Gwilym's Adventure Blog

 Me  Rhiannon Today I was in North Devon in order to get some surfing in, find my sister a new surf board and complete some Risk Assessments for Coasteering. After a quick surf at Croyde and a successful visit to a surf shop we headed of to 2 coasteering sites at low tide. This enabled me to see the seabed, locate rocks and potential jump venues. We then headed into the sea as it was flooding in to gauge the power of the water and to see if the potential sites were actually suitable. Whilst the tides are large at the moment and it makes it great for checking venues out it does mean there is a lot of water moving around at high speed and it was good to be reminded of the power of the sea. We had a great 90 mins in the water before getting out.

Me on Satan's Slip E1 5a  Me belaying on the second belay Perigrine Falcon  Breakers on approach to Appledore Today Mark and I headed back to The Slide where after some soul searching and head control I headed up off the very sparesly protected Satan's Slip E1 5a. The first pitch was fine and the belay reasonable. The second pitch was 46m of 5a delicate slab climbing with only 3 bits of protection between the belays. The climbing was amazing and the friction excellent but you really need a cool head to lead this one. We headed down to jetty and saw a Perigrine Falcon before boarding the 4pm boat and enjoyed a calm journey back to Bideford.

The Iconic Devils Slide Looking Up Looking Down Today Mark and I headed to The Devils Slide to climb a couple of routes on this iconic piece of 100m long rock. We climbed both The Devils Slide HS 4a and Albion VS 4c. Both were 3 pitches and a short 9m scramble out at the top. There were a number of teams out climbing today and making the most of the excellent weather. On the way back from the climbs we saw a couple of Red Kites and a Goat with some amazing horns.

MS Oldenburg  Lundy's rugged coastline Mark leading Where Am I? Today Mark and I set sail on the MS Oldenburg from Ilfracombe to Lundy Island just off the North Coast of Devon for a few days climbing. As we arrived around midday we went to Picnic Bay Cliff which is a small Single Pitch venue where we climbed Where Am I? VD, Ailsa B, VS 4c and Beach Barbie E1 5b as well as soloing a couple of D climbs called Louis and Bryony.

Sunbathing Seal Beach on St Martin's One of many caves Narrow Geo A couple of Seals Today we paddled from St Mary's across Crow Sound to the Eastern Isles where we we surrounded by hundreds of seals. There were both Common and Atlantic Grey Seals on teh rocks and in the water around us. We then continued up the East coast of St Martins round some excellent bays with amazing caves and geos. We joined up with The Evert at Whie Island at the North tip of the island for the journey back to Newlyn.

 Short break on St Mary's  Me at St Mary's Paddling into St Mary's Harbour Hannah Today we were dropped of by Evert at St Agnes and paddled the North side of it and Gugh before making the 1200m crossing to St Mary's. We paddled round this anti clockwise and the weather was great. We stopped for a couple of breaks including a cream tea at the harbour. After this small snack we headed back out for the last 3km of the trip nd the weather deterioated very quickly. Fortunatly for us hust as we got back to the start point I saw the Evert and called for a pick up. We again saw seals today and some amazing scenary on the south east of St Mary's.

Dolphins under the bow On the beach on Sampson   The Evert from Bryher    Hannah and I in New Grimsby Sound Today we left Newlyn at 6am and headed to the Scilly Isles where at around midday Hannah and I got off the Evert at Round Island and paddled a circuit of Tresco and most of Bryher (it was a biot rough to complete the NW 2km section). We also visited Puffin Island (where there are no puffins) and Sampson. The weather improved during the day and turned into a lovely summers evening. We saw 6 or 7 seals during the paddle and a couple of dolphins on the way over. The distance overall was around 20km and we were back on board the Evert at 5pm.