Lundy

Sore heads today... I could not face any climbing, as well as packing. The ferry was in the afternoon, so time for a walk around this island and say goodbye...  definitely not the last time here.

Back on the Oldenberg ...  and sailing back to Bideford. The long drive home and we arrived in the early hours.

The Needle, Lundy

A trip to Lundy would not be complete without climbing the Needle.
Dave, Sue, Carol and I headed out to it..  It can only be reached either side of low tide, so we had to wait for the tide to drop enough.
Carol had already climbed it with Trevor, but wanted to repeat it again, which was useful as she could show us where to descend, and also to take a spare rope to leave on the descent to assist the re-climb.

We climbed up the route called integrity then descended the ordinary route.

Then after some food we headed back.

This being the last night for a lot of the visitors to the island, the night in the Marisco Tavern, turned into a big entertainment and general variety show.
As the bar closed everyone still had several pints and a surprising amount of Whiskey, we continued well into the early hours.

As the party broke up we returned to the Light house, and the conversations continued on.

St. Patricks, Lundy

Dave and I had been planning to do a route just down from the lighthouse ... Formula One, We did a warm up on Eclipse first then around to St Patrick's Bay for the route.

Absolutely fantastic route ... one of the best I have done .. diverse, strenuous, and exhilarating.

We definitely earned our beer in the evening.

Flying Buttress, Lundy

dave, carol, sue

horsemans, fb direct
satan'slip

Today Dave, Carol, Sue and myself headed for Flying Buttress, and after looking around the old battery, and finding the descent route, we scrambled down below the impressive sea arch.

We climbed Diamond Solitare and Horsesman's route from here

After lunch we headed back via Devil's Slide .. Dave and I wanted to complete Satan's Slip .. a very thin, very direct, and sod all protection up the middle of the face, in two pitches. A fall means major friction burns, but no real danger.

Seal slab, Lundy

The morning was wet, so we hung around the village, and frequent brews ...  we had caught our first rat which had to be disposed of.. all the innovators from the previous days ran away and hid, and it was left to me to dispose of it ethically in a binbag!

after lunch ... we headed down to seal slab - Dave Sue and I completed Seal Slab route with Nick.

Not really impressed with this in the damp, we went back to Devil's slide and Dave and I climbed Albion, as the weather improved.

Lundy

The first night we had discovered that the building had a resident rat(s) ..  we had set a few traps none of which had worked ... and last nights, just got the bait snatched ... so we went to the office and begged a rat trap for tonight. Failures on all fronts for the heath robinson designs.

The day was not as brilliant as the previous ones, so Dave, Sue and I went for a long walk to the top of the island and back down the East coast. We stopped off to climb Knight's Templar ..  a very scrappy route, and different to the others on the island.

Landing Craft Bay, Lundy

Dave was feeling under the weather - he was on penicillin for a septic elbow. S. I set off with Trevor and Carol for Landing Craft bay..

Trevor had his eye on Holiday in Cambodia ...  very thin, very vertical, and very few places for protection.

Good route but stretched the nerves a bit

Then we headed over and and did Shamrock .. similar but a little easier on the nerves - or was I getting used to Lundy.

Lundy

 We were in Bideford harbour late last night, and crashed in the cars. Sue Dave and I were in the mini, Trevor Suzanne and Nick came in Nicks rocket ship.

The MS Oldenberg would sail on the early tide, so we hung around until the crew arrived and we saw our kit loaded into the hold.

The journey across was very smooth and the transfer on to the island was by lighter.

We then walked up to the village, and found our accommodation .. the old light upper ,, three bedrooms on the top floor of the old keepers cottage. Our bags would come up by tractor and be delivered to the door.

After looking around we set off to explore the island a little.
Trevor and Nick went to Devil's slide and we caught up with them later, and followed them up.