Monday, 13 July 2009

Ile de Brehat


As mentioned before, this coastline is extremely rocky and tidal. It is therefore quite possible to cruise over rocks at high tide, in an area that will be well above sea level at low tide. Two additional Broom boats arrived today and there would have been three of them but one caught his propeller on a rock, as he left a lock, and caused £9,000 worth of damage. There are therefore times when it is wise to visit some areas by local ferry. One such area is the Ile de Brehat, which is an island near here which is absolutely surrounded by rocks as described above. We therefore decided to visit them today - by ferry.
The island is situated off the north east corner of Brittany and is a favourite destination for walkers and cyclists because there are no cars allowed. Firstly, we visited an old fort (built to keep away the British pirates) which now houses a world famous artistic glass factory. There were many beautiful items here and Ann fell in love with a glass dish, which she bought and they carefully wrapped for our journey. I just hope that it makes it home in one piece.
When we arrived it was high tide and the walk from the boat was about was about 50 yards. The tide was out when we needed the ferry to get back and the walk was about ½ mile. The ferry captains really have to know the local waters extremely well.