General views - nearly home time

Such good weather, you wouldn't believe we were just off the north Devon coast.














MS Oldenburg at the jetty.














The last batch of Rhododendrons on the island. They are not native to Lundy and so are being eradicated, which is not an easy task as they are so invasive.

Lundy geocache 4

The fourth geocache was high up a cliff via a disused path.














Once again, hidden in a crevice.



















35mm film cannister - I think you're getting the idea now...














Nice view from the site though.

Lundy geocache 3

THIS IS POST 301
When the Revd. Heaven (honestly!) lived in Millcombe House in the 1800's his children named this rock formation Ally Sloper after a cartoon character who had a large nose.



















The geocache was 'under his left ear' in a crevice in the rock.



















Once again, as it was only a 35mm film cannister, there was only a logbook to sign.

Lundy geocache 2

The second geocache we found was at The Battery which is down a very long steep path. There are cannons there which were fired at ten minute intervals as a very early foghorn - don't ask me what century or year!
The film canister was located high up in a rocky crevice and is shown here on one of the cannons.
Logbook and mammoth enclosed!

Lundy geocache 1

This is the first geocache we found on Lundy. The box was hidden by the small rocks, and was under the large boulder.
Unfortunately we hadn't brought anything to swap with something in the box, so we signed the logbook and hid the box again.
Notice that someone had thoughtfully left a bottle opener - just in case.

Nature!

A turtle dove on our lawn - taken through the window, so a but fuzzy!














A late patch of bluebells














Coastal flora

Bellringing

This is St.Helena's Church where SWMBO and the others did quite a lot of bellringing, but not as much as the people the previous week did, which caused a barrage of complaints. Some people had come to Lundy for peace and quiet it seems. The church has a ring of 10 bells by the way.

Millcombe House

This is Millcombe House where we stay with 10 friends and have a giant houseparty.
We share the cooking, and also eat at The Marisco Tavern - usually on the first and last nights.

Arriving on Lundy

This is the MS Oldenburg coming into the jetty on Lundy.
Pretty rough crossing on Saturday morning.

To Lundy Island

We have just returned from a week on Lundy Island. SWMBO was bellringing and birdwatching and I was relaxing and drinking beer - much like being at home really! We both did a fair bit of walking too. The weather was wonderful as you will see from the next few postings.
As usual (this was our fifth visit) we stayed in Ilfracombe on the Friday night before catching the ferry on Saturday morning. Unfortunately...due to the tides, the ferry left from Bideford (but came back to Ilfracombe the next week for us to collect the car from the hotel) at 8:00am so we had to have breakfast at 5:00am and take a taxi to Bideford at 6:00am to be sure of arriving one hour before departure as requested.
Here are some Friday afternoon photos of Ilfracombe.
The last photo is the view from the hotel garden.

Coasthopper

There is an excellent Coasthopper bus which runs along the North Norfolk coast although we did fall foul of the system as we broke our journey in Burnham Market and you are only supposed to do this with a proper hopper ticket. Still, the driver was very nice, and we got away with it - just.

Burnham Market

This was a very interesting little town, and the hat shop to the right of the first picture was enormous and quite fascinating.














A variety of architecture.














The amazing thing was that a stream crossed the High Street via a trough in the road! You have to wonder what happens when it freezes over in winter.