Hanging around Hughtown.

The second half of our stay on St Mary’s, we didn’t go far from Hughtown.

We spent a showery day wandering around its small streets, starting off at the quay and zigzagging our way backwards and forwards as we made random decisions about where to go. We visited the charity shop in the church hall next to our ground floor flat, then went to a cafe for waffles with bacon and maple syrup - memories of Canada! The Thoroughfare, which we hadn’t found before, rewarded us with the Canvas Shop, where Racheal chose the colours to have a bag made for her birthday present. After visiting quite a few more shops in the town, we strolled by Porthcressa beach and a little way along a footpath which soon became inaccessible. We returned to cook a meal via the Co-op in town for provisions.

Sunday we had better weather, so we decided to walk round Garrison. This is a, once fortified, promontory overlooking the town. Garrison Lane rises steeply to its gate, but not as steep an incline as Garrison Hill. We opted for the first route. Inside the gate we found the old armoury, which Summer and I took turns to look round as it wasn’t wheelchair accessible. The path followed the inside of the garrison wall with regular view points from the batteries and lookouts. It started as a tarmac road, became an unmade track and then a footpath which varied from easy to difficult, but manageable with Racheal’s all terrain chair. Eventually we thought we would have to turn back as the path became very rocky and steep. Scouting ahead, we discovered it was a very short section, with a seat at the top for our picnic, and then rejoined a level track. The north section of the walls was never finished as the government, in the 1750’s, decided the money was needed to protect mainland Britain. Our route took us to the Star Castle Hotel. We had hoped to get a drink here but couldn’t find an accessible way in or any staff to ask, so we continued down the hill to the town.

After a welcome cup of tea in one of the cafés, we went to the far end of Porthcressa beach where a ramp provided access to the sand and a little shell hunting.

Our final day on the island came too quickly. We were due to sail back to Penzance at 4.30pm, so we still had a few hours to do things. The accommodation was booked for an extra night so we didn’t have to be out by 10am. This gave us a base for the day and somewhere to attend to Racheal’s care.

The boats to the other islands, and to see wildlife, were not accessible. The boatmen said they would lift Racheal on, but I felt it was too risky. Instead, Racheal and I had another wander around the town and did the packing after waving Summer off to go and see puffins. There was a downpour while she was gone. Racheal and I were safely inside, but poor Summer got drenched. She saw puffins and razorbills though, which made up for the soaking.

When Summer got back, we treated ourselves to lunch in the Bishop and Wolf, a pub named after two local lighthouses. It took two trips, between our cottage and the quay, to take all our luggage. (We had opted not to have it collected as it would have to have been ready by 9am, which defeated the object of having the cottage for the day.) We also returned the cover we had borrowed from Sue, and said our farewells.

Th Scillonian III, had already started boarding when we returned with our second load of luggage, though it still had over an hour before sailing. We were ushered to the front of the queue for priority boarding. Summer waited in the queue for the lift, while I went to find suitable seats. Once again a car was being loaded into the hold, along with containers of luggage.

The journey back was considerably rougher than our outbound trip, but we were all ok. We had remembered to take some things to do this time, so the crossing passed more quickly. When we arrived back in Penzance a minibus was waiting to take drivers back to the car park to collect vehicles. Summer and Racheal collected our luggage with the help of a couple of the crew. We all arrived at the end of the quay at the same time and loaded the car as quickly as possible to get out of the lashing rain.

Farewell Scilly Isles, we will return someday.