Our much anticipated autumn climbing and surfing trip to the Western Isles was sadly put on hold with the passing of my grandfather John Battersby. The family gathered in Wales to celebrate and remember his extraordinary life. There was much sadness, but a lot of happiness too as he was an amazing, funny and clever man, and remembering him brought as much laughter as sorrow.
After the funeral, we decided to stick with the climbing and surfing plan, but took advantage of our location, and began a tour of the Southwest that would take us through Wales, down to the end of Cornwall, and in to darkest Devon... I'm going to post the images in stages, as we did a fair bit, but will only bore you with the best bits!
The holiday began with a sunset climb at one of Wales' most popular surfing spots, Rest Bay. Just east of the main beach lies a small rocky incut, known to the locals as Box Bay. Here there are short and fun routes on sharp limestone. Rough rock and lots of cracks make them relatively safe, and generally low in the grade (by Scottish standards), but beware many of the starts are unprotected, and the landings awkward/dangerous.
Shimmering surf in Rest Bay....
The routes have tricky blank and barnacley starts with wet and rocky landings....
It was a stunning evening, didn't really feel like October at all! Here's wally looking like he should be sipping a pina colada on the top of the crag.
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