Early start - pick up to get to Lands End Airport
for our 15 minute flight - 28 miles - on an 8 seater
BN520 Islander twin prop to St. Mary's in the Isles of Scilly.
There she is above.
Lands End has a grass runway
About to leave the Cornish coast
Looking back towards Lands End
and flying into St. Marys
We were greeted with a hard top runway - extremely smooth trip and landing.
Loads of activity - other passengers ready to load both planes and a huge helicopter.
We were picked up by a rather amusing Scillionian - he dropped us at the "Quay"
The weather was quite dark at 9am, so we decided to walk the harbour
and into town.
Yes, the sky was glum, but Hugh Town - the Capital of the Isles of Scilly on St. Mary's has its own real charm.
quaint rows of houses
and a delightful small harbour.
St Mary's is the largest Island, covering all of 2.5 square miles - so with the sky still drizzling, we decided to hop on "Katie" this 1948 Austin bus - still in it's original condition to do a tour with it's driver - Fred. Well what a hilarious 1.5 hours touring 6.6 miles total, Fred was such a character and must've told us all of the Island's stories - we didn't see a lot because of the rain, but enjoyed absolutely every moment of it. Ta Fred.
After the tour we headed for and hour in their great Museum, then to the Atlantic Inn for a large bowl of "crab" Soup - just so good.
Came out of the Inn, and the sun was definitely shining.
It's probably time to say that Scilly enjoys the UK's mildest climate and the benefits of the weather patterns accompanying the Gulf Stream, there are over 100 islands clustered around shallow, sheltered seas - there are 5 islands of these 100 - inhabited - and many stories about this from Fred.
With the sun above us, it is time to walk and study "The Garrison" - a heavily fortified headland on St. Mary's which reflects how the islands have been at the frontline of England's defences over the centuries.
Including the Star Castle built in 1594.
Hugh Town is protected by the Garrison, a promontory accessed through the Garrison Gate, which formed part of the 17th century fortifications of the area.
It is said that over 6,000 years of human occupation have helped shape the landscape and this is reflected by the highest concentration of protected archaeological sites in the UK, but as I have done my share of archaeological sites over the last few weeks, we didn't venture further along this route.
There are assorted structures surviving from each of the conflicts that have threatened the UK
ranging from 16th century forts
to a string of World War 11 pillboxes
which were built in each of the original "canon" placements - technology had changed, but not "gun" positioning!.
Hugh Town below nestles on a sandy isthmus between Porthcressa Beach and Town Beach, interesting on a very high tide.
There are small inter island boats transporting residents and tourists.
Looking across to the Lifeboat house and launch ramp.
Same boats we saw this morning - sans sea this time.
Time to board our Ferry back to Penzance - a very comfortable 2.5 hour cruise this afternoon.
Saturday, April 28th, 2012.
Unfortunately, it was time to leave Penzance for Devon, but before doing so we headed to St. Hilary, to see if we could find the house my Great x 3 Grandfather and Great x 3 Grandmother Theo and Jane lived and died in - we knew the name was Woodstock. We found it!
The young lady who now lives there, Rachel - born in Reading, near where we worked and lived 37 years ago invited me into the house straight away. We looked through a pile of paperwork and she is now going to research a bit more. (By coincidence my Mother was born in a small town called Woodstock in NSW, but this is not her genealogy, it is my Father's Mothers.)
Rachel believes that the cottage above is the original, with the middle window actually being the door - where they had stairs down into the cottage.
and the side and back walls - with some of the extensions.
She took me inside to show the original part of the cottage - look at the thickness of the walls in those days.
We then wandered back to St. Hilary village
and it's lovely church
with the fairytale entry
and local History centre - one of the archivists lives right near the cottage at Woodstock.
Next stop was Sampsons B and B on the edge of Dartmoor, Devon near Newton Abbot. The weather had started to cloud over again but we decided to drive through Dartmoor en route to Sampsons. Lovely drive, even though quite dark, saw the horses, the many many walkers, their many many canines, wildflowers and the flowering heath hedges - delightful really.
Sampson's is a delightful B and B - loads of chickens and ducks wandering around - good brekky eggs!.
We had booked into their apartment below for 2 nights, but stayed 3 because of the weather.
The weather went really feral, in fact the Army were requesting that people did not venture out unless absolutely necessary, 'specially not onto Dartmoor.
Fortunately we had a wonderful Restaurant and Bar at Sampsons, they served super food ALL day to residents - no walks because of weather, so much food because of weather - NOT A GOOD LOOK NOW.
England has had more rain this April than ever before, so it is damn wet - however the Gold Coast had received its annual rain fall in the first 3 months of this year as well - so one must watch what one does say!!
We shared the premises and bar with a real canine and the painted bovine below.
One of the owners of Sampsons was an artist - I bought quite a few of her cards.
Sampson's was the place to definitely vegetate, even if that was not my original plan!!!
Sampson's next door neighbour and the sun shone just as we left for Wiltshire!
