Hi Fant,
Yes it is an old thread!
It is very easy to get pretty much anything over to the smaller off islands (ie not St.Mary's). I'm always amazed at how much stuff people take although I travel fairly light myself. You off load your luggage on the quay at Penzance straight into containers, for each island. You don't see your luggage again until you reach St.Martin's/St.Agnes or Bryher. When the Scillonian docks in St.Mary's the small off island boats pull alongside and luggage is transferred direct for you by the boatmen.This is all done while you wait on S.Mary's quay after docking at about 12.00pm (weather permitting!) The boats (Voyager for St.Martin's, Firethorn for Bryher and Spirit of St.Agnes for Agnes) then pull back alongside the quay for you to board at 12.30pm to go to the off islands. When you get to, say St.Martin's the campsite owner meets you on the quay with a tractor towing a large cage. At this point you are expected to help form a chain to off load luggage onto the trailer!!! Its then towed to the site for you while you walk!
The only thing to consider really is each pack size/weight as all luggage has to be manhandled by boatmen as well as yourself so lots of smaller bags are better than one huge one. You can take trailers over and a lot of people with large frame tents that camp in the summer do this. People that don't have trailers just have lots of bags!!!
Another thing is the quay in Penzance(only small) gets rather busy with everyone trying to back cars down to off load bags so would recommend getting there early( dockers arrive from 7.30am) if you have a lot of luggage.Then gives you time to take the car to the longstay carpark which you do need to book.
Personally I would never camp on St.Mary's as it is too similar to the mainland for me. St.Martin's has beautiful beaches and a very laid back feel to it. The site details on here mention a shop near to the site but this is wrong as that shut a couple of years ago. The nearest (only) shop/post office is a good 1500 metres from the site.
St.Agnes is also great but perhaps not for a first trip because I presume you will want to visit all the other islands and it is more remote making day trips to the other islands a little longer.
Don't know when you are planning to go but it books up early. You'll have no problem outside the summer holidays though. If you can't get in on St.Martin's there is Bryher. This site never did it for me but beautiful island and excellent boat service for visiting the other islands.
If you camp on one of the off islands first you will never want to camp on St.Mary's.....if you camp on St.Marys first you wont know what you are missing and so still have a fab time!!!
Sorry it's a bit rambling...I do love it...I'm off to St.Agnes in July.
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Topic: isles of scilly
