The Isles of Scilly - Summer 1999

The beautiful Isles of Scilly

When we checked into the Seaview Chalet and Caravan Park we were given a bag of brochures advertising the places of interest in Cornwall. One of the brochures was from British International advertising Helicopter trips to the Isles of Scilly for 60 pounds return. We decided to throw caution to the winds and have an adventure. So we got up at 6:15 a.m. on Friday which I think must be some kind of a record for us and drove into Penzance to catch the 8:45 flight to St. MaryÂ’s, the largest of the Scilly Isles.

My first helicopter ride

This helicopter flying business was not what I expected. For starters, I had never thought about flying in one. It was not something I had ever pictured myself doing, and certainly not to somewhere I had never heard of until a couple of days ago. There was no sensation of flying during the trip. There was a lot of noise, lots of vibration and that's it. I couldn't feel it when we took off, or when we landed. Very weird. It certainly ruffles your little feathers though when you walk under the rotors.

Red dot shows location of  The Isles of Scilly

The Isles of Scilly are a cluster of small granite islands set in the clear blue Atlantic Ocean some 28 miles south west of Land's End in the United Kingdom. There are five inhabited islands: St Mary's, St Martin's, St Agnes', Tresco and Bryher, and about 50 others which would be classed as islands as well as hundreds of rocks. The name 'Scilly' comes from SULLY meaning the Sun Isles which describe its climate with an excellent sunshine record. The temperature is remarkably constant throughout the year with only a 9-degree Celsius variation between the average of the hottest and coldest months.

We arrived on St. Mary's Island and took the bus into Hugh Town, the place where everything happens. All the major shopping for the islands is located there as well as the local Council offices and banks. We wandered around aimlessly for a while, window shopping and reading the posters in the Estate Agent's windows advertising property for sale locally. As you might expect, it was way beyond any of us could even dream about.

The Isle of Tressco

We checked with the island tourist board about sights to see and discovered that the Isle of Tressco is famous for it's large and unusual gardens. Known as the 'island of flowers' it boasts more than 300 exotic plants, more usually found in New Zealand and South America. So we hopped on an inter island, open air ferry named Kingfisher of St. Mary's and had a brisk 20 minute ride over to Tressco. I am getting to be an old hand at this ferry riding business.

It was well worth the trip. There are no cars or buses allowed on Tressco, only a couple of tractors and some golf carts. It was about a one mile walk from where the ferry landed to New Grimsby where we caught the ferry back. The entire walk was wonderful. None of the three of us are knowledgeable plant people, but we do enjoy them very much. Cornwall itself is one huge garden with plants and flowers everywhere. But the Scilly's are home to some really strange plants the likes of which this Arkansas woman has never seen.

I love these little ferrys

We had lunch at the Island Hotel and then sat out on the patio and sunned ourselves until it was time to meet the ferry for the ride back to St. Mary's. Then we repeated the trip over in reverse order and arrived back at the Sea View Chalets where we were staying at dusk, around eleven p.m.