Isles of Scilly! Day 3 Part 2 and Day 4: St Mary's

Gluttons for punishment that we are, we arrived back to St Mary's tired and damp at around half five, but rather than relaxing and taking it easy on our last night, after some chips from the best organised chip van ever (with 2 Brian's), we decided to do a quick lap of the island, hoping to get round to the Old Town Inn, the last of the Scilly pubs (that we knew of) in time for a quick drink before bed. 

Things started well enough, we followed some inland tracks and paths (as we'd already done the first part of the coast path on day one) until we came to Halangy Down and some old-timey neolithic rock formations at Bant's Carn and the Iron Age village. The sun was shining and there were awesome views out over the islands in the late afternoon. 

Scilly, but no sea view. A real rarity. 

Bant's Carn, Halangy Down. Real old burial chamber.

That little bit or rock in the foreground is Creeb. We thought it might have been a proper island, but it's pretty Creeby. 

After hiking around some idyllic coast path, with the scenery changing at every promontory, and eventually the distant and unreachable Eastern Isles coming into view, we saw below us the rocky crag of Innisidgen (25) like a finger pointing away from the land. It had it's own burial mound, but most of all it was a tidal island, and yet again we had arrived just as the tide was receding to form a causeway over the rocks. Old hands at this sort of game now we sat and waited for perhaps ten minutes before a splish-splash jump and skip onto the rocky little island. Didn't stop for long, took a photo and carried on.

Innisidgen Burial Chamber

Innisidgen from the shore, as the tide washed out

Made it!

From there we knew there was one more island left to do, Toll's Island, a sizeable tidal affair in the centre of Eastern St Mary's. When we arrived the causeway was sandy, so wading seemed like a reasonable option, but it was just too deep for a bit, so we indulged in a game of our new favourite Scilly sport, Rock-Boules. Pretty straightforward, chuck stones at other stones. Hit the middle stone and score points, less points in the outer rings. All you need is some stones.

Rock-Boules. I think I was probably winning. 

Unfortunately while we were waiting, the tide was definitely going out, but we were in fact getting a lot wetter. The rain had started, and with it the realisation that we were a good couple of miles from the tent (and possibly anywhere dry). This was compounded by my foolish and regrettable decision to leave my jeans on and not change into my shorts when it was time to wade across to Toll's Island (26), as it was deeper than I thought, I got soaked, and had to put up with carrying a soaking pair of jeans for the next four miles, and wearing my shorts in the pouring rain didn't keep me warm at all. A slightly miserable and uncomfortable end to the islands of Scilly, but I still managed a half-smile for the required evidential picture!

OK maybe a bit fed up now!

Toll's Island from the shore. In the rain. 

The rest of the way around to Old-Town was fairly miserable, it was getting dark, raining heavier all the time, and apart from a cave where we took shelter for ten minutes, we kept getting wetter and wetter. Notable things about this part of St Mary's - rock shaped like a camel, monument to the person with the best name ever, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, whose ship was dashed against the rocks in 1707. Also it was fun to walk right up close to the runway of the airport, not many can have footpaths so close. There was probably more stuff that would have been good to look at, but we were in a "head down, keep going" mode, all the way to the somewhat posh Old Town Inn. Couple of pints in almost silence from exhaustion, then a sodden trek up the hill to Hugh Town and bed.

Rock Like a Camel

Monument to Cloudesley Shovell

Next morning we had to be off the campsite by eleven, and whilst we had entertained the idea of getting a quick trip out to land on one or more of the Eastern Isles, we never did. Partly maybe the jubilee celebrations meant there were less boats running, but we were pretty much whacked from the day before to make too many strenuous enquiries. We watched the boats come and go for an hour or so, had one last game of Rock-Boules on Porthcressa beach, and caught the 4:30 Scillonian back to Penzance. 

Time for one more island? Definitely time for a look, but at eight when we drove round to Marazion there was still an awful lot of water between the shore and St Michael's Mount, and we still had a 200 mile drive in front of us and I had work the next day. Another time, another time...

St Mary's Quay, Queens Jubilee Day 2012

Loading the Scillonian for departure.

We'll get you one day!

So yeah, that was our four days in Scilly. I think we packed about as much in as we could, but we didn't go to Annet, or Gweal, or any of the Eastern Isles, so there's definitely enough to warrant a return visit one day. We had an awesome time thanks, just back to work for a month and a bit then off to Shetland for the week!