After our round Britain coast tandem ride we wanted another project. We were given a book on all the Islands in Scotland-162 and thought why not visit as many islands around Britain as possible in the next 5 years. We aim to average I a month but Winter months are obviously going to be difficult.

Sunday 17th November, Bob's dad's birthday we drove to West Kirby, Wirral, arriving as suggested on the Friends of Hilbre web site, 3 hours after high tide, at 1.30pm today. Car parking by Morrisons cost around £3 even on Sunday.
We were 3 in number. Alison's husband is off sailing  Cape Horn in a tall ship( 40 foot waves!).As they gave us the inspiring book it was fitting she should be with us at the beginning.
Alison and Bob were in wellies but I had probably sent mine to a charity shop so had to make do with trainers. There was a trickle of people crossing the sand to the first of the 3 islands, Little Eye. The sand is fairly golden superficially but where turned over revealing a muddy black underside. I regretted the loss of my wellies as my socks soaked up the seeping water while Bob and Alison splashed through the enormous shallow puddles. Soon there were thousands of shells, cockles then mussels and,we think, winkles that lay over the rocks like small heaps of deer poo.
We walked across slippery seaweed covered rounded rocks then found the recommended route was on the sand to the left of Little Eye and not on the "land" (it is really only a rock). Slightly diagonally across to the right of the middle island, Little Hilbre would have been the correct route but we picked our way across to admire the fantastic rock strata. Some of it looked like brick in colour and texture. A natural arch made a good spot for a photo shoot. The ammonia and fishy smell of guano pervaded and around the edges of the island were a flock of migratory geese and countless oyster catchers.
There was a noise rather like the wind howling except that there wasn't much and anyway there wasn't anything for it to howl through the direction from which it came. There was a sandbank across the water with rounded dark shapes across it. Could they be seals? It was hard to tell in the low level lighting of the day.
As we came through the grass on Hilbre itself, past the seemingly unoccupied 3 houses and through the relic of the old lifeboat house we saw 4 seals swimming close to the island. Apparently this is the time of year they have pups and they are at their most vocal. The noise was certainly haunting and I thought of the ancient mariners lured onto the rocks by the sirens....
It was quicker back as we new the best route and I cared less about trying to keep dry. It took us just over 2 hours in total and we all agreed it was a great start to our island explorations.