Man Not in Álora Escapes to Treasure Island. A Pasty a Day Keeps the Virus Away.
Imagine that you went to sleep and woke up in a Coronavirus-free world. Imagine that you have been transported to a remote island where there is no Covid-19 and never has been.
Well, that's what happened to Mrs. Sánchez, Monty and me two weeks ago - and it wasn't a dream!
We were on the Island of St. Agnes, one of The Isles of Scilly.
It´s 28 miles south-west of Land's End and is the most southwesterly southwest place in the British Isles - or the UK, whichever you prefer. The population of the five inhabited islands is about 2203 and so far not one of them has been affected by Coronavirus!
The most southwesterly southwest place in the British Isles...down there on the left.
We'd booked a holiday in this sub-tropical island paradise in January, paid a deposit for a week in a self-catering 'cottage' and invited our daughter and grandaughter to join us.
You know what happened next.
As part of the `lockdown' measures almost all transport to the islands by sea and air was stopped. Only essential supplies and ´key workers´ were allowed in or out and even transport between the islands was banned. Fishermen were locked down like everybody else in the UK (with one or two noteworthy exceptions!).
All in the same boat? What boat?
'Sorry chaps, can't stop. Got a boat to catch to get my eyes tested.'
Since the Lockdown on March 23rd., Mrs. Sánchez and I have not been out much, which is why avid readers of this previously popular publication may have been disappointed by a break in service. Let's face it, there's not much to write about when all you're doing is gardening, going out to the shop once a week, buying stuff on line, and looking out of the window, which is pretty much what we've always done. We bought a shiny new car in December which has looked nice, parked in front of the house gathering dust.
Can't complain!
Almost every day's been like Christmas day at our house, and sometimes more frequently than that, as yet another delivery arrived of something that one of us took a fancy to and that looked like a bargain the other night after a couple of drinks.
Our Amazon delivery man.
It looked as though the holiday we booked in January for July was not going to happen, even if we survived until July, anyway, as the number of new cases kept increasing and people were dying in the UK at the rate of over 1000 a week.
Birmingham was top of the list at one point.
There seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel until everybody's favourite uncle, Boris Johnson, decided that we could all go out again to spend all that money we'd been saving up by not going to restaurants, beach cafes and garden centres.
I wish!
The holiday was back on, if we could find someone to transport us across the sea to Scilly.
Looking back, we didn't give much thought to what the Scillonian residents thought about it at all. We were experiencing a bit of a 'frenzy' and I suppose we thought that an influx of free-spending stir-crazy 'mainlanders' would be a welcome and much needed boost to the Islands' economy.
.......until some of the people on the island of St. Martins made things clear in an open letter that made the national press.
In short, they weren't happy at all. Most of their businesses had shut down and any visitors desperate enough to come ashore on their island had better watch their steps or else. Indeed, if you were to have the misfortune to be staying on the island and showed symptoms of the lurgy, you would end up having to pay for at least another two weeks accommodation in lockdown and pay compensation to the people who had booked those two weeks, to boot!
Many Islanders are, indeed, not happy about letting infected mainlanders on to their pristine paradise....and who can blame them? Not me.
Cornwall has seen very few cases of The Virus, and Scilly has had exactly none, so you can imagine how many people in this faraway so-far-safe sanctuary feel about a sudden influx of possibly disease-carrying holidaymakers.
Seven days into the relaxation of distancing rules and the re-opening of many campsites and self-catering places, we left our lockdown lodgings for the drive down to Penzance.
Our forwarded bag of essential items (dog food, wine, herbal teas, gin and Black Country pork scratchings etc). had been last seen leaving Parcelforce's Bodmin depot a week ago.
The escape route from Brum took us down the M5 motorway, heading for Penzance, which is in Cornwall.
The sense of freedom was a bit unnerving - as soon as we set off in the car, everything seemed back to normal again in our own space - until we stopped at Oakhampton for a coffee. - masks, spacing-out in the queue, nervous people, nervous staff.
Back to reality. We continued in a sober mood until we met our daughter and grandaughter opposite St. Michael's Mount which was copied by the French and named Mont St. Michel (blinking cheek!)
Spot the the difference.
Mrs. Sánchez and Monty were unimpressed by Cornwall's iconic island.
A twin-propellered 'Otter' flew us from St.Just-in-Penwith International Airport to St. Mary's International Airport on the Isles of Scilly. The car journey took 5 hours. The flight took 15 minutes with a following wind.
An Otter
I spent the whole of that time with mild concussion after bashing my head on the very solid aeroplane doorway after being warned to 'Watch your head!'.
A masked boatman then whisked us across the sea to the 'off island' of St. Agnes and there we were, on Treasure Island.
St. Agnes, Isles of Scilly ( an 'off-island')
A 'cordon sanitaire' had been thrown round Scilly during the dark days of lockdown. The passenger ship Scillonian 111 stopped sailing. Only 'key workers' were allowed on the reduced flights. Scilly's entire police force were deployed to repel unwanted immigrants. - Rob at the airport and Shirley on the quay. You had to have a very good reason to be allowed ashore, I can tell you!
Even pasty imports were suspended, lobster and crab fishermen were 'grounded' and 'off- islanders' couldn't even go over to the Co-op on St. Mary's island to do a bit of shopping´.
Obadiah Trenwith, a 105 year old World War 2 veteran had his entire collection of WW2 floating mines commandeered by the Scilly Defence Militia to be deployed as 'deterrent obstacles' at strategic points round the islands, and nets were lowered into the sea to intercept frogmen, frogwomen, a few pollock and mackerel.
Nobody was allowed to pass - not even Dominic Cummings or Boris Johnson´s dad.
An 'Obadiah Obstacle' on the beach at Porthcressa....Hmmm. Looks familiar
Most (85%) of the people living on Scilly depend directly or indirectly on 'visitors' and 'trippers' (there IS a difference...see Man in Alora July 2014) for their livelihood now that the daffodil industry has almost disappeared and piracy and 'wrecking' are illegal and smuggling is considered vulgar because of its associations with drugs and people trafficking.
The islanders are split down the middle about the easing of lockdown and distancing rules. On St. Agnes all but two of the places to stay have closed their doors for the whole season and may face bankruptcy.
Hugh Town, on St. Mary's, the largest of the islands, has most of the shops, pubs and hotels. Much of the work is seasonal and nearly everybody in work is on the minimum wage (£6.45 an hour), mostly in shops, hotels and as cleaners.
Here's some shops you won't find there:
Shoe shops, pharmacy, charity shops, bookies, phone shops, electrical goods shops, pound shops, pawn shops, jewellery shops, Halford's, W.H.Smith, antiques shops, KFC, McDonalds, Burger King...I could go on.
The Co-op is the most important venue in Hugh Town and always has a queue outside, owing to strict distancing rules, which blocks the pavement forcing pedestrians to step into the street to avoid a virus infection and risk being run over by one of the 700 motor vehicles which speed up and down the island's 9 miles of road. (all vehicles are MOT exempt).
The queue outside the Co-op
.
St Agnes is one of the five inhabited islands and has a resident population of about 85 people. There's a campsite, a pub, some holiday cottages and a couple of B&Bs on the island which all depend on the holiday trade. At Troytown, the campsite has re-opened, along with its 3 holiday lets.
St Agnes Post Office and Store. Click and collect and telephone orders only
The shop is only taking internet or phoned orders and the only cafe, Coastguards, is just serving people at outside tables, which is OK when it's not raining or blowing a gale. The pub has a very strict queuing system but is serving some meals inside to widely-spaced tables. It's the 'new normal'.
As we landed at St. Agnes quay on July 11th. we were wondering what sort of a welcome we would receive. Usually people are very friendly and over the years we know a few of the locals.
The Turks Head Pub was our first stop and the difference was stark. It was the first pub we'd been to since January. There was a line drawn a metre from the bar, hand sanitiser at the doorway, masks, and lots of notices. Someone on St. Agnes must have bought a laminater (on line, presumably) and been let loose on the island. It felt a bit unwelcoming and I was on pins in case the owner remembered me from three years ago when we had a bit of a tiff. He didn't recognise me. Naturally everyone was very nervous. Visitors only began arriving a week before.
The Turks Head Pub was our first stop and the difference was stark. It was the first pub we'd been to since January. There was a line drawn a metre from the bar, hand sanitiser at the doorway, masks, and lots of notices. Someone on St. Agnes must have bought a laminater (on line, presumably) and been let loose on the island. It felt a bit unwelcoming and I was on pins in case the owner remembered me from three years ago when we had a bit of a tiff. He didn't recognise me. Naturally everyone was very nervous. Visitors only began arriving a week before.
As the week progressed we had all got used to the 'new normal' at the pub. Food was being served outside ('preorder your pasties before 10.45am'.) and with possibly the best view, with a drink in your hand, from any pub in Britain and possibly the world.
There's no getting away from it, the majority of the St. Agnes people were still staying in. The farmers were working, the post office/store was still selling groceries by phone or online. The only cafe, 'Coastguards' was serving take-away meals in their garden and Troytown with its suddenly busy campsite, holiday lets and farm shop was doing very well, particularly with their wonderful ice cream.
It's a massive gamble. We were told that if as few as 2 cases of Coronavirus were to be detected on any of the islands, everything and everyone could be forced into lockdown again.
That was when I realised the enormity of the problem we visitors were causing for the local people.
Troytown farmer Tim Hicks
!0,000 years ago The Isles of Scilly were probably one big island and even by 500 AD. all the Islands except St. Agnes were joined together. Today you can still walk across from island to island during a low Spring tide. But sea levels are rising all the time and Scilly's days may be numbered. The Scillonians have always struggled to survive. By the 16th. century nobody lived there at all. 'Lawlessness and disease' caused that, apparently (!!).
Not one family living there at the moment can place their ancestors on Scilly before the 18th. century.
The Islands are picturesque , wild, unspoilt and peaceful. Life is governed by the weather and the tides. Not long ago daffodils were the basis of the economy there - they are in bloom in November. Now the islands depend on 'tourism' and tourists come in all shapes and sizes.
We had a wonderful time there. I hope we left it as we found it....Coronavirus free.
We've already booked for next year.
Pasty News
There are good Cornish Pasties to be had at The Turks Head on St. Agnes.
The deli on St. Mary's , now called Hugh Street Café does some good pasties, with several vegetarian options ,as does Kavorna further down the street on the left. The ones at The Café on the Quay are all right, but the best one I had was at the Airport Café as we waited for our flight back to St. Just. Good luck and 'Buen viaje' if you fancy trying one.
A pasty a day keeps the virus away...I hope.
Juanito Sánchez. July28th. 2020
