More September excitement...

 

The fun just kept on coming in September, from spending the first half of the month in Scotland, to my lovely week on Lundy, and then on Monday after I got back from that trip I hopped on the tube after work to go to the Roundhouse at Camden to see Queen drummer Roger Taylor playing a solo gig! 

Those who know me will be aware that I'm a huge Queen fan, and that I've seen Roger play many times in the past, right back to 1992 with his original solo band The Cross, through his "Happiness" & "Electric Fire" tours in the mid 90's and more recently of course as part of "Queen and Adam Lambert". I love his music, he has an amazing voice, and even at the grand age of 77 he still puts on an amazing show!

I joined what was already a fairly lengthy queue on Chalk Farm Road not long after 6pm, and the first excitement was seeing a lovely pal from years ago, Brenda - I think we were both quite impressed that we recognised one another instantly - it must be around 20 years since we've last seen each other! She confirmed that the rest of the gang from back in the day would be there too, which was great to hear! 

Finally the queue began to move into the venue - credit to the door staff for keeping things moving, and by shortly after 7pm I was in! A quick size-up of the spread of the crowd and I decided to head for the right hand side. To my surprise I was able to grab a space right at the front albeit off to one side, and given my lack of height that seemed like quite a win! At this stage rumours were circulating that Brian May was in attendance - this sort of rumour often does the rounds but on this occasion there did seem to be some substance to it, and a few minutes into the gig a chap behind me spotted that Mr May was indeed on the balcony just above us, with various members of Roger’s family too.

The setlist featured the usual mix of older solo material and Queen stuff alongside songs from Roger’s new album. A version of Queen’s “Rock it (Prime Jive)” featured drummer Tyler Warren on vocals while Roger took a brief break, and band member Tina Keys joined Roger on vocals for “Surrender”  and “Under Pressure”. The first of the night’s special guests were the Ndlovu Youth Choir from South Africa - they also feature on the new album and performed several tracks alongside Roger plus doing the most beautiful version of Bohemian Rhapsody - partly sung in Zulu! Roger also took to his drum kit while the choir did their thing on one of the album tracks too - always a treat! 

With the end of the show looming fast, I don’t think too many in the audience were massively surprised when Roger introduced Brian to the stage - and the cheer that went up practically lifted the roof off! We Will Rock You got everyone clapping and stamping along, and then Radio Ga Ga wrapped things up with Rog & Bri encouraging us all in the appropriate clapping on the chorus! 

Final treat for the night was catching up with Brenda (again), Allison, Helen and others on the way out - an absolute joy as the years rolled back as we exchanged hugs and excited shrieks of how brilliant the gig had been! 

Photos from this were obviously limited to what I could get on my phone so not great quality but they’ll do me as great reminders of such a fabulous evening!

Robyn. 

And home…

 

And so the last day of a wonderful week dawned - and a beautiful dawn it was as we already saw in the Big Skies post. This is a slightly different shot though - taken when I first realised that the lights in the Black Shed had not been turned on to spoil it! The electricity in Lundy is switched off overnight most of the time, so often the lights there get left on and come back on when the power does! 

First task on departure day is always to get cases packed and ready to go - those then go outside your property ready for collection by quad bike and trailer ready to be taken to the jetty ready to load on to the boat. After that it’s the self catering accommodation basics - a quick tidy round, any crockery and pots and pans replaced where we found them, and then time for a last cup of tea before at 10am we leave and head for the Tavern to set up base camp for the day.

Not too many people doing the same on this occasion, so we were able to grab our favourite table. That then means people can come and go as they wish during the day, always leaving someone at the table to look after the bags travelling as “hand luggage”. S is generally quite happy to sit and read, and M also sat tight for the morning, B does his own thing but was also about for much of the day, leaving L and I to head out for last walks - I opted for the east side path again, with glorious views, and somewhere I could keep an eye on the boat’s progress across too! (It’s always nice to know when the day trippers will be arriving!)

Along to the Quarry then, with a drop down to the bottom path at that stage…

 

…you can just see it in the shot above. More fantastic views of course - I’d forgotten quite how stunning the views from that path are, one to add to the list for our next visit! 

Eventually the path naturally curves back up to the top of the island - I elected to walk back towards the village on the main track for a while before cutting across to the middle and up to the Old Light, no time to go up to the top on this occasion, but just past and back to the Tavern. 

Couldn’t resist stopping for a few minutes to watch the lovely Lundy Ponies heading across the field though! 

Final day lunch is cheesy chips in my world - it’s practically the law, and the Tavern kitchen does excellent ones! Then time for a bit more sitting/chatting/reading before it’s time to settle the Tavern tabs from the week - mine came in pretty much where I was expecting which was good, with an additional spend in the shop that I paid as I went along. All within budget which I was very pleased about, and all paid on the cashback credit card for a few pennies back too! 

The final walk down to the jetty then, this time to board the M S Oldenburg (fondly known as the “Old and Buggered”) for the trip back. Thankfully as the pictures show- on far calmer seas than the way out! 

Unusually the crane was still up when we arrived - meaning more was to be loaded. Usually this is all done ahead of the arrival of passengers to line up ahead of boarding so clearly there was a last minute item to go aboard - sure enough the tractor trundled carefully down with a wooden crate slung from the forks - this turned out to contain a seal pup which had been abandoned by Mum and needed to be taken to the mainland. Crate and pup - wrapped in cooling wet towels - were carefully craned aboard and then we were able to board too. 

Annoyingly we had to wait for a couple of folk who thought “3.30pm at the jetty” didn’t apply to them, but once they’d rocked up at 3.55pm we were off into the Bristol Channel, making 14 knots much of the way - the crew were keen to get back - and we were still back at the other side a good 30 minutes ahead of expected arrival! We disembarked and S & L headed off up the hill to collect the cars, with M & me in charge of collecting the luggage once offloaded - first off was the seal though - quickly transferred to a crate for onward transport to medical attention..

 

Poor little thing, I do hope it can be nursed back to health. 

With luggage collected and loaded into the cars, and goodbyes said and hugs exchanged with S & B, it was time to hit the road to Tiverton Parkway where I was being dropped off - more hugs with M & L this time before they jumped  back in the car for their onward journey to Cheshire and I settled down with a pasty, a cuppa and my book to wait for my train. 

Once on the train was when things got eventful. Late running of 5 minutes at Tiverton extended as we went along, and even the 10 minutes scheduled stop at Bristol was unable to let us make up the time. A further unscheduled stop at Reading left us running very nearly half an hour behind and in spite of some high speed running between there and Ealing we still arrived at Paddington 29 minutes late.

In the meantime I had also realised that the Central Line - integral to the last bit of my journey- was suspended! The late running train would have left me reliant on the night tube anyway, and lovely MrEH was always going to be collecting me from as close to home as I could get, but in the event he told me to take the Elizabeth line to Stratford as planned and he would collect me from there - a good call otherwise my 2am arrival home would have been even later! 

A very long day and a slightly stressful journey, but still I think far better all round than the alternative late night drive back on my own. Cheaper too probably - particularly with the sharp increase in the price of diesel again recently. My Delay Repay claim will be going in for the delayed arrival too! 

Robyn

Big skies…

There are many parallels between Lundy and the Hebrides - the beautiful scenery, the availability of absolute silence broken only by bird song, but perhaps most of all the big expanses of sky - no tall buildings to break the skyline beyond a church! 

Whether it is a heavily cloudy day or an almost unbroken blue sky, it makes for a stunning canvas for the landscape to sit below…

It also makes for the possibility of wonderful sunrises and sunsets too - like the sun peeping through a gap in the clouds the other morning…

…or the incredible red and orange glow lighting up the sky last night, our final night on the island…

It isn’t any hardship being up early on the final morning when the sky looks like this, either… 

That said, I still didn’t want to leave! 

Robyn

What, three lighthouses?

Tuesday dawned far brighter than the very misty day before, and as it was a boat day, which means day trippers, it felt like a good day to head to the northern end of the Island.  On days when there are day trippers the southern half of the Island can be quite busy with anything up an additional 150+ people, and the pub is impossible, so a longer distance walk is always a sensible plan. 

From our accommodation everything starts with the Village as you can see from the top photo - there is the Tavern on the left, with square cottage and the church, plus the Black Shed - used for storage of various items belonging to the island, the pub’s cellar is in there, and it’s also a popular leisure time hangout for the staff too. The only public use of it is the toilets to one side. I popped into the shop - I’d made a sandwich but wanted a drink and some crisps to take with me, and then headed out along the main track.

The island is divided into sections via stone walls - descriptively referred to as Quarter Wall, Halfway Wall and Threequarter Wall - above you can see Halfway wall with Tibbetts visible on the Horizon. Tibbetts is a former lookout, and is the most northerly accommodation available on the Island, over a mile from the Village. It is also the only place you can stay which has no mains electricity - with everything running on bottled gas, AND the only place where you can get your shopping delivered - the staff take it up on the Land Rover! 

Past Tibbetts and on to Threequarter Wall, and that rise ahead is the end of the island! The terrain changes at this stage with the path becoming far more rocky, and lots of up-and-downy sections too, a view back the way you’ve come makes things feel quite remote too - see Old Light looking absolutely tiny on the horizon…

I decided to see where the party of round the island swimmers had got to - they were doing well as they had already rounded the Northern tip and were heading up the Eastern side - I managed to get a few pictures with the big camera too but haven’t looked at those yet.

There were seven of them, albeit not really spottable in that shot, I appreciate! 

Time then for my first view of the North Light. Lundy does indeed have three lighthouses - the Old Light was built first as the name suggests, at the top of the island, until it became apparent that the top of the island can spend a lot of time swathed in low cloud - so not an ideal location for a lighthouse! At that stage the North and South Lights were added, much lower down. As a result North Light is reached by a set of steep stone steps…

…there is the first section - from there you turn right,  cross the metal bridge and then are met with this…

See - a long way down! I don’t always bother going all the way way down, but I had it to myself and fancied eating lunch down there on this occasion, so I picked my way down, finding a handily positioned rock on one of the “landing” sections where I stopped to eat before doing the final stretch of steps for an explore…

It’s a classic Trinity House style Lighthouse,  but still interesting to wander round - it’s been automated since 1985 and now runs on solar power. Larger than its opposite number at the southern end of the Island, which is far more compact. 

Time then to head back up again - and I elected to return via the West side path - far more undulating and uneven but with stunning views along the coastline…

There were also good views of the Aircraft carrier H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth which could be seen on the western horizon- too far away for anything other than the haziest photos! 

Partway back along I met one of the little groups of resident Soay sheep - these far more relaxed with my presence than some, and I stood watching them for awhile before they cleared the path and I moved on.

On this side of the Island the walls are crossed by way of stiles rather than gates (other than at Quarter wall which currently has a collapsed section which has been replaced with a fence and gate) - the stiles are rather wonderful - and as you can see VERY substantial! 

Then the final stretch on past the Old Light - just a short distance back to the village from there, although on this occasion I took the detour via the Castle…

…so I could complete the lighthouse set with a view down to the SouthLight and the jetty. You can really see the difference in size between north and south there too! 

A lovely walk on a glorious day - just over 6.5m walked with 15,500 steps, and 535 ft of elevation, and barely another soul seen for much of it!

Robyn

Lovely Lundy!

 

Old Light

Lundy is owned by the National Trust and run by the Landmark Trust, with self catering accommodation sleeping from 1 to 12 people across 23 properties, plus a campsite. MrEH and I first stayed here in 2015 and have been back a number of times since, with various members of the same group of friends. The island is 3 miles long by half a mile wide, so in real terms tiny, but manages to offer plentiful walking opportunities, and there is of course an excellent pub, the Marisco Tavern.

Marisco Tavern

The island has some permanent residents in the shape of the staff, many of whom have been here for a long while. Others come and go, there are always those who are purely engaged on a seasonal basis, and others who do a year but then move on deciding that island life is not for them. The main population of Lundy is transient though - holidaymakers who arrive for a few days, a week, or a little longer; those coming to carry out various jobs of work - this week for example there is a shooting party who are here to shoot some of the Soay sheep (these are then being butchered ready to be cooked and served in the Tavern); bird ringing groups - there was one here at the end of last week I believe and I’m hoping another group might appear later in the week, and people coming to ring the bells at the church - it is a location that many bell ringers want to tick off! 

The accommodation is varied - from the tiny Radio Room and Old Light Cottage each sleeping 1, up to Millcombe House which takes 12. Over the years MrEH and I have camped, which was pleasant but with the uncertain weather here we wouldn’t be in a huge hurry to do it again - we were fortunate on that occasion! We have also stayed in Square Cottage, Old Light Upper (the top section of the building next to the lighthouse in the photo above), and Millcombe. MrEH had a cheeky extra night in Government House when the helicopters had to stop running when we returned after the Christmas at Millcombe - I got across, he didn’t ! This week my little group are in the Quarters which is the first time I’ve been in a purpose built rather than original building - it’s lovely and comfortable and has lovely views down over the village and a church and out to sea. Next time we come we will be in cute little Stoneycroft just along from the Old Light, a property none of us have stayed in before. 

As well as the Tavern for drinks and meals, the island also has a small but decently stocked shop. Fresh goods arrive three times a week as long as the boat runs, so there is generally fresh bread, fruit and veg available. Bread not sold in its first day on sale gets transferred to the freezer to ensure freshness too which is a great idea. Meat is mostly frozen, but some of it is from animals raised on the island - and the menu in the Tavern makes good use of that too - Lundy Venison and the Soay sheep are shot and butchered on the island as I mentioned, with sheep being transported to the mainland for slaughter and processing before making their way back. Prices are generally rather higher than on the mainland - but items are all good quality brands and the higher price tag is to be expected when you consider what is required to get them here at all. Meals in the Tavern are fairly standard prices for a decent pub - the daily special is priced at £15 with other options from under £10 up to £30 for things like steaks. The specials generally use Lundy meat so we often opt for those, and vegetarian options are plentiful and tasty too. 

So there you go - a little guide to what to expect from this quirky little outcrop in the middle of the Bristol Channel. It is fairly rare that people come here and don’t want to return - some will come back a handful of times then move on to somewhere new while others keep coming back year after year. Mobile signal varies from non existent to patchy, so it’s a great place to switch off and really relax. A very good reason to come back!

Robyn

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

An(other) unexpected treat…

 

Isn’t it cheerful when lovely things happen - and all the more so when they pop up completely out of the blue? At the tail end of our holiday I was more than a bit surprised to get a message inviting me to pop up to RAF Waddington for a Red Arrows in-season practise. You might recall that I do travel up there to shoot those whenever I can but this was an invitation from the team to head on to base to watch the practise from there!  It is the current Red 1’s final season, and he had decided that he wanted to extend a thank you to some of the amateur photographers who have photographed him over the 8 seasons he has been on the team, which was a lovely gesture, and very unexpected indeed.

The boss in his first season in the iconic red suit

My first issue was whether I would be able to secure the holiday time - I wasn’t even due back into the office for another few days, and was then only meant to be working three days before having another week off for a trip to Lundy - so I was well aware that I was probably on rather thin ice - regardless I sent a hopeful message explaining the situation and thank goodness got an “oh, go on then!” one in return shortly after. Phew! 

Even the crew room mugs are in formation! 

Thursday morning saw me in the car heading up - very excited and completely unsure what to expect. On arriving at the specified location at the base I met the other invitees, all similarly in the dark. Much nervous giggling ensued as we waited for our escort round to the RAFAT section. I don’t think there was anyone among us who was anything other than slightly astonished to find ourselves there! 

Claire, Caz, Tom & me failing to hide our excitement!

Our escort turned out to be the very lovely Doug - Chief of Staff and someone I have known for years, so that was excellent! With parking at the squadron apparently at a premium that day, once equipped with our visitor passes we hopped into two cars and proceeded through past lots of interesting looking buildings - Waddington is very different from the slightly run-down familiarity of Scampton with its World War 2 infrastructure and is also far bigger! Into the squadron building - but not before I had noticed just outside my lovely XX311 - the jet my pal Ross flew in in 2014 - now retired and installed as Squadron guardian!

XX311 enjoying her retirement 

The all important brew was a priority of course - always - an introduction to Joe from the PR team who was helping to host us, and lots of hellos from various people milling about too, and then Doug explained that we would be sitting in on the pre practice briefing which was very exciting - I have done this before but not for a lot of years. Briefings are fascinating - hearing all information relevant to the next activity being imparted and then the whole intended display plus any likely variations talked through step by step in incredible detail. Once complete, the pilots headed off to get kitted up and we went back to the crew room where someone else I have known for years- P R Manager Andy Morton - joined us. He wasted no time in jokingly pointing out how little I had been about this season - a very valid point indeed! We split into two groups at that stage to head out to datum, Claire and I hopped into the car with Andy driving along with another of our group, David, and a chap called Steve who was there filming, and Doug drove the rest of the group. 

OC RAFAT supervising, Iwan filming - “Rollbacks” in the background

The practice itself was essentially like watching our own private Red Arrows display - and watching everyone get their”game faces” on once the camera kit came out was entertaining. I do wonder what the value of the assembled kit out there was though - I suspect well north of £50k total between us, and that is not counting Steve’s kit and that of the team’s own photographer! New Officer Commanding Wing Commander Sasha Nash was supervising, I’d not met her before so it was nice to have quick chat in between her duties.

Back to the squadron then, and after a bit of a break for the pilots time for the debrief - another treat! Just as fascinating - the level of scrutiny they subject themselves to is astonishing - after all these years we are pretty good at noticing stuff that isn’t quite to the incredibly high standard the team set for themselves and indeed the Boss (Red 1 is always known as The Boss) commented that we were all very good at not posting photos of those moments, but they pick up on the tiniest things that are invisible to us! Seeing the way they call themselves out on errors really underlines why the team motto is “Eclat” - Excellence. 

There was still more in store for us - photos outside with the team, both individually and as a group…thanks to Claire for the shot above - and then a hangar tour where the very lovely Matt, one of the team’s armourers - gave us all sorts of interesting info about the jets in the hangar and the engineering side in general. It is always great to see the jets up close, but being able to look inside the engine bay was a new one for me - with the engine (below) having been dropped out of XX219 to go to Rolls Royce for repair.

Rolls Royce Adour engine as used in the Hawk.

We got the chance to sit in the training jet too - active team jets are off limits to visitors but the training jet has its ejection seat system disabled and so is “safe” for random people! Naturally after all my work with the Blues and circus team in the past I chose the backseat!   Time then for farewells, and heartfelt thank you’s from us - I think we were all a bit shell-shocked to be honest, it was an incredible day and although we didn’t really know what to expect, it wasn’t a fraction of that! - before Joe who had been looking after us through the day drove us back across to our cars.  

Simply a superb day, and an incredible opportunity, one I am so glad to have been able to accept and something I certainly won’t forget in a hurry! 

Robyn