Today we get to visit the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel. We’ve spent a day looking at it, but now we go ashore. The few hundred metres to the shore takes mere minutes, and then we’re on dry land once again. Lundy is the largest island in the Bristol Channel, three miles long by a just over half a mile wide. Most visitors travel on the MS Oldenburg from Ilfracombe. The island gives its name to the area in the UK shipping forecast.
My first stop is St Helen’s Church, which I learn was constructed by the aptly named Reverend Hudson Heaven. His father William Heaven had bought the island of Lundy in 1836, with the money paid to him as compensation for the emancipation of his Jamaican slaves. To the modern mind this seems wrong in so many ways.
I decide to walk to the Northern end of the island: it will be a good leg stretch after yesterday’s enforced day of rest. Along the way are horned cattle, brown sheep, regular sheep, and some very friendly horses who lick my camera bag and nuzzle my neck.
There are no trees, but everywhere the ground is carpeted with small colourful flowers, and ferns that don’t make it above 10cm or so, presumably eaten by the animals rather than trampled by the handful of visitors each year.
At the North end there’s a steep staircase down to the North lighthouse, which is owned and maintained by Trinity House, the official body for maintaining English and Welsh lighthouses and other navigational aids.
On my way back South I encounter the film crew who were filming seals and are now hoping to find some of the island’s famed puffins. We walk along the spectacular cliffs until cameraman Jordan spots some in the distance through his long lens. He and Tom the trainee cameraman head downwards for a closer shot, whilst Ariana decides to film things that are rather closer, and I decide to just have a rest.
After walking the remainder of the island we head back to the Pelican at 5pm, and many people are looking slightly sunburnt, including me. Factor 30 applied three times during the day just wasn’t enough for the full-on sun we’ve had today.
