Our “summer” holiday this year was to join the CC meet to Lundy. What an amazing place! 😛 We’d thought to visit Lundy several times before but had always balked at the thought of being marooned on a three mile long island with nothing to do in the typically wet British summer weather of recent years. But this time we were strongly motivated by the new and acclaimed CC Lundy guidebook. This and the fact that our friend Richard was the meet leader catalysed us into action, and the long drive south, to catch the MS Oldenburg ferry from Ilfracombe…
We were not disappointed – no cars, few people, amazing sea-cliff climbing, an idyllic location, comfy accommodation, a fantastic group of friends – and there’s even something to do in the rain! 😉
We started off our climbing adventures with a trip to Landing Craft Bay. Formula One and The Indy 500 were the first routes on our tick-lists, both super classics.
The next day’s weather forecast was for possible rain, so we made best of the sunny weather on our first day and added a trip to the ultra famous Devil’s Slide to the end of the day. Our objective, the classic slabby E1 (and very bold now that the bolt is long gone) – Satan’s Slip.
Our next day out on the rock saw us back at Landing Craft Bay but further north. Perhaps the best route of the day was Meninirons. Laetitia made me laugh when she mis-read this and called the route “men-inir-ons”, not it’s correct “men-in-irons”. 😆 What a great route though – a wonderful positive wall climb followed by a juggy roof! 😎
Laetitia then joined Chris to climb Shamrock while I climbed with Steve on Holiday in Cambodia.
Following that an adventurous day was had on the Needle. This starts with a 100m abseil from a boulder in the middle of a bracken slope (without Richard’s knowledge; this was his 10th trip to Lundy, this boulder might be hard to locate). The next photo shows the antics required to set up the rope – a thread behind a boulder with nothing but 50m of 50° bracken in all directions! 😮
Our final full day of climbing (Friday) was spent near the far north end of the island at Arch Zawn. We were pretty tired from our packed week of adventurous Lundy rock climbing, so we only did two routes at the [glossary “An often intimidating and steep-sided channel of sea, the sides of which often provide climbing. The landward side sometimes forms a cave or large overhang.”]zawn[/glossary]. The best of which was Headline…
So, Lundy rock climbing was amazing. But are there any complaints? Just one, maybe. Wow, what a lot of walking! Who would have thought that on an island barely three miles long and half a mile wide we would have to walk so far! 🙁 I reckon over the week we chalked up over 40 miles of walking. Combine that with sea air, 100’s metres of rock climbing, even more metres of steep bracken slope ascents and decents, and you have the recipe for a very tiring adventure. Awesome! 😛 I’ll have to have a rest at work next week… 😉
We caught glimpses of lots of Lundy’s wildlife too – too many in fact to show all the pictures here (in a rock climbing post), but here are a few…
We also saw lots of Lundy’s famous wild ponies, seals watched us climbing every day, and Steve & Chris watched a peregrine take several seagull chicks in front of their eyes! 😮
Alongside our accommodation (the Barn), stands the island’s shop, pub (the Marisco Tavern), church (St. Helen’s), and nearby the Old Light lighthouse.
The meet was full – it always is – and our group were great company. Here we all are for a group photo in front of our accommodation; back (L to R) – Andy, Steve, Chris; middle (L to R) – Jon, Maggie, Mike, Richard, (standing) Pete; front (L to R) – Laetitia, Mike, Graham, Amy, (standing) Mike; sitting (bottom step) – Glyn.
I mentioned at the start that we were previously worried about what we might do if we had poor weather… Well it turns out we did have one wet day (the next picture shows us just about to get rained off Beaufort Buttress). This gave us an opportunity to discover Lundy Letterboxing – what ace fun, nearly as much fun as the rock climbing! 😛
There’ll be another post about this adventure later – watch out for it … 😉
The climbing looks great… :love: and it looks like you got good weather for most of the week 🙂 .
I thought the pic of the “battery” was where you stayed 😯 … but actually the barn looks a lot better!!
The “boulder” in your pic looks like it is just sat in the bracken. 😯 Is it attached to anything??
PS… a whole week and no cake pic 🙁 ….. whats going on??
No I don’t think the boulder is attached, it’s just a heavy thing to tie a rope to! 😮
I know, no cakes for a whole week! 😥 But we did have a different desert almost every evening – bananas and custard, ginger cake and custard, ice cream and melted chocolate, bread and butter pudding, etc. :yum: :yum:
Oh yes, the Bread and Butter Pudding was amazing – we shared it between 5 people!!!! 😯 😯
The boulder is attached to the hillside – once me and Laetitia had moved it forward so we could get the sling round the back, we rolled it back into position: Lundy hilsides are as solid as rock 😯
We did manage some cake; I believe at least 2 sticky type cakes were purchased from the shop by Andy, the secrect cake monster….
WOW – what an amazing place. And no rain 😯 (at least not on the photos you published). I bet Mina will join next year but only for the cake and pudding session :yum: