Beaches

Well it's that time of year again. School has finished and kids everywhere dream of fun in the sun with perhaps a trip to a faraway beach for a dip in the sea. Just like Smarty, Toughy and Mouse did all those years ago. With travel still restricted for most of us, we thought it might be fun to take a look at some of the sunny and sandy locations that our trio of adventurers found themselves back in 1970 !

 School's out for Summer!

Part of the fun of researching Grasshopper Island is discovering some of the little known facts relating to the TV series and the book that accompanied it. One of my favourite scenes is from Episode 2 "The Elderly Boy", when after some time at sea, our bewildered sailors arrive at "an uninhabited island" for the first time. There they are shown climbing great golden sand dunes. There is nothing quite like that feeling as a boy of  spying a giant sand mountain and realising that it is there to be conquered ! Even if with hindsight of adulthood, they were merely sand hills. They seemed exotic and thrilling and as it happened were mostly uninhabited.

Through clever choices and editing, the camera operator managed to weave the arrival scenes to appear as if they took place in just one location. But we are told that in fact the dunes were in Wales, while the beach was in fact on the island of Corsica!

So dear visitor - we need your help. Are you from Wales? Can you identify the location of the sand dunes in the image below? 

Sand dunes in Wales

Perhaps you are familiar with Corsica? Do you know the name of the beach used many times in various scenes during many episodes?

Beach in Corsica

Wouldn't it be marvellous to visit the locations! Perhaps as time progresses and travel becomes easier for us all, we too could run up and down those giant Welsh sand dunes. Or take a trip to Corsica and swim in the very sea where Toughy, Smarty and Mouse swam! Or perhaps to take a pedalo boat like Dr. Hopper did and see if we can spot any inhabitants through binoculars!

If you think you can identify these locations, leave a comment! Meanwhile we wish you all a wonderful, safe and happy summer full of adventure.

Chris & Uli

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