There was nothing Scilly about these Islands - Part I

A few people had asked me if I had extended beyond Cornwall out to the Isles of Scilly and despite holidaying many times and looking a various crossing options from the mainland I had never ventured further onwards , cost and time being the typical reasons, however a chance discussion with a few friends in our travel HQ known at the time as the George Inn it was greeted with genuine interest and enthusiasm, i.e. not just the five pints talking. So with this in mind I set about a long weekend excursion leaving after work Wednesday and being back at my desk for Monday Morning. Even with my friends love of the four wheels (always preferred two myself ,motorised or not) no-one really wanted to do the 350 miles + on a Wednesday evening, if we left Thursday AM it would mean too little time and to make things a bit trickier you cannot get off the islands on a Sunday unless peak season.

But a light bulb moment and recent Scottish Journeys on the Caledonian Sleeper had been very successful. So with that in mind we booked onto the 23:59 Night Riveria out of London Paddington , arriving at the end of the line in Penzance @ 07:30 Thursday AM. The use of various railcards meant we could get there and back with a cabin outwards for just over £100 - bargain.

Next up was juggling the accommodation for six people for two nights on the main Island St Mary's - this was tricky as there is so little ad-hoc accommodation , with an exceptionally high number of repeat bookings and unless paying top dollar you have to take what is available. I found 2 rooms - yes a 4 bedded room for a load of old blokes - and a tour manager bagged the twin bedded other room. Getting to and from St Mary's was another quandry , it's either the Scillionian III aka 'The Great White Stomach Pump' or one of the rather more costly airbound options. To maximise time and after checking none of the party were that worried about boat/flying or even trains the agenda was fixed.

A early evening meeting just outside Paddington station and we were all ready to go with a few near station pubs to choose from - the usual tourists traps with typical london fayre of ' Try our traditional/famous Fish & Chips @ £14.95', toilets that were a throw back to the 1980's (probably the last time cleaned) and the usual selection of characters that lurk near the stations. I had done some research and found as 'sleeper passengers' we could use the waiting room and bar next to Platform one - this was originally used as Queen Victoria's pre-travel stop off for a can of London Pride and a small packet of Walkers Shortbread. It was an oasis of calm and tranquility at least until our last of the summer wine brigade arrived but all good spirited.

About 30 mins before departure the Host/Conductor/Guard announced we were ready to board and guided us to the three adjacent cabins we had booked probably knowing full well most of the night would be spent in the bar. No-one of our party of six would ever win a ballet competition although for the combined ages of 350+ yrs we;re pretty active although not small so for the uninitiated the sight of the cabin was perhaps a little of a shock. No issues with the length of the beds but they are narrow and you cannot have two people standing at the same time , so almost in perfect sync - the Gucci luggage sets - well rucksacks were thrown on the cabin beds and then a brisk march to the buffet car.

The Cornish Sleepers were all upgraded in 2016 so the old fashioned bar which at the time their Scottish partners had been replaced by a shiny new version. The Caledonian Sleepers has now after a lot of teething problems also been updated which meant the end of the only train journey in the UK where you could move the seats around had ceased- crying shame.

The journeys was as expected , a combination of some business people who were tapping away on laptops breaking only to take a large gin and tonic/red wine along with the ubiqtiouse wlakers shortbread and those who were here for non-work stuff. We stopped as every train does at Reading to collect a few more passengers then that was it until we pulled into Newton Abbott 5 hrs later - what a superbly named place what was this twinned with lizard-on-monk.

Big trains are a great way to travel and feature heavily in most of my travels , this was no-exception although it would be dark for most of the journey the freedom of walking around and relaxation beats any other form of transport. It was a long night in the bar supplemented by an ad-hoc game of name that tune on the brigadier phone's and free bacon rolls at stupid o'clock by the steward who said it had made his night to have some people still up and about. We drifted off to our cabin to shoe-horn into beds but not for long, snoring from one was too much for Retro Russ who retreated back to the inner sanctum of peace in the bar. Dave wandered out to the Loo locking himself of the cabin and took a while to get the steward to let him back in.

We arrived a little tired but a great night and drew into the end of the line Penzance bang on time ready for Day 2.