I must go down to the sea again to the lonely sea and the sky
(John Masefield Sea Fever)
At last. The proverbial petunia in the onion patch has appeared among the weeds of broken Britain. Nestled among the débris of phone hacking, police corruption and MPs fiddling expenses, someone is doing something good for society. Steve Shields, a lone voice crying in the wilderness, is trying to save Sully Island in South Wales. Well, his was a lone voice until a few loyal mates responded to his cri de coeur. Although this happy few has grown to forty (at the time of writing) unless he can raise £95k by 4 August 2011 a fat cat will buy the island.
KEEP OUT!
PRIVATE PROPERTY!
TRESSPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED!
On the face of it, Sully Island, a tiny lump of rock, is barely worth saving. You can only get to it two hours a day. If you get trapped by the tide you stay trapped until it goes out. The Bristol Channel has the second most ferocious tides in the world (only that of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia is higher). Sully Island is dangerous. The unwary have met their Maker trying to leave as they watch the tide rise frighteningly quickly. But that’s just the point. For generations of children, the island has meant adventure, magic, mystery, bottom clenching spine tingling terror. Think Pirates. Think Shipwreck. Think Smugglers. Think Romans, Saxons, Vikings. Think camping out under a scaggy lump of canvas and you have Sully Island. Think Five Go Down To the Sea. Think Lord of the Flies. Think Swallows and Amazons. The island was one of my childhood haunts. I will always remember the time I got trapped there (well, connived to get trapped there) with my old mucker Rosie Brooks, who (true to form) blubbed until we got back to safety. She was, as usual, ordered NEVER TO PLAY WITH PAMELA EVER AGAIN. Money could not buy that tingle of terror we experienced as we slipped and skidded across the slippery causeway. Until now. Steve is trying to buy it for all kids everywhere in perpetuity. Talk about virtue being its own reward.
Roytrs 
Posted on Jul 30, 2011 by scribbling4bread
0