Better late than never.. our coasteering exploits for Mike’s stag do – a full day’s adventure in the Welsh sea around Anglesey.

The day kicked off with a 150ft hanging abseil over the biggest sea cave in Wales, where Glyn slipped and ended hanging upside down over the edge, a very scary moment! We landed on the beach below where a Sea Lion had stolen John’s shorts (we all had shorts on outside our wetsuits to help with wear and tear), and after our first jump and short swim to the boat we were whisked off in the boat for lunch at South Stack Lighthouse.

We visited the most inaccessible stretches of coastline to be found anywhere in Wales, with towering sea cliffs, sea caves and sea stacks some of the obstacles that we needed to negotiate on our route, our view was some of the best sea cliff climbs to be found in the British Isles. The sea was described as ‘lumpy’ by our hosts, having 5-10ft swells which made for an interesting time.

It was ominous beginnings, starting with 7, then going to 6, then 5, then 4 as each person ended up getting hurt/smashed with the high coastline waves against the sharp rocks, it finally ended up with just the three of us for the last couple of hours, myself and Mike being defiant while the rest huddled together to keep warm on the boat.

There were some spectacular take downs, our guides advice was to go with the waves and when a wave lifted you in the air onto the rocks if you didn’t have a good grip then just let go.. unfortunately that isn’t what instincts tell you and that’s where most got injured, trying to resist the pull of the sea and getting smashed into the razor sharp rocks.

In total we spent around four hours in the murky water and a great time was had by all, there were some terrifying jumps and I even managed a couple of somersaults. We saw a couple of Sea Lions who were interested in what we were up to and keeping an eye on us – though they were big fella’s so we probably looked like dinner, they probably got put off from the thought of getting through all that rubber we were wearing.

We had a good end to the day when we swam through a tight gulley which towered what seemed miles above us to only have a huge wave then come in towering a good 8ft powering it’s way towards us, it was like something out of the Goonies! We braced for impact and waited to get dragged over rocks and spat out the other end but it luckily wore itself out and we got hit by no more than a trickle.

After an exhausting day it was nice to have a warm shower, grab some food and have many beers recounting our exploits!