The Island of 20,000 Saints

The title is another name for a remote, windwept, lonely little island in the middle of the Irish Sea. It's name is Bardsey, and for a week in late September and early October it's going to be my home. Perhaps not as spectacular as a month in Costa Rica, but I thought it was a good reason to resurrect the old blog!

the island of Bardsey, viewed from Mynydd Mawr

To recap, I got back from CR on July 17th, and gradually settled into normal life, finding work, watching friends leave for University and their own exciting adventures. My overall dream of Teaching English as a Foreign Language got a little bit closer when I finished my online TEFL course on July 31st, and then got further away than before as the reality of trying to find jobs with what is, in all honesty a piddly little qualification hit me! So I'm currently working in a restuarant, hoping to save up some money to go towards a more prestigious CELTA, and keeping my eyes and ears open for any voluntary opportunities, and any chances to travel. Which brings us back to that desolate, windswept island in the middle of the Irish Sea.

As you'll know from my Costa Rican adventures, the natural world, and most significantly its feathered inhabitants, have quite a central role in my life. This all started from being a little kid and following my Dad about, a prominent ornithologist who had written several books, before a hungry little mouth to feed made him decide for the relative stability of finding employment as a conservationist for Natural England, rather than the fun but chaotic life of a freelance writer and traveller. Notice anything familiar in that description?!

Anyway, the passion for birds was instilled in me from a young age, but until the age of about 14 I was convinced no other young person in the world shared it. Then Facebook came along, and made networking with like-minded people from all over the world an awful lot easier. I found a great many friends who shared this crazy passion, what those of us in the clique refer to as "birding". Never Twitching, or Birdwatching, which for some reason have connotations we almost can't bear, despite Newspapers preferring them.

So it was similarly like-minded young birders who helped organise this trip to Bardsey. It helps that one of our ilk, Ben Porter, lives on the island, assisting at the Bird Observatory and living the crofters life. I realise that for a lot of my friends reading this, I may as well print out a glossary for the amount of jargon I'm including! A "Bird Observatory" is a place to study the migration of birds. As we all know, Swallows, Cuckoos and the like fly to Africa every autumn to escape the brutalities of our winters, but in reality 90% of Bird species in Europe take some form of migration. The Robins and Blackbirds in your garden this winter are as likely to be German or Scandinavian as they are British, and the Mallards on your duck pond could have come from as far as Boreal Russia to be there. Bird Observatories are placed on strategic areas, such as offshore islands and peninsulas, which act as traps for migrating birds, and attract them in much greater numbers than elsewhere. This, in a nutshell, is the reason that myself and five friends came up with the barmy idea of being on Bardsey from September 27th to October 4th.

copyright Ben Porter, Bardsey viewed from the Lleyn Peninsula

I always feel you can garner a lot about the nature of a trip by what you intend to pack. For a week here, I'm trying to pack as lightly as possible, owing to five of us and our bags having to fit in one car, for the drive from Chester (initial meet-up point) to Aberdaron, where we catch the "Ferry" (used in the loosest term possible), to Bardsey. The list currently stands at;
Clothes

• 2 shirts
• 2 pairs of trousers
• jumper
• coat
• 4 pairs socks
• 4 underwear
• walking boots
• trainers

doing laundry on Bardsey isn't advised due to water being something of a scarce commodity, so instead I'll be finding the nearest stream whenever things need washed. Au naturelle. Think of me, when you're complaining that you can't find a jacket to match your dress (or whatever male equivalent, most of you probably where the same underwear five days running anyway). 

Optics

The single most important thing on the trip, how the hell would you identify any birds without them! 

• Telescope (over twice my current age, bought by my Dad in the 1970's and a wonderful family heirloom/pass-me-down) 
• Tripod
• Binoculars
• Camera (to take photos to put on the blog)

Toiletries

• toothbrush
• toothpaste
• soap
• deodorant

I will come back looking like I've spent far longer than a week on a remote Welsh island, I can tell you. 

Miscellaneous

• notebook
• something to read on overnight coach, and when waiting for two hours from 5-7am in Chester for my pick up. ];:
• mahoosive bottles of water
• laptop
• booze
• the ingredients for making fajitas (we all agreed to help out with cooking)
• phone (I doubt I'll be able to call anyone, it's sole use will be to set my alarm at 5am every morning)

You can probably guess from that what kind of holiday this will be. Most of you probably wouldn't even call it a holiday, it must sound more like a self-enforced boot camp, or at the very least as if I'm passive-agressively punishing myself for various sins and misdemeanours. But trust me, reader, I'll be having a hell of a lot more fun than you. Unless you're also doing something you love, in which case congrats and sorry for being presumptuous! But this is way more enjoyable than the 9-5 slog, even if, on the face of it, it might sound hellish. 

copyright Ben Porter again! Heaven on earth

There are, of course, many other major players in this story, who I shall give you a brief introduction to now. The five friends on Bardsey with me are Matthew, Ben, Josie, Susan and James. Matthew is born and bred in Rugby, chairman of the committee of Next Generation Birders, a voluntary organisation founded my a group of friends (including myself), to give young birders and naturalists a place to network online, and plan the revolution. Ben, as mentioned above, is a Bardsey resident. Other claims to fame include being a photographer extraordinaire, Ben Fogle lookalike, and having the kind of rugged crofters handshake that makes grown men cry. Josie is a 15 year old from Hampshire, the groups other astounding photographer, and already a bright light in the future of British conservation. James and Susan I currently know slightly less well, although both originate from Scotland, both are currently in Wales (Bangor and Newport), and both are active members of Next Gen Birders (for future reference, I'll just call it NGB for short). 

Alongside them in this play are the staff of Bardsey Bird Observatory, the other residents of the island, a boat which I'm slightly worried will capsize, and of course the feathered friends we're all hoping will grace our presence on the island. It's safe to say, I can hardly wait for what should prove to be a most excellent adventure!  

Choughs, a bird restricted in Britain to the Welsh and Scottish coasts and a bit of Cornwall. If you can't get excited about a crow with a red beak and feet,  Copyright Ben Porter

* update, I'm not sure whether I'll get either the camera or laptop packed, so both taking pictures and updating the blog might prove a challenge! We shall see..