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!

MS Oldenburg docked on Lundy

Lundy's western coastline

The Old Lighthouse

The Battery

Climbing
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.

Formula One

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.

Laetitia approaches the first belay of Satan's Slip with Richard and Andy ahead

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!

The overhang of Meninirons

Laetitia then joined Chris to climb Shamrock while I climbed with Steve on Holiday in Cambodia.

Laetitia on Shamrock

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!

Rigging the abseil for Punchbowl cliffs

Laetitia abseiling from the Needle with Amy and Jon climbing Invincible

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 zawn . The best of which was Headline…

Richard watching the sea as Andy climbs 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…

Lots and lots of walking

Animals…
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…

Rock climbing goats!

Sika deer and the Old Light

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!

CC Meet
Alongside our accommodation (the Barn), stands the island’s shop, pub (the Marisco Tavern), church (St. Helen’s), and nearby the Old Light lighthouse.

Marisco Tavern and St. Helen's Church

The CC group outside the Barn accommodation

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.

Good-bye Lundy

Letterboxes…
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!

Beaufort Buttress in the rain!

There’ll be another post about this adventure later – watch out for it …