The Waverley Paddle Steamer was waiting passengers to arrive at Clevedon Pier.

I hurried along the pier with all the humans to wait in the queue to board the ship.

I found somewhere to sit at the back. The Waverley is the last sea-going paddle steamer in the World, she was built in 1947.

As the ship left the pier I set off to explore.

I decided not to ring the ship’s bell!

The engine room was amazing.

Three huge steel rods turned round and round. They were linked with lots of other bits engine which turned the paddles to propel the ship forwards. When the ship needed to reverse an engineer had to pull levers to make the engine stop. He then started the machinery going again in the opposite direction.

On a ship the Purser looks after all the money.

This is the bar before it filled up with lots humans!

I visited the souvenir shop….

The ship’s captain appeared to say “Hello” and was pleased that I was already wearing a Waverley pin badge (one of my followers kindly sent it to me last year). I decided to buy a fridge magnet for our kitchen notice board.

Back out on the deck I spotted Steep Holm and Flat Holm in the distance. Flat Holm is the flat one on the left. I was very fortunate to visit Flat Holm last year. You can read about my Flat Holm trip here:

While we in the middle of The Bristol Channel passing Barry Island, two lifeboats appeared alongside. The one in front was the old Barry Lifeboat that was being taken out of service, and it was bringing out to sea the new lifeboat that was replacing it.

A cold wind had blown up and I was feeling a bit chilly, so I warmed up by hugging a ventilation shaft which was pleasantly warm!

The Waverley stopped at Ilfracombe Harbour where some passengers got off and more got on. I studied the unusual statue, called Verity, designed by a famous artist Damien Hurst.

After spending another hour or so at sea we arrived at Lundy Island.

Lundy Island is owned by The National Trust, but the Landmark Trust looks after it for them.

We had about 2 hours to explore Lundy. Cimbing up the hill was quite tiring for my little legs but there was a lovely view of the landing stage and lighthouse at the top.

Lots of sheep live on Lundy Island.

Everyone living on Lundy or staying in one of the holiday cottages has to buy their groceries from the General Stores. There was actually quite a good selection of food inside.

There is also a pub, the Marisco Tavern, which serves meals three times a day. We didn’t have time to go in.

I climbed over a stile to see the old lighthouse, which is now holiday accomodation.

A little climb was necessary for me to get a closer look at the blue flowers. I am not sure what they were; if you know do let me know!

Another photo, then it was time to get back to the boat as we didn’t want to be left behind!

Everyone was hurrying to get back onto the ship as we had strict instructions to be back on board before 5.30pm. The Waverley has to work around the tides so timing is very important.

I followed everyone back across the gang plank.

I enjoyed being on Lundy Island and would have liked to stay longer. I am hoping the humans might take me there again to spend a whole day there.

The Dining Saloon was very busy but fortunately we did manage to get some seats. I tucked into a large portion of fish and chips.

It was an interesting but tiring day. It was a long way to Lundy from Clevedon, we were on board the ship for over 12 hours in total! I was a very tired bear when we finally got back to Bristol at Midnight.

For more information about PS Waverley see: https://waverleyexcursions.co.uk/ 

For information about Lundy see https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/lundyisland/

Horace the Alresford Bear 11/6/24