DOORSTEP PARADISE...

Mrs. Snopper doesn`t `do` flying or, for that matter, sea travel either. She has never had a passport and mine ran out about twelve years ago. I haven`t bothered to renew it. My last excursion to foreign climes was to Portugal in, I think, 1994, when I went to stay for a few days with our youngest son who was teaching in Lisbon at the time.

Since then, our holidays have always been in the UK - just England really, although I concede that Cornwall should perhaps be viewed as outside the realm. And it was during a stay in Cornwall - just up the road from Penzance - that I finally got Mrs. S. airborne. We were staying in a cottage which was owned by someone who worked for the company that flies the helicopters between Penzance and the Scilly Isles and he told us all about the wonderful time that we could have by taking the flight to Tresco for a day. So we did.

(Tresco with Bryher beyond - click to enlarge)

And it turned out to be not just a day to remember but also an eye-opener to the paradise island that is just a short flight away from the mainland across just 26 miles of the Atlantic. After we landed, we started on our exploration, walking from the landing field along to the settlement of New Grimsby.

From there we continued up the coast to Cromwell`s Castle, overlooking Bryher across the channel, around the north point and back along the other side of the island until we reached the Abbey Gardens, pictured below:-


In all of the UK, it is perhaps impossible to find anywhere which resembles a tropical paradise quite as much as the Abbey Gardens on Tresco. We were blessed with gorgeous weather, which helped, but the scenery, the views, the peace and quiet, the complete absence of any motor vehicles and the unhurried way of life all left a lasting impression of still, quiet beauty in idyllic surroundings.

Now, I`m quite sure it isn`t always like that, but for that one day at least we were privileged to discover a part of these islands that convinced us that it might not be necessary to get those passports after all.

(The BBC are currently showing a 12-part series, "An Island Parish," which chronicles the lives of Scillonians through the eyes of the Islands` Chaplain, Father Guy Scott. As ever, the BBC have produced an excellent website to accompany the series; http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/content/articles/2008/01/03/aboutcornwall_islandparish_feature.shtml is well worth exploring too.)