Lundy Day 1

This morning we caught the ferry across to Lundy Island.  A pretty calm crossing, bringing us to the island in time for lunch at the Marisco tavern whilst our luggage was delivered up the hill to our home for the next few days - the upper floor of the lighthouse keeper's cottage at the "Old Light". 

This lighthouse was built in 1819 on the highest point of the island.  Unfortunately its height (the highest lighthouse base in Britain, according to Wikipedia. at 469 feet above sea level) meant that the light was often obscured by fog.  Although a fog signal battery was built to help overcome this problem, the lighthouse was eventually abandoned and replaced by  two lighthouses, one at the north end of the island and one at the south end.

Today the lighthouse is open to visitors who may climb to the top.  The light itself has been removed, and the platform allows splendid views across to the mainland (when there is no fog!).

Owing to the lack of recent rainfall, the island is severely short of water at the moment, and on the ferry over - reinforced by notices on the island - we were asked to use water only sparingly.  When we arrived we found that there was an additional problem:  the pump which delivers water to the lighthouse cottage had failed, so we had no running water at all.  Fortunately we were provided with as many bottles of water as we wanted, but we still had to wander down the hill to the camp site to use the showers there!  Fortunately it is no great distance.  They hope to have the pump repaired by tomorrow morning.

Otherwise we had a lovely afternoon exploring some of the island in bright sunny weather.

[Backblipped - no internet on Lundy]