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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
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 going 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
01:12and 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 residents 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
02:48family
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
03:10helen 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
03:23and helen is one of four operators still maintaining this time on a transport tradition
03:30today she's prepping the wagonette it's at least over a hundred years old
03:37yeah so we don't just do this to clean it because it's very old
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 it 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
03:57connected to 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
04:48i love clip-clopping slowly down the lane talking to people with my horse in the sunshine just having
04:57a nice life it's honestly it's the best job in the whole world i can't believe people pay me for
05:03it
05:04i absolutely love it as there are no vets on the island helen doesn't breed her own horses philly
05:12is from a stud in france she's a normandy cob a breed that can pull twice their weight and comfortably
05:19travel 40 kilometers in a day her proper name is flante dupuis and she's learning english and she's
05:28learning about sark and she's absolutely lovely i think you do naturally slow down if you have to
05:35walk or horse or cycle somewhere um yeah you sort of you're on sark time it's uh well it's just
05:44it's
05:44part of the whole way of life visitor boats arrive at the island five times a day in high season
05:52mostly coming from guernsey which is seven miles away waiting for them as there always has been
05:58is a four-legged taxi rank offering guided tours of the island when you meet nice people and you're
06:04basically sitting in the sunshine talking about sark so yeah it's really nice yeah
06:15what'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 is it 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
07:16lamb 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 very 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
08:07lots 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
08:32to have some fun
08:34so this airfield's part of the fun
08:44i was just taking the bugs off the propeller and the cowl here
08:47the very time you fly off the grass you get bits of grass and and the bugs out of it
08:55get sucked up
08:56and squashed against the the air forever it's nice to keep it clean
09:02it's great to be a pilot anywhere but it has a special good purpose in islands because you can go
09:09anywhere you want basically i used to have a cessna aircraft when i was farming
09:15and 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
09:37you 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
09:52two regularly 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 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
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 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 battleship and that triggered the building of these causeways
11:18islands 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 the minute they start to go down the harbour hill they're like we know
11:57where we're going they've been sort of shuffling along very slowly all day so it probably is actually
12:05very good for them to get in the water and feel that freedom and sort of move their bodies in
12:09in a different way it'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
12:21like
12:21poof yeah he loves to splash me
12:28horses have always been used for all sorts of things here less and less horses now but they're
12:33still still really important to to the the few of us that are left that still have horses is still
12:38still our way of life
12:48so
12:49many 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 neighbor is owned by manx national heritage and is run as a nature reserve and a bird
13:38observatory
13:40originally from dorset kate is the estate warden employed to protect the island's beauty
13:46and its wildlife
13:52this is her first season
13:55so there's only four of us that live on here throughout the open season so that's from
14:00early march to early november and there's no permanent residence so it's you could maybe
14:05say it's uninhabited but 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 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 so it's basically a piece of wood
14:40with 10 centimetre lines so if we count it as one
14:43so we've got 100 centimetres of water there now the maximum is about 120
14:53so we're doing pretty well so we get a lot of rain collecting off the roofs
14:57so we've got a big gutter system all the way along and then that then feeds into these tanks
15:02and then there's a pipe here that then sends that down through filters into our big water tank
15:09you just get used to having to save any amount of water that you can
15:14i think the biggest thing that people kind of find a bit of a shock
15:18is us as staff can only shower once a week my eyes got used to it now after over a
15:23year 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
15:36task i believe we're all set and ready to go to go out and give the flail a go go
15:42and 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 when
16:19we do this is to 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
16:30truck can
16:30come in and forage for ants and 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
16:48much you come and 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 i think that
17:01sense 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 at its peak the calf of
17:22man
17:22was buzzing with a population of 25 growing crops and keeping sheep and cows in the 50s the last
17:29families left leaving a crisscross of dry stone walls as evidence of the island's long agricultural
17:37history battered by wind and rain in the off season repairs to these walls are also on kate and dom's
17:44never-ending to-do list i brought the tractor down here to our sacrificial wall so this is the wall
17:50that
17:50we get our stone from to then repair all the other walls that need repairing the dry stone walls are
17:57a
17:58massive part of maintaining and conserving the heritage of the island so we've got a great team of dry
18:03stone wallers that come on the big bits obviously are really useful but um they even need all of
18:10this packing stuff just like fill the gaps it kind of in a way it doesn't it's not concrete but
18:15it has
18:16the same effect i guess obviously they're the experts in building it but in preparation for when
18:21they come dom and i spend a lot of time just ferrying stone kind of going down with the tractor
18:26back
18:26and forth a lot of dry stone wallers will complain about manx stone as you can see here you can
18:32just
18:33pull it apart really yeah it's cool from a heritage point of view that we're able to reuse it
18:39but the dry stone wallers don't like it
18:50not all our tiny islands are surrounded by sea
18:55many are nestled in our lakes locks and rivers
18:58but despite their relative proximity to the mainland they still manage to provide unique
19:03island sanctuaries all of their own
19:08lochern in county for manor to the west of northern ireland contains over 150 islands within
19:14its waters one of these is inish corkish a truly tiny island that's just 0.7 miles long and 0
19:23.3 miles wide
19:27no 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 finton
19:55he'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
20:13mums at 10 weeks old the island will be their new home until november this day started for us probably
20:20with 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 was again change of there then
20:30boards 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 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
21:26it's got a flat bottom makes it easier 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
22:06percent of any pigs never see the daylight let alone grass just bring the feed down 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 just getting one of
22:30those
22:30lovely 99 ice creams you know on a hot sober day so this is their this is their wee treat
22:36for for crossing
22:37over it this morning on the lake what we're seeing here is pigs that are having probably the best day
22:45of their 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
22:57i can always 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
23:07ever 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 eat the grasses they'll realize how rich their world's going to be because of their diet
23:36and pigs believe it or not uh are omnivores so they actually eat we think they're creepy crawlies and
23:41so they have a whole variety of diet dietary requirements and out here they will love it
23:49it's this diet that helps flavor the award-winning odocherty family for manor black bacon
23:56the island itself is also celebrated protected as a site of scientific interest thanks to the range
24:03of herbs and flowers that are found here i call this a signature plant of inish corkish
24:10we have seven different varieties of wild mint on the island you just rub the leaf
24:16and 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
24:32tens of thousands of people when the potato crop failed they had to resort to eating plants and the
24:39silverweed was probably one of the most beneficial plants that they ate because when you dig down into
24:44the roots it's full of starch and what is potatoes is potatoes of starch and these are the roots that
24:52the people during the famine plucked to eat now it doesn't look like much but when you eat that it
25:00actually 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 on their
25:50location sitting around 20 miles from france's normandy coast sark in the channel islands enjoys a mild
25:59temperate climate it's ideal for growing food but unlike the rest of europe intensive farming has
26:10never been practiced here on sark the fields are small with borders left to nature cliff tops undeveloped
26:17home 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
26:36i 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
26:48the money 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 in
26:59in the wildlife and then take pride in their island helen maintains the garden along with a busy life
27:07running a b&b and a horse and carriage business but it's not just a hobby it's used to supply
27:12fresh
27:13food to a local hotel which she also owns so this part of the garden is the orchard and we
27:19grow not
27:19just apples we grow pears plums apricots all sorts of different things but predominantly apples because
27:26my mum loves to make cider and she loves to make calvados and the off side of that is the
27:32organic apple
27:33cider vinegar which we feed to the horses so keep some coats shiny and everything everything working
27:39very well in their gut most of it does go to the hotel apart from the figs because i eat
27:44the figs
27:46i walk past every day and just eat one or two and so they never see the hotel cherries i
27:51eat the
27:52cherries most yeah most things both things i share but those things nope
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
28:30that need a mulch rounder or we'll compost it with water and make like a comfrey tea that feeds our
28:36tomatoes so sark is at the end of the distribution chain if you like so by the time produce has
28:44got to
28:45guernsey it's already a few days old by the time it gets to sark it's quite old we always joke
28:50that oh we
28:51get all the stuff that guernsey doesn't want so if you want nice fruit fruit veg that sort of thing
28:57you do have to grow your own this is fertilizing it's also i put it along the seat pose it's
29:06when
29:07this when this water comes out of the seat pose it's going to stay in the soil so so these
29:13spring
29:14onions are going to grow they're going to want them want the nutrients from the mulch but the mulch is
29:20also going to um it's going to keep the water close to their roots so i'm trying to balance on
29:28these boards um because it's a no-dig garden i don't want to walk on the soil and compact it
29:35because 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
30:33helps us so we've got lots of ladybirds in 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
31:41helen is one of a team of custodians responsible for preserving its remarkable story
31:48her day is beginning with a commute from mainland orkney's biggest island it's just a two-mile drive
31:55from home to work and today is an absolutely beautiful day
32:00i enjoy going to work comes the 25th of this month it'll be 32 years i think
32:10the chapel is possibly one of the top three visited places in orkney i spent a lot of my time
32:17here
32:17over there working quite privileged to preserve and help preserve the chapel as well
32:24as well during the 1940s lamb home was the site of camp 60 where 550 italian prisoners of war who'd
32:39been
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 are still used today they were brought here from north africa in january 1942 but they did refuse
33:01to work because the cosmos were being used as a defense agent so they ended up saying that they
33:07were linking the islands and that's how they got around them working
33:15the prisoners were brought here in january so i mean they must have found some difference from
33:19being in egypt temperature wise and they worked on the coastways 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
33:46led by artist domenico chiocchetti many 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 a 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
34:26so they were really into the recycling long before we ever were
34:30is it eight was it what did i say the next one's doing five minutes
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 it exists some of those that come that do know our relatives get
34:56very very very emotional babbo i am the person in charge to organize the travel for the family so i
35:04decide the by myself i pay if you organize i really love the island all of them what i think
35:14about this
35:14chapel is that is a strong sign against war because prisoner who has who forced to be here they decided
35:23to reconstruct something that was important for them to have the opportunity to think about
35:29something 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
35:43well
35:47the signs on the wall there what you call the 14 stations of the cross they were a gift from
35:53a
35:53keochetti family because keochetti he came back with maria his wife
35:58with his children and laterally his grandchildren.
36:01After 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 is a community
36:28dedicated to a different way of life.
36:32Apart from agricultural machinery,
36:35the island doesn't allow any motor vehicles, including cars.
36:40Bicycles reign supreme, but in the past,
36:43many 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
36:56to keep her carriages going.
36:57And today, she's enlisting the next generation,
37:01her son George, who's here to do some vital maintenance.
37:08He loves to fix things, he 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.
37:23If 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.
37:35Taking 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 OK?
37:47The first one's a little loose,
37:49but they're OK, 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 history and character,
38:06and they're a part of our heritage, really.
38:09To me, it's really important that we keep them all going.
38:13The other one is very special.
38:14It's a Victoria that was made in 1850
38:17by Ferrari and Orson Iger in Milan.
38:20And, 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.
38:28There we go.
38:30I'm a plumber by trade,
38:32but mainly Mum had a problem with it.
38:34She wanted me to have a look at it,
38:36so I took it apart,
38:38kind of looked at it,
38:40cleaned 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.
38:49Unless something's broken,
38:50then 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.
39:01It just makes your life a lot easier
39:03if you can do it yourself.
39:05There we go.
39:06All done.
39:07Thanks.
39:07See how we go?
39:08Yep, yep, yep.
39:09We'll give it a go.
39:10Give it a test.
39:20Oh, she's falling asleep.
39:22She is, yeah.
39:23She loves a bit of a pamper, doesn't she?
39:25Yeah.
39:27There are no saddlers on Sark.
39:30Philly's bridle and harness
39:31were specially made for carriage pulling
39:33on the mainland.
39:35The 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, yeah.
40:00George quite liked riding.
40:02He had a really lovely little pony
40:03called Minstrel.
40:04George 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
40:21don'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.
40:30So, yeah, the few of us
40:31that are still left with the horses
40:33still love the horses,
40:34and we're still going.
40:35You've done a great job, George.
40:36Well done.
40:39Another good job.
40:47Three hundred and thirty miles away,
40:50the Calf of Man sits south
40:51of its big neighbour,
40:53the Isle of Man.
40:55Twenty-five people used to live
40:56and farm here.
40:57Now it's a nature reserve
40:59with four wardens
41:00who stay for nine months each year.
41:03Kate and her assistant Dom
41:04are the estate wardens,
41:06and they've been here
41:06for five months since March.
41:09They generally work six days a week,
41:12but today is a day off.
41:16You can now have dolphins.
41:23I'm very lucky that the work that I do,
41:25I do enjoy doing it.
41:27There are times where you do
41:28kind of just want to take
41:29a 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,
41:37go for sea swims as well,
41:38or even just come and sit somewhere
41:40and just look out to sea.
41:43Enjoy the peace,
41:43enjoy kind of the tranquility
41:45of island life
41:46because while you're here,
41:48you've got to kind of
41:49make the most of it,
41:49give yourself that time
41:50to appreciate being here
41:52and slow down.
41:56Although his dad's is originally
41:57from the Isle of Man,
41:59Dom was brought up in Oxford.
42:01This is his first experience
42:03of island life,
42:04and on his days off,
42:05he likes to fish.
42:07The summer seas are warm
42:09and the plankton is blooming,
42:11attracting grey mullet,
42:13mackerel, pollock and cod.
42:18This morning we're down in an area
42:20of 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,
42:26pollock.
42:27So the best method for catching calig
42:30is using lures,
42:32and 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,
42:44and he was fishing with this
42:45on the Isle of Man
42:46for 50 years, really, in the past.
42:49So, oh.
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.
43:15So what do you think?
43:16A couple of courgettes?
43:17A couple of courgettes and some potatoes
43:19for 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
43:30in the farmhouse
43:31when they were actually working the land,
43:33this would have been
43:33how they grew a lot of their food.
43:35Oh, look at the size of that one.
43:37Whoa.
43:38We do get our food order from Tesco,
43:41which is great,
43:41but I think knowing that
43:42we'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,
43:48we've grown this
43:49or we've caught it
43:50is really, really good.
43:52They just keep coming up.
43:53Yeah, some of these are massive.
43:55Turns out we're excellent
43:56at growing potatoes.
43:57Who knew?
43:58Obviously, we are on a nature reserve,
44:00so we do need to be really careful.
44:02So in terms of biosecurity,
44:04for example,
44:05when we had the potatoes come in
44:06or any of the plants,
44:07we had to either grow them from scratch
44:09or have sterile plants
44:10because of things like
44:11invasive flatworms in the soil,
44:13little things like that
44:14that you might not even think of.
44:15You just go to a garden centre,
44:16get a plant,
44:17and 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 only told
44:22they're organic radishes.
44:24What, because of the shape of them?
44:25No, because they've all been eaten.
44:27I just chucked
44:28two massive slugs out.
44:31They may be feral,
44:32but we're still clean.
44:34The other wardens
44:35are away on a bird survey today,
44:37so tonight's dinner
44:38is for two.
44:40I learned a lot
44:41of nice cooking tips
44:42from Don,
44:42which is good.
44:43Yeah, he makes the best
44:44garlic in her pizza dip.
44:47Yeah, I think that's
44:47the other thing on here
44:48is if you want something
44:49and you've forgotten it
44:49in your weekly shop,
44:50you've just got to
44:51work out how to make it.
44:53Do you want tired
44:53of sauce in your shop?
44:55I could try it, but...
45:00Well...
45:02Putting mine on top
45:03seems sensible.
45:04The presentation
45:04may not be Michelin-starred,
45:06but you would be hard-pressed
45:08to find a more beautiful restaurant
45:10or better dining companions.
45:13You've got to get on well
45:14with each other,
45:14but it's lucky
45:15because we do,
45:15which is nice.
45:17Yeah.
45:18I think it's a little...
45:19We're a little family, aren't we?
45:20Yeah, I think a lot of people
45:22you might apply to
45:22a role like this
45:23might be doing so
45:25to step out of society,
45:27but it's really not like that.
45:29It's more stepping
45:29into a very small one.
45:31Yeah.
45:32Always of effort
45:33for this one small plate.
45:35Yeah.
45:38Yeah.
45:44You get used to it.
45:45It's your day-to-day,
45:46just all this wilderness,
45:48having the place to yourselves,
45:50how stunning it is,
45:51and then you go to places
45:52where it's full of people.
45:53You don't just get a beach
45:54to yourself.
45:54There are cars everywhere
45:55and streetlights everywhere.
46:00I think a great many people
46:01would pay a great deal
46:02of money
46:02or do a horrible thing
46:03to live in a place like this.
46:05Yeah.
46:06We're very lucky
46:06in that we haven't
46:07had to do either.
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