The Isle of Sheppey!

    Just a brief interlude from the continuing tales of our trip to Orkney, to report on a little jaunt we took on    Sunday, a most civilised affair, bagging a brace of islands with a nice meal and all home before dark.

We set off from Milton Keynes at about eleven, we being Me, Terri and Liam, Liam having already driven up from Bristol early in the morning, and followed in the footsteps of two of our previous days out down the M1 and onto the M25, but this time we carried on around the orbital, over the Dartford crossing into Kent. It was unfortunate that it was the first time that we'd been bagging in Kent, because if we had been before we might have known that we would need two pounds in cash to pay for the bridge. As it was we made do with holding up the queue for a while as the helpful chap wrote us an invoice. Apparently fourteen pence didn't have sufficient bargaining power. 

Sheerness - Sheer Exhilaration

"Groynes" - haha

Safely over the border and into England's Southeastern-most county we headed east towards the large and well populated Isle of Sheppey. The way onto the island is over the fairly long, high and imposing bridge, scene of a recent accident involving around 100 vehicles who got all smashed up in the fog. No such issues for us today, and we cruised around into Sheerness town centre. 

Sheerness clock

Stopping for a walk along the seafront looking out over the Thames estuary, we reflected that this was not the most impressive, exciting, secluded or picturesque of islands that any of us had been to. It may even have been at the bottom of all of those scales. Little more needs to be said on our impression of Sheerness, aside from a brief positive mention of a really good pet shop, where I went quite close to a tarantula and Terri enjoyed a lot of guinea pigs. 

Harty

From here we carried on around the island's fairly un-islandy landscape along to the east, before taking a side-road into the wilderness that is now known as, and used to technically be, the Isle of Harty. In the past this would have counted as a separate island (apparently, with the similar Isle of Elmley, the area used to be known as the "Isles of Sheppey") before the channels between them silted up and now they are all connected. Our destination here was the Harty Ferry Inn, located on the Sheppey side of one of the ancient ferry routes across the channel known as the Swale, which also lends its name to the district of Kent where the island is found. Here we had a most pleasant roast, and a little wander down to the waterline for a look at what was about. Not much else. This being seemingly the sum total of the excitement on offer on the Isle of Sheppey, we decided to head for home, but on the way we did make a detour into Chatham for our first island duplicate. 

The landing point of the Harty ferry

St Mary's Island is a large, rural island, home to the capital of Scilly, Hugh Town, and lots of orchards and flower farms. It is also a great big housing estate in Chatham, Kent. We crossed the bridge onto the island, drove around the ring road that linked all the parts of the estate, and then drove off again, only stopping for a picture. 

3 out of 4 thumbs?

 Some days, island bagging is a pursuit that puts you at one with nature, some days you meet the most interesting people who have stories to tell to inspire you on your quest, sometimes there is mild peril, most days there is adventure, you see landscapes from paintings and wildlife from Attenborough shows. Other days you go to Sheppey. Stay tuned for more interesting islands soon.  

Wahey!