Terrafirma Travels

23 Apr - Day 6 Bags out the door at 9am, Drank a last zero beer in the sunshine. Paid the tabs at the shop and pub - complex calculations later. The other three decided on a sortie up the east side. We spent time in the Museum, then sat in bird valley while Merlin recognised 20 different birds. From there we went to the church for a brief online session, and then on round the SW path. Saw a peregrine falcon over The Rattles. Sat in some grassy holes out of the fresh northerly wind, had a sandwich.  On to Old Light where we had another sandwich in the cosy lower observation room. We inspected the cemetery, Nic wanting to read the plates on every rock and cross, slightly to Lesley's frustration. Then on the west path which is quite easy, turned right after Quarter Wall and followed it up to the central path - this route would not work in any rain, the moorland ground is very boggy. Turned right again, back to the village. A good leg stretch of some 9,000 steps, rewarded with a sit i...

  22 Apr day 5 Notes for a return visit ... Bramble Villa East for views, Castle Cottage ditto, or Hanmers, or Square Cottage with CH. Or OHS of course. Today started with topup shop of bread & butter, impulse purchases fiercely resisted. We haven't carried wallet/purse since arriving due to the tab system in both shop and pub - strangely liberating. 0945-1200 was a guided, participatory tour of the SW corner, including various houses, castle, Benson's Cave, Benjamin's Seat. We wrote impressions, haikus, and drew pictures. All slightly fey. Led by mature fine arts student doing her Masters. Lunch in the house for once. Rather chaotic with three different preparations simultaneously. We took ourselves off for a very pleasant walk along the upper east path, an easy route, almost to Halfway, then retraced our steps via a rest at Old Quarry Cottages (remains of). Saw a quarry pool that had carp in it - most surprising. We had another long stop in 'bird valley' ab...

  21 Apr day 4 Felt slightly stiff this morning but not so bad as expected. Nevertheless we decided on a gentle day. Reading in the sunshine after breakfast, then top up trip to shop, and early elevenses. Boots on and visited the church to do some online things including first day of this blog. On to the castle - just some ruined walls but with great view down to South Light. Back to Black Shed for the loo then up to Old Light - this time Lesley went to the top and I stayed below. Back from there the other way through the fields. Met a young farmer who said "my missus likes a holiday on the mainland but I prefer it here - mind you it was a long wet & windy winter". Home for lunch al fresco and cooking of the dinner for all - a Mediterranean chicken casserole, invented because we're using things up, and an apple desert. We'd just finished and cleared up when the others returned so we all had tea including lovely fruitcake provided by Andrew. On the way to the chu...

  20 Apr day 3 Up at 7 and out after toast to see more bird ringing. The wind had switched to the east and they were hardly catching any. Did see them handle a black cap that had been ringed earlier that morning - daft bird had hit the nets again. 2nd breakfast of porridge, then all five of us walked up the West Path to the Battery; a very steep descent to a tiny pair of ruined cottages and two 19-pounder cannon that were used during fog in the latter half of the 19th century. What a place to live! We keep reminding ourselves that we are seeing the island at its best, light easterlies and clear skies. On we walked to Jenny's Cove at Halfway Wall, where Warden Lucy had a telescope set up to watch the puffins. We could also see them very well through our binos (I have rented a pair because Uncle Hugh's have a very narrow field of view. There was much talk about the various different seabirds which went over our heads. The puffins though are delightful, especially their crash l...

  19 Apr day 2 Up at 8am refreshed after 11 hours of sleep. Porridge all round except John who prefers muesli, quite a production. L & I went to the shop and got most things on the list, then made our sandwiches. The others went ahead, up the Eastern side because theres a strong WNW wind. We found an ant on the kitchen table so deep-cleaned all surfaces (after squishing it). The path to the east side starts below Millcombe House, and there we saw two volunteers doing bird ringing. Huge nets are strung up which the birds fly into and get trapped in pockets. They disentangle them, "within 20 mins" they said, put them on cloth bags and at a table they measure, inspect, weigh and ring them in a couple of minutes then off they go. We watched three willow warblers being processed. Fascinating. Recently they had a bird that had been ringed the previous day in the Channel Islands and flown all this way in 24 hours. The lower east path was quite hard going, narrow, vertiginous ...

18 Apr day 1 V smooth journey to Ilfracombe, left house at 6am after 0445 rising (groan), arrived 0825. Put car in Larkstone Park, paying on Ringgo for 6 days - that's a new experience. MV Oldenburg very old-fashioned and quite lovely, sea v calm, arrived ontime at noon. John met us at the pier for the stiff walk up to Old House South; very glad they bring the bags up for us .  After our sandwich lunch and meeting Andrew we walked to the SW corner, via the church (which is the island's WiFi hotspot ... and was built in 1890s by Rev Heaven, a splendid example of nominative determinism!) but chose the wrong path for the Devil's Limekiln, a massive blowhole, so another day. Went on to Old Light at the island's highest point, and climbed the 147 narrow steps to the lantern room where John and Andrew discovered two deckchairs; could have stayed all day enjoying the splendid views including down to the 'village'. On our return the bags and our shopping order had been...