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00:08we are a nation of islands come on you two over 4,000 are scattered along our coastlines
00:17with hundreds more in our lakes lochs and rivers being surrounded by water it has a
00:24very calming effect on the mind many of these islands are tiny many are remote i love so much
00:33about iron life but over 200 are called home i don't own it because you don't own an island
00:45if anything it owns me with rugged cliffs and sandy shores wildlife and family and lives very
00:57different to most of our own good over the edge here's a bit cheeky shall we
01:05these are the stories of our tiny islands the fact that you just walk out your door and you're straight
01:12in to see that sense of freedom is amazing
01:26this time the skies and historic chapels of orkney the calf of man's rugged terrain
01:35lochern's newest residence and a wonder back in time
01:4480 miles from the south coast of england the channel islands are actually closer to the french coast of
01:50normandy there are seven inhabited islands in the archipelago and one of the smallest is sark
01:58it's just three and a half miles long and one and a half miles wide with a year-round population
02:04of around 560
02:08morning guys wiki wiki
02:15sark is it's a tiny little island in the middle of a beautiful blue sea
02:23it's about nine miles from guernsey it doesn't have any cars it's got lots of cliffs and cliff paths fields
02:31and flowers and butterflies
02:35it's beautiful place to live great community and lovely life
02:42helen has lived and worked on sark for the last 20 years having spent much of her childhood here with
02:47family
02:51i was two when my grandparents moved here so pretty much every single holiday we would come to sark and
02:57then i worked school holidays and university summers here because i am obsessed with horses
03:02and as soon as i was 16 i wanted to work on the carriages so as soon as i was
03:0616 i did that
03:09helen eventually took over the family business which she now runs alongside a bed and breakfast
03:18as there are no cars allowed on sark the island has a horse and cart taxi service and helen is
03:24one
03:24of four operators still maintaining this time on a transport tradition today she's prepping the wagonette
03:33it's at least over 100 years old yeah so we don't just do this to clean it because it's very
03:40old
03:41an antique we do it to check so we're checking the joints and we're checking the paintwork and
03:46we're just checking that everything's okay if you're careful you can look after them they're going
03:50forever they're sort of symptomatic of our way of life really nothing's fast it's all sort of connected
03:57to nature and it's a lovely lovely way to be
04:04in high season over two and a half thousand people travel to sark each week
04:11eager to witness the majestic sweep of its coastline and take in its rich history
04:20this brings vital income for helen and her fellow taxi drivers and a busy day for horses like philly
04:28good girl good girl i started driving on my 16th birthday because that's how old you have to be
04:35to be a provisional driver here on sark you have to learn at least 10 days with an experienced
04:41driving before you take your test i love clip-clopping slowly down the lane talking to people with my
04:53horse in the sunshine just having a nice life it's just honestly it's the best job in the whole world
05:01i can't believe people pay me for it i absolutely love it as there are no vets on the island
05:09helen
05:09doesn't breed her own horses philly is from a stud in france she's a normandy cob a breed that can
05:17pull
05:17twice their weight and comfortably travel 40 kilometers in a day her proper name is philante
05:24dupuis and she's learning english and she's learning about sark and she's absolutely lovely
05:33i think you do naturally slow down if you have to walk or horse or cycle somewhere um yeah you
05:40sort of
05:40you're on sark time it's uh yeah it's just it's part of the whole way of life
05:48visitor boats arrive at the island five times a day in high season mostly coming from guernsey which is
05:54seven miles away waiting for them as there always has been is a four-legged taxi rank offering guided
06:01tours of the island when you meet nice people and you're basically sitting in the sunshine talking
06:06about sark so yeah it's really nice yeah
06:14what's that tower that we've just passed this is the mill built in 1571 by the first permanent
06:20inhabitants it's built on a prehistoric mound as well this is it okay
06:29i didn't expect to get a whole carriage to myself
06:34it's lovely it's a lovely way to see it
06:45sark is part of a group of islands known geographically as an archipelago
06:50each island is unique but also intrinsically linked to its neighbors
06:56650 miles north of the channel islands is orkney another archipelago that sits about 10 miles from
07:03the north coast of scotland it's made up of approximately 70 islands although only 20 are inhabited
07:10the island known as mainland is the biggest and linked to it by a causeway is one of the smallest
07:15lamb home at just over half a mile long and half a mile wide
07:22no one lives on the island but it has plenty of visitors
07:26today tommy is traveling by causeway from mainland the neighboring island
07:31his passion though is to get a bird's eye view
07:39just a little flat green place
07:44it's a beautiful little place and i love seeing it from above right enough and
07:49uh the runners i've created make it look like a large hot cross bun
08:00i have a a labor of love going on here because i've cultivated a little airfield that allows
08:06lots of people in orkney to fly little airplanes
08:12tommy caught the flying bug when he was 28. a farmer on an island with two livestock farms he
08:19would fly around scotland sourcing livestock but slowly he realized it was the flying rather than
08:25the farming that he loved i decided about the age of 50 that i'd had enough and i was going
08:31to have some fun
08:34so this airfield's part of the fun
08:43i was just taking the bugs off the propeller and the coal here every time you fly off the grass
08:51you get bits of grass and and the bugs out of it get sucked up and squashed against the the
08:58air forever
08:59it's nice to keep it clean it's great to be a pilot anywhere but it has a special good purpose
09:07in
09:07islands because you can go anywhere you want basically i used to have a cessna aircraft when i was
09:15farming so it put me within a day trip of anywhere in scotland but when i decided to give up
09:22the
09:22farming i had to find a cheaper way to fly which resulted in beginning to build home-built airplanes
09:30which are much much cheaper i've always loved working with machines and making and mending them
09:36you order up a kit and and it comes in a great big pallet and you begin and it takes
09:43about a year to
09:44put it all together to put it all together tommy has built three planes himself and still flies two
09:52regularly today like many other days he's taking out his absolute favorite a jabiru j430
10:02engine oil is okay every time you fly an airplane you'll check it thoroughly before you
10:07go flying and then four five six good compressions
10:30i love to be airborne in any sort of airplane from a large passenger jet to the tiniest little
10:38airplane i just love being in the air very seldom weak passes that i don't fly it's a sense of
10:45freedom
10:47you require discipline because human body is not designed to be free in three dimensions
10:58the cosmos were built in 1939 as a result of the hubo commanded by commander pring getting in
11:06to scamper flow and he sunk the royal oak about the ship and that triggered the building of these
11:17courseways islands are all special places each one unique and and this one's very unique
11:26i always liked the island it's just a big part of my life
11:39it's a big part of my life
11:40back on solid ground in sark the tourist boats have gone
11:45which means philly and her young apprentice reggie
11:48get to indulge in an extraordinary bathing ritual underneath sark's rugged cliffs
11:54the minute they start to go down the harbour hill they're like we know where we're going
12:00they've been sort of shuffling along very slowly all day so it probably is actually very good for them
12:06to get in the water and feel that freedom and sort of move their bodies in in a different way
12:10it's
12:10probably a little bit like water horse yoga or something
12:16oh he loves water he's like a child in a pair of wellies allowed to jump in big puddles he's
12:20like
12:21poof yeah he loves to splash me
12:28horses have always been used for all sorts of things here
12:31less and less horses now but they're still still really important to the the few of us that are
12:36left that still have horses it's still still our way of life
12:48many of our tiny islands that used to be inhabited have become nature reserves
12:53so that the wildlife that has always called these islands home can live and flourish undisturbed
13:03this is true of the calf of man that sits just half a mile off the isle of man's southern
13:08coast
13:08in the irish sea it's around one and a half miles by one mile with a seasonal population of just
13:16four
13:21wardens the word calf derives from the old norse word kalf which means a small island lying near a larger
13:29one
13:31this small island neighbor is owned by manx national heritage and is run as a nature reserve and a bird
13:37observatory
13:40originally from dorset kate is the estate warden employed to protect the island's beauty and its
13:47wildlife
13:51this is her first season
13:54so there's only four of us that live on here throughout the open season so that's from early
14:00march to early november and there's no permanent residence so it's you could maybe say it's uninhabited
14:06but it feels weird when people say that because at the minute it's my home
14:11the island's part-time population stay in an old farmhouse and try to live as sustainably as
14:17possible electricity is off-grid supplied by a generator and there's no mains water supply
14:27so every week one of our jobs is to check the water levels
14:33this is my very sophisticated measuring stick um so it's basically a piece of wood um with 10 centimeter
14:41lines so if we count it as one
14:45so we've got 100 centimeters of water there now the maximum is about 120 um so we're doing pretty well
14:54so
14:55we get a lot of rain collecting off the roofs um so we've got a big gutter system all the
14:59way along and then
15:00that then feeds into these tanks and then there's a pipe here that then sends that down through
15:05filters into our big water tank you just get used to having to save any amount of water that you
15:13can
15:14i think the biggest thing that people kind of find a bit of a shock um is us as staff
15:19can only shower
15:20once a week my head's got used to it now after over a year of uh kind of island life
15:25i'm here and
15:26elsewhere um yeah it doesn't really matter it just goes with it while kate checks the water her
15:32assistant dom is prepping their trusty tractor for this morning's task i believe we're all set and
15:39ready to go to go out and give the flail a go go and sort out some of the bracken
15:47this italian made tractor has been here for over 20 years and is the island's hardest worker
15:54it's high summer and vegetation needs management to encourage the island's rich biodiversity
16:05the bracken grows incredibly quickly and it is a constant job requiring near constant vigilance you
16:12you turn your back and it's shot up three inches the main species that we're trying to look after
16:19when we do this is the chuff a schedule one protected species of corvid related to the crows and they
16:24really enjoy the short grass so we try and keep a lot of the fields clear of bracken so the
16:30chuff can
16:30come in and forage for ants and that sort of thing every island has its own character and being able
16:40to
16:41get to know the island is so special and i think coming here for the whole season you get to
16:46see
16:46it in all of its moods pretty much you come and the island's asleep and then it gradually kind of
16:51wakes up
16:54the vegetation starts to kind of come alive the seabird colonies fill up again and
16:59i think that sense of connection is part of why it's so special
17:06now the heather is in flower it's really stunning the scenery has changed so dramatically and so
17:12quickly if you turn your head and you look back and it's entirely new
17:20at its peak the calf of man was buzzing with a population of 25 growing crops and keeping sheep
17:27and cows in the 50s the last families left leaving a crisscross of dry stone walls as evidence of the
17:34island's long agricultural history battered by wind and rain in the off season repairs to these walls
17:42are also on kate and dom's never-ending to-do list i brought the tractor down here to our sacrificial
17:49wall
17:49so this is the wall that we get our stone from to then repair all the other walls that need
17:54repairing
17:56the dry stone walls are a massive part of maintaining and conserving the heritage of the island so
18:02we've got a great team of dry stone wallers that come on the big bitters obviously are really useful
18:07but um they even need all of this packing stuff just like fill the gaps it kind of in a
18:13way it
18:14doesn't it's not concrete but kind of has the same effect i guess obviously they're the experts in
18:19building it but in preparation for when they come dom and i spend a lot of time just ferrying stone
18:24kind of going down with the tractor back and forth a lot of dry stone wallers will complain about manx
18:29stone as you can see here you can just pull it apart really yeah it's cool from a heritage point
18:36of
18:36view that we're able to reuse it but the dry stone wallers don't like it
18:49not all our tiny islands are surrounded by sea
18:54many are nestled in our lakes locks and rivers but despite their relative proximity to the mainland
19:01they still manage to provide unique island sanctuaries all of their own
19:08lochern in county for manor to the west of northern ireland contains over 150 islands within its
19:15waters one of these is inish corkish a truly tiny island that's just 0.7 miles long and 0.3
19:23miles wide
19:26no one lives here full time but it's about to become a wonderful home to a herd of piglets
19:36pat a local butcher is in charge of escorting them to the island
19:42six inches forward six inches forward
19:46oh oh oh that's she it's a journey he's been making for over 20 years and today he's being
19:53helped out by his son finton he's the third generation to join their farming and butchery business
19:59these wee boys will get through that gate so 18 saddleback pigs are traveling over to inish corkish
20:06today their name derives from the breed's distinctive white band or saddle leaving their
20:12mums at 10 weeks old the island will be their new home until november this day started for us
20:19probably with half five and when you're moving animals there's a wee bit of pressure there you
20:25know you're wondering how it's going to go it's well organized now fitting that was again change
20:29there's no them boards no them boards are i'll tell you the right size nice and light yeah
20:42the transportation of animals and equipment machinery in the fermanagh lake lands has been going on for
20:48hundreds of years by means of a locker and cut
20:56the cot is very unique to fermanagh it was originally built as a wooden boat the one unifying factor with
21:03them is it's got a flat bottom the fact it's got a flat bottom makes it easier and more stable
21:13if you think a cot for a child you're penned in so the cot on the lake pens in animals
21:21it's got a flat bottom when it lands it's almost like a landing craft it it slips on to the
21:31shore
21:40pat bought inish corkish in 2005 as an experiment putting his environmental science degree to good use
21:48he wanted to see if he could keep pigs outside foraging for themselves free from the intensive
21:54farming methods often used on the mainland
21:58nothing makes me happier to see animals arriving into a wild environment like this because 99.99 percent
22:06of any pigs never see the daylight let alone grass just bring the feed down up a wee bit
22:13here the pigs get an opportunity to live the life they want come on you two there's always someone
22:22late for dinner this is a wee bit of organic feed and for them it's like us getting one of
22:30those lovely 99
22:31ice creams you know on a hot sober's day so this is their this is their wee treat for for
22:36crossing over
22:37it this morning on the lake what we're seeing here is pigs that are having probably the best day of
22:45their life it's the first time they've ever been outdoors and not only are they outdoors they've
22:50landed on pig paradise here when i was on this island for my first time i was 10 years old
22:56i can
22:57always remember coming over my dad said wait till you see this place you're going to love it
23:02and whenever i actually arrived i've seen what he was talking about and been in love with the place
23:06ever since it's the serenity it's the peace and quiet seeing the pigs being happy seeing me being
23:16happy you know it's a place of happiness and to me that's that's a big thing this is just the
23:22beginning
23:22for them and as they now ease in over the next week into living in the natural world between the
23:29herbs
23:30eat the grasses they'll realize how rich their world's going to be because of their diet and pigs
23:36believe it or not uh are omnivores so they actually eat we think they're creepy crawlies and so they have
23:42a whole variety of diet dietary requirements and out here they will love it it's this diet that helps
23:51flavor the award-winning odocherty family for manor black bacon the island itself is also celebrated
23:59protected as a site of scientific interest thanks to the range of herbs and flowers that are found
24:05here i call this a signature plant of finish corkish we have seven different varieties of wild mint on
24:13the island you just rub the leaf and you've got the most beautiful mint that you ever did smell
24:25this amazing plant is called silverweed during the famine in ireland this is responsible for saving tens
24:32of thousands of people when the potato crop field they had to resort to eating plants and the silverweed
24:39was probably one of the most beneficial plants that they ate because when you dig down into the roots
24:46it's it's full of starch and what is potatoes is potatoes of starch and these are the roots
24:52that the people during the famine plucked to eat now it doesn't look like much
24:58but when you eat that it actually tastes like parsnips
25:05the thing about it is you have to find a lot of them but it's enough to keep you alive
25:14just along the shore the piglets are settling in the pigs are going to be on this island for about
25:20seven or eight months now until the ultimate uh fate arise but it can be said that these pigs will
25:27have had the greatest life compared to other pigs who who will who will end up in the food chain
25:42from lush and green to rugged and desolate the appearance of tiny islands varies a lot depending
25:49on their location sitting around 20 miles from france's normandy coast sark in the channel islands
25:58enjoys a mild temperate climate
26:04it's ideal for growing food but unlike the rest of europe intensive farming has never been practiced here
26:12on sark the fields are small with borders left to nature
26:16clifftops undeveloped home to an array of plants including 160 species of wildflowers
26:26this hands-off approach is also reflected in islanders gardens including horse and carriage owner helen
26:35i started gardening in 99 and i decided i wanted to be organic but historically it wasn't really a
26:43conscious decision not to use chemicals and things like that people here are really tight i didn't
26:47want to spend the money on it so i think it sort of developed its own organic lifestyle and then
26:52it
26:52became important for everyone to keep that and it became part of what everyone does here everyone's
26:58really interested in in the wildlife and then take pride in their island helen maintains the garden along
27:05with a busy life running a b&b and a horse and carriage business but it's not just a hobby
27:11it's used to supply fresh food to a local hotel which she also owns so this part of the garden
27:17is
27:17the orchard and we grow not just apples we grow pears plums apricots all sorts of different things but
27:25predominantly apples because my mum loves to make cider and she loves to make calvados and the off
27:31side of that is the organic apple cider vinegar which we feed to the horses so keep some coats shiny
27:37and
27:37everything everything everything working very well in their gut most of it does go to the hotel apart
27:43from the figs because i eat the figs i walk past every day and just eat one or two and
27:48so they never
27:49see the hotel cherries i eat the cherries but most yeah most things both things i share but those things
27:55no
28:02in 2011 helen turned a former pony paddock into another gardening project growing vegetables and
28:09herbs for the hotel kitchen today she's harvesting comfrey
28:17we grow comfrey because it's really good for the soils lots of nutrients in it that plants need
28:24and we harvest it two or three times a year so chop it all up and we'll either mulch round
28:29plants that
28:30need a mulch rounder or we'll compost it with water and make like a comfrey tea that feeds our tomatoes
28:39so sark is at the end of the distribution chain if you like so by the time produce has got
28:44to guernsey
28:45it's already a few days old by the time it gets to sark it's quite old we always joke that
28:50oh we get
28:51all the stuff that guernsey doesn't want so if you want nice fruit fruit veg that sort of thing you
28:57do have to grow your own this is fertilizing it's also if i put it along the seat pose it's
29:06when this
29:07when this water comes out of the seat pose it's going to stay in the soil so so these spring
29:14onions
29:14are going to grow they're going to want them want the nutrients from the mulch but the mulch is
29:19also going to um it's going to keep the water close to their roots
29:27so i'm trying to balance on these boards um because it's a no-dig garden i don't want to walk
29:32on the soil and compact it because we don't dig this garden we just add the layers of the mulch
29:46helen keeps wildflower borders in her gardens and plants species like giant echium to encourage
29:53biodiversity this rare species is native to the canary islands but thrives in the mild coastal
30:01climate on the sark it's particularly attractive to bees and some of the 39 species of butterfly that
30:11are found on the island vital pollinators for plants which lock in carbon and help reduce climate change
30:22we have lots of lovely wildlife in our garden lots of bees and butterflies and insects
30:30we do manage quite a lot for wildlife but then the wildlife helps us so we've got lots of ladybirds
30:35in the garden lacewings bees all that sort of thing
30:44i think when you live somewhere small you notice the small things and you celebrate the small things
30:50and that's yeah that's lovely
31:03650 miles away off the north coast of scotland the wind-battered orkney islands are mainly treeless
31:11here life is very different but there is plenty of beauty if you know where to look
31:19as one of the smallest islands in orkney lamb home has no permanent residence but it does receive
31:26over 80 000 visitors a year
31:33the visitors come to see a remarkable building built by italian prisoners of war in world war ii
31:41ii people say help us tell us all the world who is required to be in the city of state
31:50and we are very proud to be on the state of the land and we have it in the city
31:58of the city of the day
31:58i will be able to find out the student in the area there is a while at the public school
32:03with the first place where in the state of the new city the west does enter the city of the
32:06city
32:06I think the chapel is possibly one of the top three visited places in Orkney I spent a lot
32:16of my time here over the years working quite privileged to preserve and help preserve the
32:21chapel as well hi yeah you could take photos but avoid touching the walls inside the chapel
32:29during the 1940s Lam home was the site of Camp 60 where 550 Italian prisoners of war who'd been
32:39captured in North Africa were put to work building the Churchill barriers originally built to protect
32:46the Scapa flow naval base from u-boat attack the barriers also created causeways between islands
32:52that is still used today they were brought here from North Africa in January 1942 but they did
33:01refuse to work because the causeways were being used as a defense agent so they ended up saying
33:07that they were linking the islands and that's how they got around them working
33:14the prisoners were brought here in January so I mean they must have found some difference from being
33:20in Egypt temperature wise and they weren't on the causeways all day and then the one thing that
33:27they lacked was a place of worship so they were gifted these two huts a nissen huts in 1943
33:40Major Buckland sourced a lot of the materials for them
33:45led by artist Domenico Chiocchetti many of the other prisoners were also skilled tradesmen and hid the
33:53huts corrugated iron walls behind a facade of plasterboard which was painted over a lot of the materials were from
34:03the
34:03block ships that had been sunk the tiles up at the altar were from a bathroom on the ship some
34:13of the
34:13the candlesticks were made from stair rods off the block ships the font the spring on it was from a
34:24dumper truck so they were really into the recycling long before we ever were
34:44it's interesting when Italian people come some of them know about the chapel others know nothing
34:51about it don't even know that exists some of those that come that do know our relatives get very very
34:59emotional I am the person in charge to organize the travel for the family so I decide by myself I
35:06pay
35:07sure I really love the island all of them what I think about this chapel is that is a strong
35:15sign
35:16against war because prisoner who has forced to be here they decided to reconstruct something that was
35:26important for them to have the opportunity to think about something about higher a way to feel better
35:35by the time the prisoners came to leave in September 44 the chapel wasn't quite finished
35:43here Katie got leave to stay and finish the font the signs on the wall there what you call the
35:4914 stations
35:50of the cross they were a gift from Keokete family because Keokete he came back from Maria his wife with
35:59children and laterally his grandchildren after the war yeah I don't really know why they refused to take the
36:09chapel down when they were dismantling the camp but I imagine it was just that it was such a beautiful
36:15building
36:25sark in the Channel Islands is a community dedicated to a different way of life apart from agricultural
36:33machinery the island doesn't allow any motor vehicles including cars bicycles reign supreme but in the past many
36:43islanders moved around by horse and cart and it's a tradition that continues today although the number of
36:49operators is declining
36:53Helen is determined to do whatever it takes to keep her carriages going and today she's enlisting the next generation
37:00her son George
37:02who's here to do some vital maintenance
37:08he loves to fix things he wants to find out how things work if I have any problems at all
37:14he's always the first
37:15person I ask and he will always say yes date is it today the seventh key if we do anything
37:24to the carriages we
37:25write it down with the date of and what we did just so we can look back and say oh
37:29this wheeler that looks like it's
37:31moved a little bit it's just a bit of a diary for maintenance and things like that taking the hubcap
37:36off
37:37now I'm taking off the first bolt and then we'll take off the second lock nut
37:44is there any play in those two do they feel okay the first one's a little loose but they're okay
37:50actually
37:51Helen has seven carriages of various sizes most are over 100 years old including the three she uses most regularly
37:59they're so much nicer than the new modern ones
38:01they've got history and
38:05character and
38:07they're a part of our heritage really to me it's really important that we that we keep keep them all
38:12going the other one is very special
38:14it's a Victoria that was made in 1850 by Ferrari and Orsaniga in Milan and yeah we just keep replacing
38:21little bits and painting little bits and people love the fact that they're old and we're looking after them
38:27there we go
38:30I'm a plumber by trade but mainly mum had a problem with it she wanted me to have a look
38:35at it
38:35so I took it apart
38:38kind of looked at it cleaned each bit up and then as I was taking it apart you kind of
38:42make mental notes
38:45about how it works and then put it all back together the same way it came apart
38:48unless something's broken then you kind of try and fix it with whatever you've got
38:53chain oil
38:54if you grow up here you learn very quickly how to do stuff rather than getting other people to do
39:01it
39:01just makes your life a lot easier if you can do it yourself
39:05there you go all done
39:06thank you
39:07see how we go
39:08yep yep yep we'll give it a go
39:09give it a test
39:20oh she's falling asleep
39:22she is yeah she loves a bit of a pamper doesn't she
39:25yeah
39:27there are no saddlers on Sark
39:29philly's bridle and harness were specially made for carriage pulling on the mainland
39:34the island has no farriers either
39:37every six weeks a farrier comes over and sets up shop in helen's barn to shoe all the island's horses
39:45there's no shoeing today though
39:47just a test run of the wagonette's repairs and a chance for some mother and son bonding
39:53oh this is very nice George
39:54yeah
39:56we've done this for a while
39:57nice little treat yeah
40:00George quite liked riding he had a really lovely little pony called Minstrel
40:03George and his brother Ben they like to ride the same pony
40:07sit on the same big which is a big wide 13-2 pony
40:10just fight each other with book bags as they went down the road
40:14just smacking each other with the book bags on the way to school
40:18for one reason or another the next generation don't really have ponies
40:22I think life's moved on a little bit everyone's got electric bicycles now
40:26and that's made a huge impact on the amount of horses on the island
40:29so yeah the few of us that are still left with the horses still love the horses and we're still
40:34going
40:35you've done a great job George well done
40:38another good job
40:48330 miles away the calf of man sits south of its big neighbour the Isle of Man
40:5425 people used to live and farm here
40:57now it's a nature reserve with four wardens who stay for nine months each year
41:03Kate and her assistant Dom are the estate wardens and they've been here for five months since March
41:09they generally work six days a week but today is a day off
41:16looking out for dolphins
41:22I'm very lucky that the work that I do I do enjoy doing it
41:26there are times where you do kind of just want to take a bit of a break
41:32one of the best things I like to do is just kind of go out for a bit of walk
41:35do a little bit of bird watching
41:36go for sea swims as well or even just come and sit somewhere and just look out to sea
41:42enjoy the peace enjoy kind of the tranquility of island life because
41:46while you're here you've got to kind of make the most of it give yourself that time to appreciate being
41:52here and slow down
41:55although his dad's is originally from the Isle of Man
41:58Dom was brought up in Oxford
42:00this is his first experience of island life
42:04and on his days off he likes to fish
42:07the summer seas are warm
42:09and the plankton is blooming
42:10attracting grey mullet
42:12mackerel pollock and cod
42:18this morning we're down in an area of the calf called the puddle
42:22we're hoping to fish for some calig
42:24or as they're called in the rest of the world pollock
42:27so the best method for catching calig is using lures
42:31and I'm hoping that the calig which are a predatory fish will come along
42:36assume that's a tasty morsel
42:38and then end up with me for dinner
42:42this is my dad's old gear in fact
42:43and he was fishing with this on the Isle of Man for 50 years really in the past
42:49so
42:54what have you got?
42:55we've got a hope it's a calig
42:56oh it is indeed
42:58quite an impressive one as well
43:01that's the biggest that I've caught here
43:15what do you think a couple of courgettes?
43:17a couple of courgettes and potatoes for the fish cakes tonight
43:20it's going to be so good
43:25the allotment is one of our little projects where it's nice to keep it going
43:28because when people used to live in the farmhouse when they were actually working the land
43:32this would have been how they grew a lot of their food
43:35oh look at the size of that one
43:38we do get our food order from Tesco which is great
43:41but I think knowing that we've actually grown this ourselves is really nice
43:44and it's all organic
43:46it's so rewarding seeing it on your plate and thinking we've grown this or we've caught it
43:50is really really good
43:51they just keep coming up
43:53no some of these are massive
43:54turns out we're excellent at growing potatoes
43:56oh I knew
43:58obviously we are on a nature reserve so we do need to be really careful
44:01so in terms of biosecurity
44:04for example when we had the potatoes come in or any of the plants
44:07we had to either grow them from scratch or have sterile plants
44:10because of things like invasive flatworms in the soil
44:13little things like that that you might not even think of
44:15you just go to a garden centre get a plant and then stick it in the ground
44:18we can't do that here
44:19we have to be really careful just to protect what we've got
44:22I've never told they're organic radishes
44:23what, because of the shape of them?
44:25no, because they've all been eaten
44:26I just chucked two massive slugs out
44:31they may be feral but we're still clean
44:34the other wardens are away on a bird survey today
44:37so tonight's dinner is for two
44:40I learn a lot of nice cooking tips from Dom which is good
44:43yeah, he makes the best like garlic and herb pizza dip
44:46yeah, I think that's the other thing on here is like
44:48if you want something and you've forgotten it in your weekly shop
44:50you've just got to work out how to make it
44:52do you want a tartar sauce in here?
44:54are you going to do that?
44:55I could try it but I don't think that
44:59well
45:02putting mine on top because I'm sensible
45:03the presentation may not be Michelin starred
45:06but you would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful restaurant
45:10or better dining companions
45:12you've got to get on well with each other
45:14but it's lucky because we do which is nice
45:16yeah
45:18I think it's a little
45:19we're a little family aren't we?
45:20yeah, I think a lot of people who might apply to a role like this
45:23might be doing so to
45:25step out of society
45:27but it's really not like that
45:28it's more stepping into a very small one
45:30yeah
45:32hours of effort
45:33for this one small plate
45:44you get used to it, it's your day to day
45:46just like all this wilderness
45:48having the place to yourselves
45:49how stunning it is
45:50and then you go places where it's full of people
45:52you don't just get a beach to yourself
45:54there are cars everywhere and street lights everywhere
45:59I think a great many people would pay a great deal of money
46:02or do a horrible thing to live in a place like this
46:05yeah
46:05we're very lucky in that we haven't had to do either
46:11Oh yeah
46:12I got kids
46:12no
46:13no
46:13no
46:16when
46:31when
46:34Amen
46:37We were not like outta here
46:37it would be
46:37yeah
46:37of
46:38there
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