Year 5 on Lundy, 2018

Another amazing trip out to Lundy with the year 5s in the incredible heatwave that we’re currently experiencing! (Ironically, it’s raining as I write this up!)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XLJnktPqSotfCKiE8 Click there < for our photo album!

The trip over was flat and calm and no one was ill; a normal worry for many children and parents. Whilst the tourists panicked their way up the island’s main road to the village, we ate our lunch and played about on the beach, giving our three groups team names and competing for points throughout our trip. One group managed to collect almost 200 single pieces of plastic from the one beach, making a Year 5 total of just over 400 pieces of litter, which really is a record for our tips over! It was also lovely that an Oyster Catcher kept buzzing us; we watched him going out for food and coming back to his nest. On our walk up we also spotted the Lundy Cabbage and its resident Lundy Cabbage Beetle, both only found on this tiny island and nowhere else in the world! Exploring St. Helena’s Church, we showed them the island’s map and the clues that directed them to the island’s Letterboxes; just like the Dartmoor Lettterboxes that are hidden around the island and have stamps to record you’ve been there. Our accommodation was almost ready for us, our kit delivered and waiting at the doorway too, so we went up the Old Lighthouse and we did some orienteering of the village too. Settling in to the Barn, we had Pasta the first night and group 2 helped to set tables and put things out, with group 1 helping with tidying, washing and sweeping up. A small tour of the south of the island, we managed to locate Benson’s Cave (the ‘pirate/mayor’ used to brick up convicts when the coastguard visited the island), Benjamin’s Chair but then, towards sunset, we came back to write in our diaries and a hot chocolate!

Despite the sunshine, we still went to the top of the island with the groups taking turns to navigate our way using the Letterboxes. It was a record breaking departure from the Barn, being breakfasted and sandwiched and ready to go at 8.15am! This may have something to do with the whispering from 6am onwards! Granite Quarry – Quarry Cottages – Hospital – VC Quarry – a crashed German Heinkel bomber – Admiralty’s Lookout (Tibbets) – a Stone Age hut – the North Light’s harbour (where the GoPro fell in to the sea! Argh!) – and back along the West Coast, out of sight of the mainland. Tucked down slightly and away from the sea breeze, we could really feel the heat of the sun… and as it was almost time for getting back, we split into two groups; the ones that wanted to sit down and rest with a cuppa (who went directly back) and the ones who wanted to see the landslip ‘Earthquake’ area as well as the second crashed German bomber. A good collection of about 8 letterbox stamps! Pizza that night, followed by a second bout of diary writing, some fun on the green in the middle of the village, more hot chocolate and a second night of children trying to whisper their way towards midnight!

On our final day, it was another record-breaking pack up of the Barn, cleaned, shopped, packed and ready to go for 10am. The smallest of walks to the pub green where we did some water-colouring and learnt about the oldest and smallest postal company in the world, we then went in to the Marisco Tavern for our pre-ordered lunch; Lundy Lamb Burger being the most popular choice. We went back up the the Old Light after this and squeezed in a quick visit to the old fog cannon station, The Battery. It was quite funny how the shelter alongside the cannons became an ice cream shop within seconds of us arriving there with the children paying with titchy granite chippings!

Down through Millcombe Valley and back down to the jetty, we just about had time to explore Rat Island’s (it looks like one; there are no rats on the island anymore) cave. Some of us got a little wet, but it was a shoes-off affair and a scramble through to the other side. Fun! …and lovely that they all showed patience and understanding for those who found scrambling along rocks hard, or were scared of spiders or sea anemones! We played a little with skimming stones, another thing that some of us learnt, and then we went up and boarded the boat. Parents may have noticed we came in early – an advertised 6.30 turned into a predicted 6.10 due to the calm sea state, but we got to the coast in record time and pulled in to Ilfracombe at 5.50! Speedy surfing we think!

So… another adventurous and inspiring residential away! It was brilliant, and yet again such a privilege to take children to this beautiful island right on our doorstep!