A British Island Adventure

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Mersea Island, Essex - East Mersea

a kind offer from Jeff and Clare finds us on Mersea via Chelmsford - Wivenhoe dead end brings out the sat-nav - low road over the mud to Mersea - winter fields - Cudmore Grove County Park - olive green dog walkers - mud in all its forms, colours and consistency - lapwings, shelduck, wigeon - corrosive wind - shingle, eroding orange cliff, huge caravan parks - car as sanctuary

Mersea Island, Essex - West Mersea

bumpy lane to nowhere - esplanade of beach huts - The Company Shed - Art Cafe for a warming latte as the sleet begins - closed museum - a stained glass spotted flounder in the church of St Peter & St Paul - a frontier land of mud - beached house boats at the end of long boardwalks - 125 sugar almond beach huts - a warm car home, caught in the traffic

Mersea Island, Essex - The Company Shed

The Company Shed, Mersea

behind the curtains, the oysters await their fate

The Company Shed counter

down to earth decor at The Company Shed

help yourself to glasses

oysters, scallops, fishcakes at The Company Shed

oilcloth covered tables - fishermen & dahlings - trays of oysters behind an old shower curtain - "help yourself to a glass from the shelves" - surely too cold for oysters, or is that just an excuse? - a rather good link...

Cobmarsh Island, Essex

Monday, 1 February 2010

Blogging for Britain

It's been work, work, work for us, though one of us may be working a little harder than the other. The funds are being replenished as we prepare for our 2010 adventures. In the mean time we've found some fellow explorers of Britain to help inspire us onwards.
The Lost Promenade looks at one of our other passions: Britain's seaside resorts. The more faded, the better.
British Landscapes follows Derek Fogg's photographic journey around Britain. He's been to some great places and got the photos to prove it.

Monday, 18 January 2010

Outdoor Photography Island Journal Pt 5

The latest installment of the Island Journal has just been published in Outdoor Photography - February 2010, issue 123. Eilean Ban and Skye are covered in this episode.

Tuesday, 12 January 2010

A little island recap

I've been filling in some of the gaps on our journey. If you click on the label "little islands" you'll see some of the quasi-islands or as some would have it, rocks, that we've glimpsed, sailed by or stood on.

Friday, 1 January 2010

T's favourite island moments of 2009

1. Jura

We failed to climb a Pap and we failed to complete Evans walk, but we couldn't fail to fall in love with this incredible island. We saw our first adder, our first butterwort, and our second otter.

2. Muck

Free of light pollution, the sky was so dark and the stars so bright that they looked like diamonds. The bunkhouse was heated by a Rayburn stove, and we ate our own body weight in ginger biscuits.

3. Tiree

We walked to the supermarket across a bay so vast and empty that it felt as though we might fall into the sky. We stayed on a farm where we experienced new life emerging, right on our doorstep.

Thursday, 31 December 2009

D's 3 favourite island moments of 2009

1. Brownsea Island
Where our suspicions were confirmed, there really is nothing better than exploring an island. We left our jobs seven weeks later and boarded the sleeper train to Glasgow.

2. Kerrera

On our first day on a Scottish island, walking in the sunshine, everything lay ahead of us and anything seemed possible.

3. Rum

For feeling like guests at an eccentric billionaire's castle, climbing the Cuillins and watching the golden eagles soar above us, but mainly for just being Rum.