The ferry, of course, is cheaper – though, at £84 each way for adults, and £47 for children aged two to 11, it’s still a punchy price. Children under two are charged at £23; even a dog is £11. It is, though, a genuine adventure.
First you have to get to Penzance which, when you are travelling from darkest Norfolk in a highly capricious car, is an odyssey in itself. Next up, the Scillonian III: a big, white whale of a ferry that skirts the Cornish cliffs, churns across the big blue and disgorges its – by then slightly wobbly – passengers into the idyllic harbour at St Mary’s, the largest of the Isles of Scilly.
Next you are scooped into a cheery little vessel, landed on a deserted beach at Tresco (Bryher’s neighbouring island), bumped across dunes by electric shuttle before, finally, a Popeye-sized boat putters across to Bryher, where the Hell Bay Hotel’s Land Rover waits on the sand. And all before lunch.