Swallows, seals and sex mad sheep (Another Tibbetts tale)

It’s always a treat to stay on Lundy and, if you look through previous posts on this blog you will see that each trip has it’s own character & themes – shaped by the weather, travelling companions and random occurrences. This trip was hastily planned after an unexpected quiet spell at work, a quick lunchtime search found that Tibbetts was free and three days later we were on the Oldenberg for a calm sailing over to the island in the warm October sunshine.

The seals are in pup at this time of the year, so the few beaches are off limits but there’s still plenty of opportunity for seal watching from the rocks. The healthy population are a reflection of the unique ‘no fishing’ zone on the eastern side of the island.

One surprise was that despite the swallows having left mainland North Devon over a month previously, the air was full of them performing their aerial acrobatics. Apparently these were swallows who had spent the summer in Ireland and were using Lundy as we would a convenient service station stop, to have a snack and refuel.

Tibbetts was still the perfectly remote and peaceful place as ever and we were lucky to see the rugged west coast get a right pounding by a strong Atlantic swell in beautiful late Autumn sunshine.

An Old Light sunset and hunting kestrels rounded off a day of days.

It is that time of year for the small herd of Soay Sheep on the Island. These two were oblivious to us as they head butted each other with desire led gusto. (I tried to think of a ‘headache’ joke here but couldn’t find the words without sounding pompous and middle class..)

The trip was rounded off with the Anthony Gormley statue, a good session in the Marisco, a tall ship and stunning views of the North Devon coast.

You can make the picture big and sexy by clicking on them.

Canon 5d mk3, Canon 7d mk2, 24-70mm f2.8 L, 70-30mm IS &  Zomei 818C carbon fibre tripod.

(I was so impressed with this excellent value Chinese tripod that I may do a review, watch this space).

Please leave any comments below, thanks for getting this far.