Samson, Isles of Scilly

Our first full day on the islands in the archipelago of the Isles of Scilly.  The fog that had delayed our original arrival date had descended again, along with some rain.  Thankfully it wasn't cold.

We joined a guided tour to the uninhabited island of Samson.  We'd been led to believe as the island did not have a quay that the boat would land near enough that a plank would be laid from boat to beach for dis/embarcation...  This did not turn out to be the case!  As the boat neared Samson we were told that there wasn't "enough water" and we'd have to be taken in by tender in small groups, a pathetic looking Zodiac was brought round the side of the boat and we were instructed to remove socks and shoes and climb in.  Is this a joke?  It was by now raining fairly hard.  But no, not a joke.  The way down to the tender was quite far, it was being bailed out by the boatman each time a person got in.  The first group was taken in to the shallows, we all rolled our pant legs up to the knees and waded ashore.  Next came the farce of trying to re-sock and shoe ourselves in the rain sitting on on the wet sand which we somehow managed.  There were a couple of ladies who decided to sit out the tour and stayed on the main boat.

The tour was led by a Chas Wood, not a Scillonian, but had lived on the islands for many years.  It was a fast paced tour, about 3 hours, and quite a hike around the island, the fog and rain wasn't particularly helpful when it came to seeing any views.  However, we did visit a couple of Bronze Age burial chambers that were very interesting and could see ancient field walls which are now only visible at low tide.

The wade out to the tender and wet foot re-socking and shoeing farce back on the boat.

Exhausted.

Boat moored in deeper water, the tender en route to meet us on the beach at the end of our tour.