Birthday break

Burgh Island in Devon

Sorry that we have been quiet. It has been a very busy time here as we are organising a film festival. (More on that in another post.) We wanted to tell you about the birthday trip away, that the youngest one of us had. She went off to the island of Burgh  with her husband. It is a funny little place off the South Devon coast and when the tide comes in it becomes and island. 

The area is so beautiful, so that where ever you stand you can see the coast line all around you. It was a bright but cold day and off season, so the beaches were pretty empty. 

You can walk to the island when the tide is out, but when the sea comes in (quickly!) then you can pay £2 and get on this sea tractor. We thought that it looked like one of Heath Robinson's contraptions.

There is a very posh hotel on the island, where us rif raf weren't allowed in. They even had the public footpaths removed so that you can't peak in the windows! Agatha Christie used to visit. We wanted to go in and take photos of the glass ceiling in the Peacock bar as we had seen it on the website....but we weren't allowed!

They even have a helicopter pad for the hotel! Very posh!

But the island we so beautiful that it didn't matter that we couldn't get into the hotel.

On the top of the island was a ruin that used to be a house for a monk and then later for a man who would look out for shoals of mackerel and shout when he saw them. They would carry in one million fish a day! Then they suddenly disappeared...sounds like the first record case of over fishing to us!

So we wandered around..husband kept his red hood up as it was so cold. They we went to the island pub for a drink but the tide started to come in so we had to make a dash for it...

...but not before we had looked at the only private home on the island. We fell in love with it.

...and the sweet shutters...

...with carvings of whales and dolphins on them.

It was worth getting wet for!