Another week, another island…

The MS Oldenburg - ensign fluttering in a stiff  breeze!

 I mentioned a while ago that I had been invited to join some pals on a trip to Lundy, an island we’ve been to several times before. No MrEH on this trip, he didn’t have the holiday time while I was using the week I gained when the Royal International Air tattoo was cancelled.

Ilfracombe looking pretty!

I reckoned when planning that I could work things through to use public transport to get down to Ilfracombe where the Lundy boat leaves from, and so it proved, with my original plan being a train from London to Exeter, the connection on to Barnstaple, and the bus to Ilfracombe from there. Netting the train ticket for under £21 was a steal, until just a handful of weeks ago South West Trains decided to cancel my train and refuse to move me to another. Thankfully pals L & M saved the day with an offer to pick me up from Bristol on their way through, a new ticket was acquired albeit at a higher cost, and plan B was formed. 

Skylark Stout at The Bear

Mr EH kindly dropped me off at Epping for the tube, and a lovely smooth journey through thanks to the fabulous Elizabeth Line saw me at Paddington less than an hour later. Obviously having allowed plenty of time that left me with an hour to kill ahead of my train, so equally obviously I used that time wisely and popped to the excellent nearby pub The Bear (Paddington Bear- get it?!) for a swift half. I’d been considering doing similar in Bristol for my rather longer wait there for my lift, but in fact the train journey was quite loud, and the weather was less than pleasant, and instead I elected to sit in the very nice waiting room and write up the blog post about my exciting RAF Waddington visit, and before I knew it I was heading outside ready to hop into the car. By the time we reached Ilfracombe it was distinctly windy and we were all starting to feel some trepidation around the boat journey the following day - but still, the pub beckoned (as it does) and a lovely evening of chatting and beer followed, with more chatting and more beer once the remaining members of the party, S & B arrived. 

Vintage poster in Ilfracombe

The following morning dawned drizzly and alarmingly even windier - there was much conversation in the breakfast room at the B&B about Lundy - people who should have been going but weren’t, (the weather conditions meant all day trippers had been cancelled),  others who were going across for a few days and me as a week-long stayer. Significant doubt about the boat going at all - I suggested that I reckoned it would, but that they would delay things a bit, and so it proved when S went down to the quay to check us all in and was told we would be leaving an hour later than planned. 

Nearly arrived…

From the moment we boarded it was apparent that this was going to be an “interesting” trip. We all started sitting in the bar area - inside, but with good visibility to the horizon. Even tied up at the Quay there was a lot of movement from the boat! M lasted about 10 minutes after we headed out of the relative shelter of the harbour before deciding that outside space was his friend. L - usually fine if lying down reading - managed another few minutes before bolting for the same area, and I was about a further ten minutes behind her! S managed to stick it out in the original location only by virtue of staying stock still and not moving! It was without question the worst boat trip I’ve ever been on - the last time I was  seasick was on a school trip to France in the mid 1980’s I reckon, since then I’ve been on some fairly grim Hebrides crossings but this was something else! We were SO glad when we finally turned into the shelter of the island and things levelled out, and even more glad when, tied alongside, we were back on dry land! The only one of us completely unaffected was B who was annoyingly cheerful about the fact! Heading up the island as normal, L & I would usually be among the first to the pub but not this time - we took one look at how busy it was and bolted for the quiet of the museum! Thankfully a few hours was sufficient to settle things down again, and once we got access to the property we are staying in and were able to grab a cuppa and a sit down normality was restored quite quickly. We’re none of us in a hurry for another “adventure” like that though! Those that know me will understand the severity when I say that the photo above is the only one I took during the crossing! 

Robyn