Off of the Devon coast and in the mouth of the Bristol Channel is a three mile long and one mile wide island called "Lundy". The small island has a tiny corner shop selling the basic necessities (and doubles as a post office), pub, a few lighthouses, and a chapel. The island is popular with rock climbers, hikers, letterboxers, and wildlife enthusiasts. Some stay on the island overnight, and the power is switched off between midnight and 6:30 in the morning, and phone signal is also sparse. This is a place to switch off from the rest of the world. The island has a population of twenty-eight people (by the 2007 census). The island is owned by the National Trust and managed by Landmark Trust.
I had an early start at Ilfracombe, leaving just before 8:00 in the morning. The sun was out.
Further along, some sea life was spotted. A few dolphins decided to follow the boat and jump around us. We stopped to watch them for several minutes.
We approached the island at high tide.
A couple of seals were bobbing along in the water at the dock.
Nothing really prepared me for the big walk up to the top of the island from the docks. This walk is intense. But once up on top of the island, it's relatively flat.
We passed a house. A lady came out of the house and was carrying a bag. She explained that there was a bird in the bag, and they were going to let it go. She said the name of the bird, but I do not remember. She said that we were welcome to watch, but we declined and continued up the hill. The next building we passed was the church. St. Helen's is the church on the island. It's a fairly large church for a small population.
The island of Lundy has been occupied since early times, and some of the carvings on stones on graves and around the island date from the 5th and 6th centuries.
We then passed the postbox on the island, which is in the wall of the pub. Lundy has its own post service with a "puffin" stamp, which is a collector item. As the visit was a Sunday, we had to wait for the shop to open.
The Marisco family have connections to the island with a castle in their name. In 1235, one of the family killed Henry III's messenger and an agent working on behalf of the family attempted to kill Henry III. The family fled to the island and built a castle. The pub is named "Marisco" on Lundy and serves drinks and food at select times. The island was also home to monks and pirates. Pirates would capture people and sell them as slaves.
We opted for a breakfast in the Marisco pub. It is filled with sea-related items, including items salvaged from ship-wrecks.
My primary goal was to do the letterboxing. One of the letterboxes is in the pub.
After collecting the first letterbox, we walked around the island to discover others. The views are breath-taking.
Lundy has seen a lot of shipwrecks. "Jenny" was a ship returning from Africa, and the only survivor was the first mate. A cove on Lundy is named after this ship. The "Montagu" was another ship, crashed in the early 1900s. There are some abandoned cottage remains on the island and a little quarry.
The remains of a German Heinkel bomber is located on a flat section of land. The plane crashed in 1941, and the surviving Germans burnt the plane so that it would not fall into enemy hands.
We crossed to the other side of the island - the side facing the open ocean and not Devon. It was here that I saw a large herd of brown goats. There are officially more goats on the island than there are people...
This area of the coastline had beautiful views and rock formations.
We ran out of time to look for all of the letterboxes, but we did locate about seven. We headed toward the lighthouse to get back to the "village" where there is another letterbox.
Unfortunately, I could not climb the stairs as I am afraid of the heights. The bloke had to do it.
We had enough time to get some drinks at the pub and write some postcards. I didn't realise that there was outdoor seating at the pub, and I only discovered it afterwards. This chicken looked happy hanging around the pub garden.
I posted the postcards in the Lundy post box.
We then headed back down to the docks. I am glad that we got there early. This was not my idea of fun. The tide was out when we got to the docks, and the only option was to climb down this ladder to get to the speedboats. At the bottom of the ladder was the open water. I dislike heights and water. These are two fears. The next time that I return to the island, I will have to make sure that it is at high tide (and leaving at high tide) or I take a helicopter.
The seals were firmly planted upon the rocks as we left Lundy island.
Now I've just got to return and complete the letterbox hunt. All of the letterboxes cannot be done in one day on the island. We had between seven and eight hours on Lundy. The only solution would be to stay on the island for a few days and hope for good weather on those days.
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