Climbing Roadtrip: Roaches, Culm Coast, Pembroke August 2 - 12, 2016

Don Willan's climber's hut

Gritstone climbing in the Peak District is relished by British climbers almost to the point of cult status. I was thrilled to finally travel to The Roaches and stay in the famous and unique Don Whillans climber's hut. The hut is a former game keepers' cottage built into a rock cave and has a long and varied history going back to the early 1800's.

Waiting at the gate for customers.
Note the dark clouds over the
climbing area! 

Daily, buses choke the narrow lanes bringing kids to climb at The Roaches. Not dissuaded by a bit of rain and wind, guides set up top ropes and kids in blue helmets swarm all over all the lower grade climbs. Toward the end of the day, an ice cream truck regularly shows up and the kids buy ice cream and eat it before getting back onto the bus to return home.  Brits love ice cream, cream tea (scones, clotted cream and hot tea,) cakes, and opportunities to get home made goodies can be found at obscure trail head junctions, parking lots and on most shore line drives. I find it quite civilized really!

Mag preparing the evening
meal of bolognese. No 
doubt, the wine contributed
to the fun!

Space for seven had been reserved at the hut but as it turned out, only four people showed up, which is probably just as well as the weather didn't cooperate. Being less hard core than the local guides, on the first day, August 7th, we opted to go to The Roaches Tea Room, watch the variable weather, and eat Staffordshire Oatcakes, an area specialty of a savoury pancakes made of oat four and stuffed with melted cheese. The next day presented us with gale force wind so rather than climb, we did a ridge hike and explored the area. As we were coming down off the ridge, there was the ubiquitous ice cream truck waiting for tired, hungry walkers! Of course we each had a refreshing cone!

Mag and Paul decided to clear off toward the end of the second day, so after a delicious dinner at Barbarella's in Buxton we went our separate ways. At 1,519 ft above sea level, the little village of Flash claims to be the highest village in Great Britain. As it was on our way back to the hut, we drove into the village and stopped at the New Inn, (which is not so New any more) for a beer. Who knew! So many places have a little bit of fame to claim!

Even though the weather was still unstable the following morning, we were reluctant to leave without even one gritstone climb. After all, the guides were there with the bus loads of kids, so if they could do it, so could we. Michael chose the classic, Right Hand Route. on the Upper Tier. It starts with big pockets, goes up a slanting flake, and under a roof before finishing up a crack. Michael stepped confidently into the pockets, started up the flake, and just made it to the roof when suddenly the wind kicked up and a fierce squall dumped rain on us! I could hear Michael cursing and screaming, "I'm about to fill me pants" as he paused to consider his next move! I leaned into the rock in an attempt to gain some protection from the wind and rain, but to no avail. As I watched Michael disappear over a ledge, I noticed a slug sliming out of a rising puddle of water collecting in the pocket he had been sheltering in. We were all miserable. Eventually, I heard a faint "SAFE" from Michael and he began to take up rope. Given we had a fair amount of gear on that climb, as soon as I felt the rope tighten, I started up the wet rock. The climb had good holds and gritstone is true to its name, even when wet. I was able to make my way up the climb, retrieve gear and get to the top just as the rain stopped and the sun came out. As we gathered everything up, we looked on in disbelief as the guides had a group of kids in their signature blue helmets on top of the Lower Tier. We decided this was enough and knowing we had a long day of travel, started on the 226 mile journey to the Culm Coast of North Devon.

Sunset from the window of
our Air BnB hosts home

North Devon is a coastal area of southwest England, known for dramatic cliffs, wild seas, sandy beaches and fantastic rock climbing. We had our first experience with Air BnB in Northam. It had been a long day of driving and we struggled to find the little town home that advertised a cosy room overlooking the sea. The name of the road changed 3 times in as many blocks and unknown to us, we'd driven past it at least three times, and after considerable frustration, we finally found it. When Sherry, our hostess, opened the door, she said, "Why didn't you call? Don't you have SatNav?" My only response was, "We don't have SatNave and don't call for directions." Sherry gave me a very knowing and sympathetic look.

Gear drying on the deck.

Sherry and Dipo, ushered us to the kitchen where they had prepared bowls of fresh watermelon for us and Sherry offered to make tea. After the epic climb and a long day of driving, we were more interested in a glass of red wine. We learned that they don't drink much wine but were happy for us to. Dipo helped gather our bags out of the car and grabbed the bottle of red wine that we produced and started to put it into the refrigerator. Michael stopped him in a very humorous tone said, "Oh no! Only barbarians put red wine in the refrigerator!" which caused everyone to laugh. The whole stay was full of fun and laughter. It was a pleasure to stay in a house with access to a kitchen, laundry facilities and even a place to dry our gear and ropes after getting caught in the deluge at Staffordshire. Our hosts, were lovely and this turned out to be a fabulous experience!

Devil's Slide Overview

A climbing template for this trip is Ken Wilson's, "Classic Climbs," a book that describes 80 of the lower grade rock climbs of Britain, all well known, and many of which were first climbed by Alpinists of old. Devil's Slide, located on Lundy Island, is described as one of the finest sea cliff climbs of South-West England. It was to be the first of these classic climbs we were actually going to do. I had a level of excitement and even some trepidation at the thought of it. It was planned as a day trip, taking the 8:30 ferry to the island, executing the climb then catching the 5:30 ferry back. It was an hour hike to the climb, a 3 pitch climb and an hour back to the Ferry dock. There was very little margin for error in the timing so we decided to take Friday, August 5th, as a day for reconnaissance and sightseeing in Bideford.

Bideford

Floating Cafe in Bideford

Bideford is a delightful ancient port town but also hails to a dark side of murder, superstition and harshness. Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susanna Edwards were sent to the gallows in 1682 for witchcraft which serves as a dark reminder of England's superstitious past. In addition, Sir Richard Grenville brought a Native American tribesman from Roanoke, Virginia, named him Raleigh after his cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh, however, died of influenza, or it is speculated from heart break, in 1589.

Punishment in medieval Bideford was harsh for minor offences. Knocking a hat off someones' head as a joke got one young man interned for life. Others were sent to the Australian penal colony for similarly minor offences. Today, however, Bideford is a lovely historic town that is well worth visiting. We found many peculiar things such as old boat tricked out with funky memorabilia from the 50's and 60's including old 33 long play disks, a skeleton hanging in the corner and an advertisement of an evening of ghost boat stores of murders and ghosts that haunt the riverbanks of Bideford attracting people as a Cafe and pub. All very quirky!

Rappelling down the
Devil's Slide

Scottish Highland Cattle

The following morning, we arrived at Bideford Quay  at 7:30 am for the 8:30 am departure and looked forward to to seeing dolphins during the two hour sailing. As luck would have it though, the ferry left Bideford Quay 30 minutes late increasing the anxiety for the day. We discussed how we could shorten the climb should we need to for any reason and how to be first off the ferry so we could get a quick start out of the gate and toward the climb. We were very fortunate to have a pod of dolphins join us for part of the sail over and this seemed like a good omen. When the ferry docked we bolted off the boat, scampered up the hill and hotfooted it to the climb. All went exactly as planned. We executed the climb flawlessly and made it back to the ferry dock in plenty of time. As a treat we were able to see goats, sheep and even Scottish Highland Cattle. Lundy Island is a place that definitely deserves more time.

Hartland Quay

Having accomplished the major goal of Devil's Slide, sightseeing was in order for the next day. We journeyed to Hartland and it didn't disappoint. Hartland Quay and the Lighthouse at Hartland Point host a barren, craggy coast line with dramatic views and secluded rocky beaches in every direction.




I am constantly surprised at the quantity and quality of small tea shops all over Britain in most obscure and remote places. This one pictured was out on Hartland Point not far off the Coastal Path. It was a private parking lot with access to the Hartland Point lighthouse. Had a lovely cappuccino, soup and cream tea. Couldn't have done better anywhere! Simply amazing! Other whimsical things we encountered were, Gnome Reserve, Fairy Cross Village, stopped at the Coach & Horses Inn in the village of Horns Cross where we had a lovely sea food medley for dinner. Our cook was an authority on Bess of Hardwick, a shrewd business woman from 16th century Elizabethan English society who through a series of well-made marriages rose to the highest levels of English nobility and became enormously wealthy. Who knew!

Promontory Slab

Our next objective of the area was sea cliff climbing on the Culm Coast off Baggy Point. Since this was a first trip to Culm Coast for both of us, we wanted to get the lay of the land before committing to a climb. Michael insisted we didn't want to carry the heavy climbing packs for this, so against my better judgement, I agreed to the beta exploration without packs. After all, we had a two hour window on either side of low tide to complete the climb. Low tide was 4:30 so we had from 2:30 to 6:30 and it was about 10:00am. We took off up the hill to baggy Point viewpoint, a fairly gentle grade walk on a gravel path.

We had two very popular climbs in mind, Shangri-La and Ben both rated at Hard Severe (HS) or perhaps 5.7 or so in Yosemite ratings. As we came up the hill to the Baggy Point view point, the first area we encountered was Ben on Promontory Slab. Looking across Slab cove, we could see Shangri-La looking very dramatic on a fin of rock jutting into the ocean at a perpendicular angle to the shore. To access Shangri-La, a static rope must be set up on a stake located on a downward damp grassy slope. If you slip, you careen down a 70 meter cliff or so into the surf pounding and onto the rocks. Of course we discussed the definition of damp, Michael being very adamant this grass was dry and not damp. My position was, it was between damp and wet. In any event, based on the fact there was a crowd developing for Shangri-La and because of the earlier decision to leave the gear in the car, meaning we had a 45 minute hike back to the car, we decided to climb Ben on Promontory Slab with a way less aggressive start than Shangri-La. As we were walking back up the hill with the packs, I told Michael that this was going into the blog. He replied that he'd be looking for it, so Michael, here's to you!

C130 Hercules Planes buzzing
us as we climbed Ben

Anyway, we set up the climb and lowered onto the tidal ledge right around the 2:30 mark. Michael had just started up and all was going well until I heard this thunderous noise. In my mind, it could be nothing more than a tsunami, so I braced myself to get wet. The drenching never came though. I looked up and there was a C130 Hercules plane zooming past flying at an amazingly low altitude! Just as I recovered from that, a second one flew past! About that time, Michael screamed down between curses, "What was that? I'm about to fill me pants!" He was, however, able to grab his camera and take a quick shot as they flew into the distance! That's an experience I won't soon forget!

Derelict Tank on Castlemartin
Military Training Area

The next destination, Pembroke, required a drive of 226 miles around the Bristol Channel.The only crossing of the Bristol Channel is just a bit Northwest of Bristol. Had we been able to cross the Bristol Channel at Northam, it probably would have only been about 40 miles! Unfortunately, no bridge or tunnel exists that can facilitate that! This wouldn't have been so bad except we had to wait until noon to get started as I had left my purse in the Prince of India where we had dined the evening before with Sherry and Dipo. Sighhhh..... We arrived in time for dinner at the May Cottage, another BMC climbers hut in Maidenwells, just outside of Pembroke. After a nice dinner, we explored the quaint village of Pembroke.

Green Bridge of Wales
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

Climbs at Pembrokshire Coast National Park, are accessible only by going through the Castlemartin military training area. It's owned by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and in 1999, the Defense Training Estate was formed and units from all over the UK and NATO have trained on the ranges. Again, this brings home the difference between National Parks in the US and the UK. I must say though, MoD was very accommodating to climbers and walkers. They even produce a very good overview map of the climbing areas though it's actually a brochure of, "Agreed Climbing Restrictions."

Ganymede at St. Govans
Pembrokeshire Coast
National Park

As is par for the course in Great Britain, the weather was definitely iffy for climbing the first day, August 10th. On top of that, low tide was late in the day, so rather than chance being caught in another storm, or in tidal issues, we started out in town doing some genealogy research then went did the Stackpole Wildlife Walk around the Bosherston Lilly Ponds and Stackpole Estate. We walked part of the Coastal Path, had great views of sea cliffs, walked on secluded beaches, explored blow holes which are sea caves that develop into vertical shafts and can result in blasts of water if the weather is appropriate. Of course there was a lovely tea shop where we had cappuccinos and Welsh Cakes. The instinct to not climb was spot on as we did get "grimmed in" with a quick but fierce squall!

We woke up to bright sunshine the following morning and knew it was the day to climb! The climb we chose was easy and not very tidal. We could lower down to the rocks in the calm sea and knock out this climb which is exactly what we did. We finished by noon, did some exploring in the area then went to Tenby, a resort town in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.

Dinnych y Pysgod is the Welsh name for Tenby which means Little Fort of Fishes. It's a fabulously scenic walled seaside town. We walked the beach, then sat on Castle Hill watching the sea and people, then had a lovely dinner before heading back to the hut for our last night.

My mother had traced her family's lineage to Pembroke. She has a record of the family in America dating back to the early 1700's.  She was told as a young girl, that she was related to a "Titled Welshman at Pembroke Castle." She asked me to see if I could find any information while I was here.

Pembroke Castle

On August 10 before the Stackpole Wildlife Walk, we stopped at St Mary's Church, dating back to the 13th century, to see what we could find and managed to arrive just after the morning service was finished. The Vicar, Brenda, opened up her records, and the oldest they have is the Pembroke Parish Register from 1711 - 1744. Unfortunately, this isn't early enough to find Phillip Johns, the reputed father of Griffith Johns, the guy found in America in the early 1700's. The church only has copies of record as the originals are kept at the Pembroke Archives in Haverfordwest. Brenda is in her 70's, was very nice and quite helpful. Her records were quite disorganized so we helped her get them in order. She was very cavalier about some ancient bibles that were taking up space on a very small shelf just in front of the huge organ pipes. She looked at them in disgust and with a wave of her hand said, "These need to be in a museum somewhere, not here!" It was actually pretty funny to see as history to people here is so common place!

A page from St Mary's
Parish Register
1711

We were driving though Haverfordwest on the way home so we stopped in at the Pembrokeshire Archives. We arrived an hour before they opened so we spent the time picking blackberries that were taking over the parking lot! (They made a fantastic blackberry crumble!) When they opened, I explained my mission to Mary Robinson. Together we did a bit of research and ultimately, received a "pat on the back" from her for having as much information as we did. Because of the damp, humid climate, the records from the 1600's are gone and the ones that could be found from 1711 are virtually illegible. Also, the names Phillip, Griffith and Johns in any combination are very common Welsh names so it's virtually impossible, without, more specific information to go any further. It was an interesting project and I wish I could have done more to connect the dots of our ancestry back to Wales.