Author Nabeeha Aneesa Mohd Rizwan Khan is a 1st year Accounting and Finance student at the University of Liverpool.
21st October 2022 was a memorable day for 1st year Accounting and Finance students because it was the first time ever that all of us went to Hilbre Island as part of a networking and well-being field trip on ACFI115 Skills for the Professional Accountant, led by Chris Barlow. As it is my first time in the UK, I was excited to join this field trip!
My friends and I took the train to West Kirby and arrived in plenty of time before meeting Chris and the rest of our peers, so we took a stroll around the small town of West Kirby. We were blessed with favourable weather at West Kirby and were hoping that this would remain throughout the day.
Over 40 students from the Accounting and Finance programme joined this trip and before we started the walk to Hilbre Island, we were introduced to our guide David Taylor, a local expert on the surrounding area. Surprisingly, we didn’t commute to the island by a boat and instead we walked across the sea! Yes, across the sea because the tide was out for the duration of our walk meaning we only had to walk across the sand (and a few rocks!) to get to our destination.
The views were spectacular and the weather remained favourable to start with! It took us around 25 minutes to the first stop which was Little Eye.
After that, we continued our journey to Little Hilbre Island before venturing to our final stop on Hilbre Island itself where we would stop for lunch.
As we walked towards Hilbre Island it started to drizzle a little bit, but it was just a passing shower and wasn’t enough to stop us reaching our final destination. After venturing on to the island, we had lunch in the disused former lifeboat station. Some of us brought lunch packs that were cooked from our accommodation, but some just bought the meal deal at the local supermarket. Chris was also generous enough to reward us for our efforts with chocolates (I took Maltesers because they’re my favourite).
A fun fact about Hilbre Island is that it lies within the Dee Estuary and is said to be an important wetland for wildlife internationally. The island is surrounded by grey seals on the sandbanks and various species of birds fly here during the winter. We were eager to see the grey seals but we didn’t see them on the island (maybe because they were overwhelmed by our visit) but we did see one shy grey seal popping its head out from the water just to say hi to us whilst we had lunch, which we were excited to see even if it was just for a short while. I think it wanted the chocolates!
After we had our lunch, it was time for us to head home. We took a different path this time, walking directly across the mouth of the River Dee to Red Rocks before returning to our starting point.
We were all resilient throughout the journey, particularly when encountering challenging terrain on Little Hilbre Island, and were able to improve our networking skills too. Although we were a little tired at the end, we take away some great memories of the amazing views as well as appreciating how getting out in the great outdoors can help the importance of looking after your health and wellbeing whilst studying at university. Overall, the field trip was memorable, filled with joy, excitement, and thrill. I’d like to thank our lecturer Chris Barlow for arranging this trip, David Taylor for being an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide, plus the other members of staff who came along to support us on our journey (Gayle Waddell, Jeni Driscoll and Paul Williams).