Brownsea Island

Last Sunday, after going to Southend-on-Sea and Wickford the day before, we decided to head to another beach, this time at the opposite end of the spectrum. Where Southend has the amusement park and caters to the average Joe, Swanage is a touch more swanky.

Before getting to Swanage however, we took a cruise from Poole Quay (home of the world's second largest land-locked port, only smaller than Sydney Harbour) to Brownsea Island. After a short cruise past yachts and canoes, we arrived at Brownsea, which looked to have a few old buildings on it. I know, shock, it's England and the buildings are old, but give me a break. In actual fact, Brownsea Island is the very place that the scouting community began. Way back when, 100 years ago to be exact, Lord Baden-Powell took about 20 or so boys camping on the island. He felt that boys needed to be taught survival skills, and wanted to found an organisation that would be able to teach them. These days he'd no doubt be labelled some nasty names for taking 20 boys to a secluded island on his own, but there you have it, the scouts were formed. There is a statue of him on the island, and they have just had celebrations marking the centenary of scouts there as well.

Brownsea Island is not only famous for its history with scouts. It's also home to the red squirrels. You can take a walk through the island, through their territory, and apparently you can see them roaming around, going about their normal squirrel-like business. Not so, it seems, when I'm around. We spent quite a while wandering about, in the vain hope of seeing even one measly little squirrel, but no, they all decided that they wanted to stay home out of the sun (they're probably not quite sure what sunshine is!). So it turned out to be quite a fruitless (and squirell-less) adventure to the island. There were some magnificant oak trees, but I wasn't allowed to climb them either. I'm still fascinated by the little things though, such as seeing acorns on an actual tree. Well, seeing acorns at all, really!


The hunt for the red squirrel continues...