The Isles of Scilly
Our excursion this morning took us directly from the English Channel into the sub-Tropics! After a calm night cruising west in the Channel we picked up our pilot at breakfast time and made our way into the sheltered anchorage in the middle of the low, rocky archipelago called the Isles of Scilly, or simply Scilly. If you want to maintain cordial relations with the local Scillonians you must learn not to say “the Scilly Isles,” for reasons that should be obvious.
Scilly comprises five inhabited islands, among approximately 140 small rocky islets. We went ashore, via a short Zodiac cruise, on the north central island of Tresco, and once there we walked or rode small electric buggies across the southern end of the island to the famous Tresco Abbey Gardens. The entire archipelago is bathed in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and this part of Tresco, protected from the winter gales and storm winds by the surrounding islands, enjoys an extremely mild climate for its latitude. Consequently, Tresco Abbey, like the famous gardens at Inverewe on the west coast of Scotland, is able to maintain many beautiful and rather delicate plants from sub-tropical climates all around the world.
In the company of the island’s professional gardeners, we strolled through the elaborate maze of winding pathways, over small bridges and past a wonderful variety of fountains and pools. Along the way, our hosts introduced us to an astounding number of beautiful and fascinating plants, relating their names, ecological relationships, commercial uses and importance in folk medicine. There were huge blossoms of Protea from the Cape Floral Province of South Africa, bottlebrush flowers of Banksia from Australia, gorgeous orange pendant blooms of Brugmansia from the upper Amazon basin and many, many more.
At the end of our tour we were able to choose from several options for the remainder of the morning. Some of us returned to the garden with David, Vinnie, and Carol for a further discussion of local history and culture, some strolled around other parts of the island, looking for birds with Karen or getting a bit of exercise with Eza, and a few of us chose to relax in the lovely little courtyard of the café, enjoying coffee or tea and delicious snacks.
By 1400 hours we were all back on board the National Geographic Explorer. Captain Lyons set a westerly course and we made our way out, past the famous Bishop’s Rock Lighthouse, into the north Atlantic, on our way to Ireland.
