May Bank Holiday Monday saw us on Bideford Quay at 8am on a cold and - yes - frosty - morning (though we didn't go gathering nuts!)
Bags labelled and loaded onto the MS Oldenburg we found somewhere to sit and braced ourselves for 2 hrs of 'moderate' seas - there are moderate seas and moderate seas though and when they are coming broadside on it can be less than comfortable at times and a few of the group began to wonder why they were making the trip!
Arrived on time and most impressed by new jetty - even though it was going up and down a lot which made the gangway rather interesting.
Assembled on quay and found Derek Green the Manager, then had a look at the rather lovely and generally ignored Devonian slates which have some super folds and a number of deformations visible.
A little way up the hill though we were dismayed to find that the Lundyite 'Castle' dyke has been gunite-ed in the name of preserving the road. Asked about this later Derek said that the engineers had advised that the dyke, as well as the shaley slates, needed to be sprayed. We were unsure that a few millimetres of concrete would actually do anything apart from obscure the surface and prevent us looking at it.
Onward and upward we enjoyed a pint in the sunshine in the pub garden before going on over to the St Helena's church to hand over the interpretation panel - the purpose of our visit. We were impressed - it looks absolutely super and the gap above the other cabinet is absolutely asking for its twin so we were delighted when Derek proposed that we might discuss filling the gap.
The afternoon gave us an opportunity to explore the southern end of the island - Benjamin's Chair, the Rocket Pole Pond, and the Old Light before seeing off the day visitor party on their way to the quay (hoping it would be a bit calmer on the way back) and then found out accommodation and sorted out how to sleep 3 chaps and 8 women in a 6 bed room and a 7 bed room. Found out that the tavern serves excellent meals for £7.50 - we had venison meatballs
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