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00:08we are a nation of islands come on you two over 4 000 are scattered along our coastlines
00:18with hundreds more in our lakes lochs and rivers being surrounded by water it has a very calming
00:25effect on the mind many of these islands are tiny many are remote i love so much about iron life
00:35but over 200 are called home
00:43i don't own it because you don't own an island if anything it owns me
00:49with rugged cliffs and sandy shores wildlife and family and lives very different to most of our own
00:59going over the edge here it'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
01:12straight into sea 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 wakey wakey
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
02:48family
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 her 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 of
03:24four operators still maintaining this time honored 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 driver
04:42before you take your test i love clip-clopping slowly down the lane talking to people with
04:53my horse in the sunshine just having a nice life it's just honestly it's the best job in the whole
05:01world i can't believe people pay me for it i absolutely love it as there are no vets on the
05:08island helen doesn't breed her own horses philly is from a stud in france she's a normandy cob a breed
05:16that can pull twice their weight and comfortably travel 40 kilometers in a day her proper name is
05:24philante dupuis 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're
05:40sort
05:40of you'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 we meet nice people and you're basically sitting in the sunshine talking about
06:07sark 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 as 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
07:30island his 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 the runners i've
07:51created 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 the
08:25farming that he loved i decided about the age of 50 that i'd had enough and i was going to
08:32have 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
08:58forever it's nice to keep it clean it's great to be a pilot anywhere but it has a special good
09:06purpose in islands because you can go anywhere you want basically i used to have a cessna aircraft
09:14when i was farming so it put me within a day trip of anywhere in scotland but when i decided
09:21to
09:22give up the farming i had to find a cheaper way to fly which resulted in beginning to build
09:29home-built airplanes which are much much cheaper i've always loved working with machines and making
09:35and mending them you order up a kit and and it comes in a great big pallet and you begin
09:43and it takes about a year to put it all together
09:49tommy has built three planes himself and still flies two regularly
09:54today 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 in there 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 airplane
10:38i just
10:39love being in the air very seldom weak passes that i don't fly it's a sense of freedom
10:47you require discipline because human body is not designed to be free in three dimensions
10:58the course was were built in 1939 as a result of the u-boat commanded by commander preen getting in
11:06to scapa flow and he sunk the royal oak about the ship and that triggered the the building of these
11:18courseways 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
11:39back on solid ground in sark the tourist boats have gone
11:45which means philly and her young apprentice reggie get to indulge in an extraordinary bathing ritual
11:51underneath sark's rugged cliffs it's the minute they start to go down the harbour hill they're like
11:56we know where we're going
12:01they've been sort of shuffling along very slowly all day so it probably is actually very good for
12:06them to get in the water and feel that freedom and sort of move their bodies in in a different
12:10way
12:10it's probably 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 left
12:37that still have horses is 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 in the irish sea
13:11it's around one and a half miles by one mile with a seasonal population of just four wardens
13:22the word calf derives from the old norse word kalf which means a small island lying near a larger one
13:31this small island neighbour 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 wildlife
13:52this is her first season so there's only four of us that live on here throughout the
13:58open season so that's from early march to early november and there's no permanent residence so it's
14:04you could maybe say it's uninhabited but it feels weird when people say that because at the minute it's my
14:08home
14:11the island's part-time population stay in an old farmhouse and try to live as sustainably as possible
14:18electricity is off grid supplied by a generator and there is 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 it's one
14:54so we're doing pretty well so we get a lot of rain collecting off the roofs um so we've got
14:58a big gutter
14:58system all the way along and then that then feeds into these tanks and then there's a pipe here that
15:04then sends that down through filters into our big water tank you just get used to having to save any
15:12amount of water that you can i think the biggest thing that people kind of find a bit of a
15:17shock
15:17um is us as staff can only shower once a week my head's got used to it now after over
15:23a year of
15:23kind of island life i'm here and elsewhere um yeah it doesn't really matter it just goes with it
15:30while kate checks the water her assistant dom is prepping their trusty tractor for this morning's task
15:37i believe we're all set and ready to go to go out and give the flail a go
15:41go and sort out some of the bracken this italian made tractor has been here for over 20 years and
15:51is the island's hardest worker it's high summer and vegetation needs management to encourage the
15:59island's rich biodiversity the bracken grows incredibly quickly and it is a constant job
16:09requiring near constant vigilance you turn your back and it's shot up three inches
16:16the main species that we're trying to look after when we do this is the chuff
16:20a schedule one protected species of corvid related to the crows and they really enjoy the short grass
16:26so we try and keep a lot of the fields clear of bracken so the truck can come in and
16:30forage for ants
16:31and that sort of thing
16:37every island has its own character and being able to get to know the island is so special and
16:43i think coming here for the whole season you get to see it in all of its moods pretty much
16:48you come
16:48and the island's asleep and then it gradually kind of wakes up
16:54the vegetation starts to kind of come alive the seabird colonies fill up again and
17:00i 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 so this is the wall that we get our stone from to then repair all the other walls that
17:54need
17:54repairing the dry stone walls are a massive part of maintaining and conserving the heritage of the
18:01island so we've got a great team of dry stone wallers that come on the big bits obviously are really
18:07useful but um they even need all of this packing stuff just like fill the gaps it kind of in
18:13a
18:13way it doesn't it's not concrete but it 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
18:24um kind of going down with the tractor back and forth a lot of dry stone wallers will complain about
18:29manx stone as you can see here you can just pull it apart really yeah it's cool from a heritage
18:36point of
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
19:24miles wide
19:26no one lives here full time but it's about to become a wonderful home to a herd of piglets
19:37pat a local butcher is in charge of escorting them to the island
19:42six inches forward six inches forward
19:48it's a journey he's been making for over 20 years and today he's being helped out by his son
19:54finton he's the third generation to join their farming and butchery business
19:59these we 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 probably
20:20about half five and when you're moving animals there's a wee bit of pressure there you know you're
20:25wondering how it's going to go it's well organized now fitting that that was again change of there
20:30then 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
20:48has been going on for hundreds 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
21:01the one unifying factor with them is it's got a flat bottom
21:06the fact that 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
21:26it's got a flat bottom of the sea when it lands it's almost like a landing craft it it slips
21:30on to the shore
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
21:59nothing 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 on up a wee bit
22:14here 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 landed
22:51on pig paradise here when i was on this island for my first time i was 10 years old i
22:57can always remember
22:58coming over my dad said wait till you see this place you're going to love it and whenever i actually
23:03arrived i seen what he was talking about and been in love with the place ever since
23:09it's the serenity it's the peace and quiet seeing the pigs being happy seeing me being happy you know
23:16it's a place of happiness and to me that's that's a big thing this is just the beginning for them
23:23and
23:23as they now ease in over the next week into living in the natural world between the herbs eat the
23:30grasses
23:31they'll realize how rich their world's going to be because of their diet and pigs believe it
23:37not uh are omnivores so they actually eat we think they're creepy crawlies and so they have a whole
23:42variety of diet dietary requirements and out here they will love it it's this diet that helps flavor
23:52the award-winning odocherty family for manor black bacon the island itself is also celebrated protected as a
24:00site of scientific interest thanks to the range of herbs and flowers that are found here i call this
24:07a signature plant of inish corkish we've seven different varieties of wild mint on the island
24:14you 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
25:15just along the shore the piglets are settling in the pigs are going to be on this island for about
25:21seven 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
25:41from 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
25:56sark in the channel islands enjoys a mild temperate climate
26:04it's ideal for growing food but unlike the rest of europe intensive farming has never been practiced
26:10here on sark the fields are small with borders left to nature
26:15clifftops 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 people here really tight i didn't want to spend the
26:48money on it so i think it sort of developed its own organic lifestyle and then it became important
26:53for everyone to keep that and it became part of what everyone does here everyone's really interested
26:59in in the wildlife and then take pride in their island helen maintains the garden along with a busy
27:06life running a b and b and a horse and carriage business but it's not just a hobby it's used
27:12to supply
27:12fresh food to a local hotel which she also owns so this part of the garden is the orchard and
27:18we grow
27:19not just apples we grow pears plums apricots all sorts of different things but predominantly apples
27:26because my mum loves to make cider and she loves to make calvados and the off side of that is
27:31the
27:32organic apple cider vinegar which we feed to the horses so keeps them coats shiny and everything
27:38everything working very well in their gut most of it does go to the hotel apart from the figs because
27:44i eat the figs i walk past every day and just eat one or two and so they never see
27:49the hotel
27:51cherries i eat the cherries most yeah most things both things i share but those things no
28:02in 2011 helen turned a former pony paddock into another gardening project
28:08growing vegetables and herbs 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 also
29:20going to um it's going to keep the water close to their roots so i'm trying to balance on these
29:28boards
29:29because it's a no-dig garden i don't want to walk on the soil and compact it
29:34because 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 climate
30:02on the sark it's particularly attractive to bees and some of the 39 species of butterfly that are
30:11found 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 i think when you live somewhere small you notice the
30:47small things and you celebrate the small things and that's yeah that's lovely
31:00it's very beautiful
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
31:22Lamb Home has no permanent residence
31:24but it does receive over 80,000 visitors a year
31:33The visitors come to see a remarkable building
31:36built by Italian prisoners of war in World War II
31:41Helen is one of a team of custodians
31:44responsible for preserving its remarkable story
31:48Her day is beginning with a commute from mainland, Orkney's biggest island
31:53It's just a two-mile drive from home to work
31:56and today is an absolutely beautiful day
32:00I enjoy going to work
32:01It comes the 25th of this month
32:04It'll be 32 years, I think
32:10The chapel is possibly one of the top three visited places in Orkney
32:15I've spent a lot of my time here, over the years working
32:18Quite privileged to preserve and help preserve the chapel as well
32:30During the 1940s, Lamb Home was the site of Camp 60
32:35where 550 Italian prisoners of war who'd been captured in North Africa
32:40were put to work building the Churchill Barriers
32:44Originally built to protect the Scapa Flow naval base from U-boat attack
32:49The barriers also created causeways between islands that are still used today
33:23They were brought here from North Africa in January 1942
33:24on the coastways all day
33:25and then the one thing that they lacked was a place of worship
33:33So they were gifted these two huts, Nissen huts in 1943
33:40Major Buckland sourced a lot of the materials for them
33:45Led by artist Domenico Chiochetti
33:48many of the other prisoners were also skilled tradesmen
33:52and hid the hut's corrugated iron walls behind a facade of plasterboard
33:57which was painted over
33:59A lot of the materials were from the block ships that had been sunk
34:07The tiles up at the altar were from a bathroom on the ship
34:12Some of the candlesticks were made from stair rods off the block ships
34:22The font, the spring on it, was from a dumper truck
34:25So they were really into the recycling long before we ever were
34:30Is it eight, what did I say?
34:33The next one's due in five minutes
34:35Which are...
34:36Oh, they're Italians
34:37Yeah, we'll store us Italians
34:39I'll bust on the fatalities for you
34:44It's interesting when Italian people come
34:47Some of them know about the chapel
34:49Others know nothing about it
34:51Don't even know that it exists
34:52Some of those that come that do know
34:54Our relatives get very, very emotional
34:57Babbo?
34:59I am the person in charge to organise the travel for the family
35:03So I decide by myself
35:06I pay, we share, guys
35:08No, no, no, we share
35:10I really love the island
35:11All of them
35:13What I think about this chapel is that it's a strong sign against war
35:17Because prisoners who forced to be here
35:21They decided to reconstruct something that was important for them
35:27To have the opportunity to think about something about higher
35:30A way to feel better
35:35By the time the prisoners came to leave in September 1944
35:39The chapel wasn't quite finished
35:43Keokete got leave to stay and finish the font
35:47The signs on the wall there
35:48What you call the 14 stations of the cross
35:51They were a gift from Keokete family
35:55Because Keokete, he came back with Maria, his wife
35:58With his children and laterally his grandchildren
36:00After the war
36:01After the war, yeah
36:07I don't really know why they refused to take the chapel down
36:10When they were dismantling the camp
36:12But I imagine it was just that it was such a beautiful building
36:25Sark in the Channel Islands
36:27Is a community dedicated to a different way of life
36:32Apart from agricultural machinery
36:34The island doesn't allow any motor vehicles
36:37Including cars
36:40Bicycles reign supreme
36:41But in the past
36:42Many islanders moved around by horse and cart
36:45And it's a tradition that continues today
36:48Although the number of operators is declining
36:53Helen is determined to do whatever it takes
36:55To keep her carriages going
36:57And 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
37:10He wants to find out how things work
37:12If I have any problems at all
37:14He's always the first person I ask
37:16And he will always say yes
37:19What date is it today?
37:20The 7th
37:22Thank you
37:23If we do anything to the carriages
37:25We write it down with the date and what we did
37:28Just so we can look back and say
37:29Oh, this wheel, that looks like it's moved a little bit
37:32It's just a bit of a diary for maintenance and things like that
37:34Taking the hubcap off
37:37Now I'm taking off the first bolt
37:41And then we'll take off the second lock nut
37:44Are there any play in those two?
37:46Do they feel okay?
37:47The first one's a little loose
37:48But they're okay actually
37:51Helen has seven carriages of various sizes
37:54Most are over 100 years old
37:56Including the three she uses most regularly
37:59They're so much nicer than the new modern ones
38:02They've got a history and character
38:06And they're a part of our heritage really
38:08To me it's really important that we keep them all going
38:12The other one is very special
38:14It's a Victoria that was made in 1850
38:17By Ferrari and Orsaniga in Milan
38:19And yeah, we just keep replacing little bits
38:22And painting little bits
38:23And people love the fact that they're old
38:25And we're looking after them
38:27There we go
38:30I'm a plumber by trade
38:31But mainly mum had a problem with it
38:34She wanted me to have a look at it
38:35So I took it apart
38:38Kind of looked at it
38:39Cleaned each bit up
38:41And then as I was taking it apart
38:42You kind of make mental notes
38:45About how it works
38:46And then put it all back together
38:47The same way it came apart
38:48Unless something's broken
38:49Then you kind of try and fix it
38:51With whatever you've got
38:53Chain oil
38:55If you grow up here
38:56You learn very quickly how to do stuff
38:59Rather than getting other people to do it
39:01Just makes your life a lot easier
39:03If you can do it yourself
39:05There we go
39:06All done
39:07See how we go
39:08Yep
39:09We'll give it a go
39:09Give it a test
39:20Oh she's falling asleep
39:22She is
39:23Yeah
39:23She loves a bit of a pamper
39:25Doesn't she
39:25Yeah
39:27There are no saddlers on Sark
39:29Philly's bridle and harness
39:31Were specially made for carriage pulling
39:33On the mainland
39:34The island has no farriers either
39:38Every six weeks
39:39A farrier comes over
39:40And sets up shop in Helen's barn
39:42To shoe all the island's horses
39:45There's no shoeing today though
39:47Just a test run of the wagonette's repairs
39:49And a chance for some mother and son bonding
39:53Oh this is very nice George
39:55Yeah
39:56We've done this for a while
39:57Nice little treat
39:58Yeah
40:00George quite liked riding
40:01He had a really lovely little pony called Minstrel
40:03George and his brother Ben
40:05They like to ride the same pony
40:07Sit on the same big
40:08Which is a big wide 13-2 pony
40:10And just fight each other with book bags
40:12As they went down the road
40:14Just smacking each other with their book bags
40:16On the way to school
40:18For one reason or another
40:20The next generation don't really have ponies
40:22I think life's moved on a little bit
40:24Everyone's got electric bicycles now
40:26And that's made a huge impact
40:28On the amount of horses on the island
40:29So yeah
40:31The few of us that are still left with the horses
40:32Still love the horses
40:33And we're still going
40:35You've done a great job George
40:36Well done
40:39Another good job
40:48330 miles away
40:49The calf of man sits south of its big neighbour
40:52The Isle of Man
40:5425 people used to live and farm here
40:57Now it's a nature reserve
40:59With four wardens
41:00Who stay for nine months each year
41:02Kate and her assistant Dom
41:04Are the estate wardens
41:06And they've been here for five months since March
41:09They generally work six days a week
41:12But today is a day off
41:16I've been out of dolphins
41:23I'm very lucky that the work that I do
41:25I do enjoy doing it
41:26There are times where you do
41:28Kind of just want to take a bit of a break
41:32One of the best things I like to do
41:34Is 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
41:38Or even just come and sit somewhere
41:40And just look out to sea
41:42Enjoy the peace
41:43Enjoy kind of the tranquility of island life
41:46Because while you're here
41:48You've got to kind of make the most of it
41:49Give yourself that time
41:50To appreciate being here
41:52And slow down
41:55Although his dad 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
42:11Attracting grey mullet
42:13Mackerel
42:13Pollock
42:14And cod
42:18This morning we're down in an area of the calf called the puddle
42:22And we'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
42:30Is using lures
42:31And I'm hoping that the calig
42:34Which are a predatory fish
42:35Will 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
42:45For 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
43:27Where it's nice to keep it going
43:28Because when people used to live in the farmhouse
43:31When 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
43:41Which is great
43:41But I think knowing that we've actually grown this ourselves
43:43Is really nice
43:44And it's all organic
43:46It's so rewarding
43:47Seeing it on your plate
43:48And thinking we've grown this
43:49Or we've caught it is really really good
43:52They just keep coming up
43:53Yeah some of these are massive
43:54Turns out we're excellent at growing potatoes
43:56Who knew?
43:58Obviously we are on a nature reserve
43:59So we do need to be really careful
44:02So in terms of biosecurity
44:04For example when we had the potatoes come in
44:06Or any of the plants
44:07We had to either grow them from scratch
44:08Or 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
44:16Get a plant and then stick it in the ground
44:18We can't do that here
44:19We have to be really careful
44:20Just to protect what we've got
44:22I've never told
44:22They're organic radishes
44:23Well because of the shape of them
44:25No because they've all been eaten
44:27It's 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
44:42Which is good
44:43Yeah
44:43He makes the best like garlic and herb pizza dip
44:46Yeah I think that's the other thing on here
44:48Is like if you want something and you've forgotten it
44:49In your weekly shop
44:50You've just got to work out how to make it
44:53Do you want to add us all to me?
44:54Are you going to do that?
44:55I could try it
44:59Well
45:02Putting mine on top
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
45:15Which 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 you might apply to a role like this
45:23Might be doing so to step out of society
45:27But it's really not like that
45:29It's more stepping into a very small one
45:30Yeah
45:32Hours of effort for this one small place
45:44You get used to it
45:45It's your day to day
45:46Just all this wilderness
45:48Having the place to yourselves
45:49How stunning it is
45:51And 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
45:55And streetlights 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
46:06We're very lucky in that
46:07We haven't had to do either
46:33We're very lucky in that
46:35We're very lucky in that
46:39We'reattic these two
46:39But it looks like the weather
46:39You're pretty scary
46:40But it's time
46:41I'm gonna forget
46:42But it's time
46:42And then we're
46:42You
46:42You
46:45For
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