On the hunt for the perfect puffin portrait on Skomer Island
Vanessa Steer wins £250 in this week’s Just Back travel writing competition for her account of a marital battle to pap a puffin.
It was just after 7am on a clear morning in July as we joined the end of the queue snaking its way down the road towards the beach at Martins Haven in Pembrokeshire. There were already a couple of hundred people waiting patiently. Some, had apparently been queueing since 5am, and others had travelled several hours to get there.
The only reason I would ever get up at the crack of dawn on holiday and queue for hours was to secure tickets to visit Skomer Island, a nature reserve where at this time of year there was a possibility of fulfilling a lifelong dream to spot my favourite bird, the puffin. You cannot book tickets in advance and they only allow 250 people on to the island each day. It was going to be touch and go.
We were lucky. Laden down with a packed lunch, as there is nowhere to buy food, and my husband’s heavy camera which he insisted on taking, we boarded the boat for the short 15-minute ride across to the island.
I needn’t have worried about spotting a puffin. A soon as we landed they were everywhere, thousands of them in fact. The footpaths lead you through their nesting burrows, where these comical creatures with their clown-like eye markings bustle about their daily business, carrying silver sand eels in huge colourful beaks.
You almost trip over them as they waddle past your feet to get to their burrows where the pufflings are waiting to be fed. They lay one egg and when it hatches both parents give their undivided attention to feeding the puffling for 44 days.
My husband’s camera was already out of its bag and he was taking photo after photo, glad that he had bought his “big lens”. With their upright stance and stubby wings, they remind me of penguins. Awkward and ungainly, the puffins are undeniably entertaining and photogenic. Apparently, they are more at home at sea where they are graceful when swimming and diving. We could have watched them all day.
Eventually I was compelled to take out my iPhone as two puffins obligingly crouched in a bed of white flowers, touching beaks as if they were posing for me. I was delighted to have taken the perfect picture of the day.
“You needn’t have bought your heavy camera,” I joked to my husband, who hadn’t got his “perfect picture”.
The five hours you have to stay on the island fly by. There are plenty of other animals and birds to see, but the puffins are definitely the stars and we were reluctant to leave them. I was tempted to smuggle one into my rucksack to take home, but I will have to make do with my photograph of the day instead.
Back home, I showed off my best image. “Wasn’t that the one I took?” I heard my husband say.
How to enter the next round
Email your entry, in 500 words (with the text in the body of the email), to justback@telegraph.co.uk. For terms and conditions, see telegraph.co.uk/tt-justback.
The winner will receive £250 in the currency of their choice from the Post Office.
The Post Office is the UK’s largest travel money provider, offering up to 80 currencies in more than 11,500 branches with 0 per cent commission.
All currencies can also be ordered online for next day branch or home delivery. Check exchange rates at postoffice.co.uk/travel-money/currency-converter.
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