No, really.
Archive for the ‘Lundy Island’ Category
This is England Leave a comment
Lundy from Mouth Mill Leave a comment
Lundy Island seen from Mouth Mill in Devon at sunset, back in 2007. A friend and I had just landed at the end of a great days’ paddling; whilst I fiddled with the camera, my mate got the dinner on.
Lundy MCZ Leave a comment
Fabulous Lundy Island has just become Britain’s first Marine Conservation Zone, under the new Marine and Coastal Access Act. Lundy is the first of many planned MCZs. All good. Finding Sanctuary is a project devoted to involving stakeholders (i.e. you and I) in the planning and development of further Marine Protected Areas in South West England. [...]
Hibernation 5 comments
It’s blinking cold right now and I for one am far too wimpy to go paddling on the sea when it’s this masochistic. The good news is, I have all sorts of recent pleasant memories to keep me going in the meantime. All I have to do is close my eyes and dream of Lundy [...]
Debs 7 comments
This is Deb Pinniger, who joined us for our recent trip to Lundy. This was her first ever time on the sea and in a sea kayak; she was our token numpty for this trip, although she may possibly have done a little paddling beforehand. We think that Debs could get quite good at kayaking, if [...]
Breaking the Curse of Lundy (4) Leave a comment
All that remained on Sunday morning, was the paddle back to the mainland. The sea and weather conditions were ‘manageable’, with the only obstacles being the occasional porpoise. Over a weekend that was simply perfect in every way, we broke the Curse. We’ll be back.
Breaking the Curse of Lundy (3) 6 comments
Saturday evening, out in the Atlantic. To begin our Lundy Island circumnavigation, we paddled north to the island’s northern point, which we were going to round against the tide. This wasn’t a problem as a series of smooth-walled tunnels offer a short-cut right under the North Light lighthouse to the west coast! Lundy’s west coast [...]
Breaking the Curse of Lundy (2) Leave a comment
So there we were, 20 miles offshore, emptying our kayaks onto a 5km long lump of granite and slate sticking up out of the sea; Lundy Island. We managed to blag our gear into the back of a ranger’s Land Rover heading for the island campsite, meaning that we made the 400 foot climb to [...]
Breaking the Curse of Lundy (1) Leave a comment
I have been lucky enough to paddle to the glorious island of Lundy twice. However, both of my trips have seen the weather turn bad when I’ve arrived; meaning that it wasn’t safe to cross the tides back to the mainland of north Devon. Both times I’ve had to return – rather ignominiously - with my [...]
Westward Ho! 2 comments
The weather has been fantastic, allowing Andy L and I to explore the coast all the way down into Cornwall. The Hartland Peninsula was fabulous, and now the Cornish scenery is simply mindblowing. I paddled this way ten years ago and remember nothing; did I paddle with my eyes shut? Only negative is that we cancelled [...]
Fratercula Arctica 3 comments
This extraordinarily tame puffin came home with us after our first visit to Lundy Island, and has resided in our living room ever since. Lundy means Puffin in old Norse. There were 3000 pairs of Puffins on Lundy in the 1930′s. Due to foraging rats and also a decline in the sand eels upon which [...]
Head in the Clouds 1 comment
The Old Light on Lundy Island was Britain’s highest lighthouse in the nineteenth century, being located at the highest point of the island. An unfortunate consequence of this was that it was regularly obscured from sea level by cloud and fog. The Old Light had to be abandoned and replaced by much lower lighthouses at [...]
Halichoerus Grypus 2 comments
I am an adult bull Atlantic Grey Seal. I live in and around the tunnels beneath the North Light of Lundy Island. I weigh about 300 kilos and am over two metres long. I spend the majority of my life sleeping. The rest of the time I can be found in the water, fishing or simply lounging around. It’s [...]
February 14th 2 comments
Did sea define the land or land the sea? Each drew new meaning from the waves’ collision. Sea broke on land to full identity. Seamus Heaney
Information Overload 5 comments
I’ve been planning and thinking about the book for months, and anyone who can’t escape from me has been bored to death on the subject. Sooner or later however, I guess I was going to have stop making excuses, stop the talking and actually get around to writing the book. I started this morning. How hard can it [...]
Focused Vision Leave a comment
May 2006. We’d made the crossing to Lundy Island on the previous day and it had been a chore. The 18 mile paddle across the Bristol Channel from North Devon had been marred by a lousy headwind and poor group communication. Worse weather was forecast. It was obvious by the next morning that if we [...]
