Some of my favourite discoveries when travelling have been accidents. Today was no exception. Yesterday, while looking at the map, I found three small islands just off the West of Wirral in the Dee estuary. I love going to islands, so I quickly did a bit of net research and found out they were tidal - which means you can walk to them when the tide is out. I checked out the safe route and tide times (so I wouldn't be stuck on the islands when the tide came in!)
After breakfast, I drove for about 3h30 and got to West Kirby on the West side of Wirral at around lunchtime. Munching a sandwich as I went, I walked out to the islands over the wet sand/clay. The first island, "Little Eye" is very small:
The next "Middle Eye" is long and thin and as you get to the end you look out to the main island:
The last one, "Hilbre Island," is the largest and is inhabited. There are about 5 houses there and the owners can only go shopping in a 4x4, driving over the wet sand when then tide is out.
The islands after sunset:
For more information about the islands click:
GPS Mapping
I have lots of gadgets including my hand-held GPS.
Apart from finding out where to go and how far it is, I also use it to "record" my journey. When I get back, I can automatically plot the map of where I went (my route there and back are in green):
and a close-up to show the detail on the main island:
After the islands, I drove to my Travelodge in Bromborough.
All text/images (c)2012 M.Sidey