Behold - the kraken wakes!
Suntan lotion – check. Ab ropes – check. Ferry tickets – check. Yup, York Alpine Club plus friends are off on our summer holidays to Lundy.
Gannet Buttress
Lundy (norse for puffin) Island is a 2 1/2 by 3/4 mile granite plateau in the middle of the Bristol Channel. It's reached by a two hour ferry crossing, and it's a sea cliff climbers paradise.
We stayed in The Barn, which is like a climbing hut only posher, and sleeps 14 in separate beds – no cramped sleeping platforms here. With a shower and decent kitchen its ideal for self catering – except you are also two minutes away from The Marisco Tavern which does good cheap meals.
Some goats for Debra
Lundy has fantastic wildlife and is also a marine conservation area, so along with the soay sheep, goats, Lundy ponies and sika deer, seals were also a regular presence, popping up to watch our antics and offer beta (I assume thats what the sealy honks and barks were). At one point me and Crofty counted 14 seals below us, basking on the rocks and swimming in conga lines through the clear water.
Rob cruises Satan's Slip, Simon discovers The Shark is not VS!
The quality of the rock and climbs was fantastic, and lots of personal targets were ticked, too many to mention but a particular highlight was Simon C's accidental onsight of an E1 -quote- "I thought it felt a bit hard for VS". Since you managed it cleanly, Simon, we'll be expecting to see a few more logged soon… SWS (shallow water solo) queen was Courtney, who got a soaking three days in a row. Courtney enjoyed the ferry trip so much she did it four times, as she had an interview half way through the week.
Teflon Pete coming round the final corner of Albion
With so much quality climbing on the island, and 14 climbers it would be tedious to list all the routes done, so I won't, but at some point almost everyone made it onto the Devil's Slide, and I think we all went away with just as many new targets on our wish lists as targets we had ticked during our stay.
I suspect we will be going back but be warned – the barn is popular, and gets booked up around two years in advance.
Who went:
- YAC: Peri, Rob, Simon C, Carmen, Courtney, Cef, Simon F, Debra, Annie, Pete E, Pete B
- UKC: Teflon Pete
- York Climbers: Graham Booth, Rachel, Crofty (and family)
Logistics
- Travel: six hours from York, then two hours on the M.S. Oldenburg from Ilfracombe (£58 return)
- Accomodation: The camping barn costs about £1300 in total for a week in August, but sleeps 14 so is pretty good value. There is other, more luxurious, accommodation on the island that is much more expensive, and also a decent campsite which can be booked at quite short notice (cost about £11 per night).
- Lundy Island website for more details: http://www.lundyisland.co.uk/
Pics:
Simon Debra Carmen and I stayed down for another week, in Devon and Cornwall (Rob and Pete spent a couple of days in Devon).
Some photos here: http://climbing.me.uk/Cornwall2011/index.html