We let the day warm up a bit before setting out today, as it was only 5 degrees at The Cottage when we woke. After lunch, we went over to the Island to find ourselves a nice sunny crag that was sheltered from the cooling north easterlies. It was nippy on the top of the crag, but a short abseil down got us to a nice sun trap by the water.

At the right hand end of the cliff were two crack lines that were not recorded in the guidebook. Presumably someone had climbed them before, but either way, we made the ‘first ascent’ of two little routes, which we named Kimchi and Sauerkraut (after our sandwiches), and graded each at V.Diff. The first route followed the crack line about 4m right of ‘Rising Tide’ and Sauerkraut climbs the slab and crack above, a few metres right again.

The new (or at least unrecorded routes) are drawn on below:

We left an abseil point at the top of the crag, so we could return quickly to the base, each time we topped out. All very convenient…

The sea was flat calm and we were seemingly the only people at that stretch of coastline. A few sea kayakers paddled past and waved, but otherwise it was just us.

As the sun got low in the sky, the rock glowed in the late afternoon light and felt warm to touch. Lovely…

We finished on the main cliff, after a steeper route got us properly ‘warmed up’.

The walk back along the cliff tops and beaches to the car was a good one…

Climbs at Porth y Garan:

• Kimchi, V.Diff (first ascent?) Clare Martin
• Sauerkraut, V.Diff, (first ascent? Clare Martin
• Spring Tide, HVS, 5a
• Rising Tide, Severe, 4a*