fly due to the weather., ummm, right.
We're off in the morning. I've got my walking stick for my dodgy knee and have made arrangements with Flybe to scooter me down from the the terminal waiting area to the gate. I've done this once before and it's a bit nervy as they never seem to take you down until the last minute when the departure signs are all flashing - Last Call.
Another lady was in the cart with me. She was flying home to Newquay. They told her she would have to walk down the stairs at the gate. She was barely able to do that. I could do it with a bit of gimping and going slow but she was struggling. Oddly, the wheelchair was able to go down an elevator BUT supposedly the elevator was out of the secure area so she would have had to go through security again! How strange and what an odd way to do it. So she struggled down the stairs and then got back in the wheelchair to wheel to the plane where they had a lift to get her to the plane. Seems like they could figure that out a bit better for people who can't walk at all!
Usually we try to get an exit row but when you have asked for assistance, they aren't gonna let you do that
. Yep, the ride to the gate was nice but believe me, I could throw out the window and climb out the door just as well as the next person so our seats weren't the best but the ride from Gatwick to Newquay isn't too long.
Newquay airport is small. You land, wait for your bags on the single belt, walk outside and down the sidewalk to go back into the departure area. This is also the only airport we've been in the U.K. where you have to pay a 5 pound fee to get into the departure area. Kids under 16 don't need it and when we went to get ours, a woman had just accidentally purchased one for her under 16 child so we bought hers and got a second one for us. This woman looked like she really needed to save all her pounds when possible as she had on the oddest skirt that was ripped to shreds in various places. I know that jeans are considered fashionable when ripped at the knees and such but pretty sure her skirt wasn't supposed to be. Maybe that's just her traveling clothes in case of accident so she doesn't lose anything nice.
Through security and into the departure lounge and we picked up a few snacks. Flybe has drinks and snacks on board but you must purchase them and the flight on Skybus is only 1/2 hour plus it's a really small plane so no flight attendant
. Also, the luggage weight is only 15kg. very hard for us to fly with such a low limit - LOL. we've really gotten bad about taking so much crap with us everywhere.
Off to one side of the lounge is a sign which says "Skybus departure area for safety briefing" or something like that. We gathered over there and before too long, a Skybus employee came and put on the safety video which is like every safety video everywhere except telling you how small this plane is. Then we head out to the tarmac to load up and since I am stumping along with my walking stick we are almost the last people on board the plane and therefore unable to get through the aisle to a good seat up front. We end up sitting behind a rather large, covered, table type thing which gave us no where to put our small carry on bags nor our feet. I stretched mine out into the aisle.
The co pilot gets on board and tells the people in the last row how to open the door in an emergency and then closes and locks the door/stairs combo. he goes to the front of the plane and reminds us of the safety areas and then sits next to the pilot in the cockpit where there is no door between us and them
. lovely little plane.
We're on the wrong side of the plane to see much of the coast but I'm thinking I'll be able to get some good photos on the way back then because it's 2 seats on our side and only one seat on the other side. So we have views of the ocean and not much else. But as I mentioned, it's only 1/2 hour flight so we just relaxed and watched the ocean and the propellers and each other.
Landing on St. Mary's island, doesn't take long to get off the plane, wait for our bags, and hop into the bus. They have a regular crew of people running the shuttles from the airport into town to drop you at your hotel or BnB. They meet you right in the luggage area and have you sorted and ready to go before you're quite sure what's happening. They do it so much that it flows quite nicely. We're in a van with two other couples who are all repeat visitors so we're the "newbies" and he drove us through a couple of places to point out sites to us which the other people didn't seem to mind. We're the last to be dropped at our BnB. Each other couple made arrangements for pick up for the return to the airport so we did likewise when he dropped us at our BnB
.
Santa Maria Guest House looked to be a lovely place but as we drove there, we see that it is on a hill and it is up a long flight of stairs to get to the front door. Great. my knee is not happy now at all. The shuttle driver kindly carries my suitcase up to the front door as I am pulling myself up the handrail. We walk into the BnB and are greeted by our hostess who had gotten confused somehow that we were coming over by ship and had called me but because we were flying, I had my phone on flight mode and never got the call so she was a bit distressed but not at me since I'd sent her all the info and she just had forgotten. We go into the lounge to sign in and get information on the house and what to do and such. They point out places in Hugh Town and Old Town - we can see both from the front window - and I'm looking and thinking - dang, a lot of walking. Then we get our key to room #5 (didn't get a sea view room because didn't ask for it in time) and have to go up another long flight of stairs to get to the room. My hubby hauls up my suitcase for me this time.
After resting for awhile, we head into town to find a place for dinner and to look around. They've told us we should make dinner reservations most nights because it is holiday season. We find Kavorna, first place we hit, and make reservations for around 6 because I don't want to walk around too much. We walk to the wharf/quay and see that the tide is out because half the boats in the harbor are grounded. Love the tides in these places. Lots of choices on different isles to visit and lots to do but most of it is walking. So we are probably going to do one thing a day and just rest and read the rest of the time. Not the best way to spend time on the Isles of Scilly but gonna have to do it that way.
One thing surprised us that there were more cars than we thought. For some reason, we had thought that there weren't any cars except for the shuttle buses for the airports, some delivery people and some taxis. But people have and own cars there. Not many and as such the roads are quite narrow and most people walk in the streets but still, are plenty of cars. Guess I should have realized that when the Skybus site had a link to renting a car. We will manage without.
A nice dinner at Kavorna then stumping up the hill and up the double flight of stairs and our first afternoon in the lovely Isles of Scilly is at an end.
Idiot that I can be, I'd been housebound for several months due to a bad knee and had surgery on July 15. Of course I was thinking that by Aug 6 I'd be fine and ready to go plus I really had to get out of the house. I was going bonkers just sitting and reading every day. My kindle bill on Amazon has been quite high. I knew that one of the major things to do on the various Isles was walking and hiking but I had also found on line that you could rent a golf cart to get around so I happily set up a trip and rented the cart in advance, found the BnB and got flights from Gatwick to Newquay and then the Skybus from Newquay to St
. Mary's. Our BnB hosts advised us to get the travel insurance from Skybus as there are times when they cannot fly due to the weather., ummm, right.
We're off in the morning. I've got my walking stick for my dodgy knee and have made arrangements with Flybe to scooter me down from the the terminal waiting area to the gate. I've done this once before and it's a bit nervy as they never seem to take you down until the last minute when the departure signs are all flashing - Last Call.
Another lady was in the cart with me. She was flying home to Newquay. They told her she would have to walk down the stairs at the gate. She was barely able to do that. I could do it with a bit of gimping and going slow but she was struggling. Oddly, the wheelchair was able to go down an elevator BUT supposedly the elevator was out of the secure area so she would have had to go through security again! How strange and what an odd way to do it. So she struggled down the stairs and then got back in the wheelchair to wheel to the plane where they had a lift to get her to the plane. Seems like they could figure that out a bit better for people who can't walk at all!
Usually we try to get an exit row but when you have asked for assistance, they aren't gonna let you do that
. Yep, the ride to the gate was nice but believe me, I could throw out the window and climb out the door just as well as the next person so our seats weren't the best but the ride from Gatwick to Newquay isn't too long.
Newquay airport is small. You land, wait for your bags on the single belt, walk outside and down the sidewalk to go back into the departure area. This is also the only airport we've been in the U.K. where you have to pay a 5 pound fee to get into the departure area. Kids under 16 don't need it and when we went to get ours, a woman had just accidentally purchased one for her under 16 child so we bought hers and got a second one for us. This woman looked like she really needed to save all her pounds when possible as she had on the oddest skirt that was ripped to shreds in various places. I know that jeans are considered fashionable when ripped at the knees and such but pretty sure her skirt wasn't supposed to be. Maybe that's just her traveling clothes in case of accident so she doesn't lose anything nice.
Through security and into the departure lounge and we picked up a few snacks. Flybe has drinks and snacks on board but you must purchase them and the flight on Skybus is only 1/2 hour plus it's a really small plane so no flight attendant
. Also, the luggage weight is only 15kg. very hard for us to fly with such a low limit - LOL. we've really gotten bad about taking so much crap with us everywhere.
Off to one side of the lounge is a sign which says "Skybus departure area for safety briefing" or something like that. We gathered over there and before too long, a Skybus employee came and put on the safety video which is like every safety video everywhere except telling you how small this plane is. Then we head out to the tarmac to load up and since I am stumping along with my walking stick we are almost the last people on board the plane and therefore unable to get through the aisle to a good seat up front. We end up sitting behind a rather large, covered, table type thing which gave us no where to put our small carry on bags nor our feet. I stretched mine out into the aisle.
The co pilot gets on board and tells the people in the last row how to open the door in an emergency and then closes and locks the door/stairs combo. he goes to the front of the plane and reminds us of the safety areas and then sits next to the pilot in the cockpit where there is no door between us and them
. lovely little plane.
We're on the wrong side of the plane to see much of the coast but I'm thinking I'll be able to get some good photos on the way back then because it's 2 seats on our side and only one seat on the other side. So we have views of the ocean and not much else. But as I mentioned, it's only 1/2 hour flight so we just relaxed and watched the ocean and the propellers and each other.
Landing on St. Mary's island, doesn't take long to get off the plane, wait for our bags, and hop into the bus. They have a regular crew of people running the shuttles from the airport into town to drop you at your hotel or BnB. They meet you right in the luggage area and have you sorted and ready to go before you're quite sure what's happening. They do it so much that it flows quite nicely. We're in a van with two other couples who are all repeat visitors so we're the "newbies" and he drove us through a couple of places to point out sites to us which the other people didn't seem to mind. We're the last to be dropped at our BnB. Each other couple made arrangements for pick up for the return to the airport so we did likewise when he dropped us at our BnB
.
Santa Maria Guest House looked to be a lovely place but as we drove there, we see that it is on a hill and it is up a long flight of stairs to get to the front door. Great. my knee is not happy now at all. The shuttle driver kindly carries my suitcase up to the front door as I am pulling myself up the handrail. We walk into the BnB and are greeted by our hostess who had gotten confused somehow that we were coming over by ship and had called me but because we were flying, I had my phone on flight mode and never got the call so she was a bit distressed but not at me since I'd sent her all the info and she just had forgotten. We go into the lounge to sign in and get information on the house and what to do and such. They point out places in Hugh Town and Old Town - we can see both from the front window - and I'm looking and thinking - dang, a lot of walking. Then we get our key to room #5 (didn't get a sea view room because didn't ask for it in time) and have to go up another long flight of stairs to get to the room. My hubby hauls up my suitcase for me this time.
After resting for awhile, we head into town to find a place for dinner and to look around. They've told us we should make dinner reservations most nights because it is holiday season. We find Kavorna, first place we hit, and make reservations for around 6 because I don't want to walk around too much. We walk to the wharf/quay and see that the tide is out because half the boats in the harbor are grounded. Love the tides in these places. Lots of choices on different isles to visit and lots to do but most of it is walking. So we are probably going to do one thing a day and just rest and read the rest of the time. Not the best way to spend time on the Isles of Scilly but gonna have to do it that way.
One thing surprised us that there were more cars than we thought. For some reason, we had thought that there weren't any cars except for the shuttle buses for the airports, some delivery people and some taxis. But people have and own cars there. Not many and as such the roads are quite narrow and most people walk in the streets but still, are plenty of cars. Guess I should have realized that when the Skybus site had a link to renting a car. We will manage without.
A nice dinner at Kavorna then stumping up the hill and up the double flight of stairs and our first afternoon in the lovely Isles of Scilly is at an end.
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