St Hellier, Jersey. Home of Sir Walter Rally and super tides. And many stunning things.
The English Channel only formed in 6,000 BC when sea levels dropped. Neolithic farmers then settled the coast lines. There are many standing stones and ‘table’ burial chambers across the islands.
Since, there have been many ‘issues’ over who owns the island. Britain claimed them, France wants them, the Germans occupied them.
The islands have had human inhabitants longer then Britain – so the Channel Islanders like to see the British Isles as a territory of theirs.
Even recently a French group sailed to one of the tiny small islands off Jersey and planted a French flag. The British responded with a Frigate! Don’t mess with our land.
Our hotel was amazing. What a find. The taxi driver even said WOW when we told him where. We got a great deal. And a bit different to the ‘quirky’ place last night.
We bought day tickets on the local buses and headed off. We followed the south coast to the town of Gorey. Absolutely stunning. A beautiful old town with a castle up above. It was a fishing village on a pretty coast. They get massive tides here, so boating is a funny old activity. You need to plan really carefully as for two six hour periods each day your boat is ling on the sand. And you had better not forget to come back in on time – or you will be stuck out at sea.
And finally – after my false start last year in New York – I got to walk on the Jersey Shore! Still not the Jersey Shore I imagined, but really nice.
After many hours of exploring we jumped on the last bus back from Gorey. We got chatting to a lovely couple who had lived here for 11 years (from Scotland and the Lakes District. – They came on holidays and stayed.) I asked them what was the main thing to go and see the following day and where to go visit cows. The gave elaborate walking instructions and bus details, of how to see lovely things. Just before they got off, they said “How about we come and pick you up and take you around. It will be too hard for you to see anything”. WOW!
We wandered around some more. We walked down a huge peir. There was a castle at the end of the peir. Not joined but off to the side. Access was via a walking path at low tide – or by boat. It was really fun to watch the walking path emerging. It’s billed as going for a “walk on the bottom of the ocean”.
On the other side of the peir was a beautiful mariner. Squillion dollar yachts. Some people have their boats here ad commute for the weekends. The mariner had a huge lock – or it would drain at low tide. So although your boat is still floating at low tide – -you cannot take it anywhere.
Dinner was at a Portugese place with great food. Then home to sleep.
Mon 31st July
Breakfast with a view!
And there is the castle, with the path starting to emerge again. 
Jim and Gill picked us up at our hotel at 8.30am and off we went on an adventure. How lucky were we!
We headed off up the West coast. First stop was Saint Aubin. A stunning harbour near the fort we could see form the hotel. This area as well as being stunning, was famous for many of the landmarks from the TV show Bergerac. The Courthouse etc.
St Brelade. The very posh expensive area with a stunning Seaman’s Church and cemetery. Amazing. The oak tree was massive and so old.
Cider Press.
We visited a ‘surf beach’ with a surf shop and all.
The seafood place made out of an old WW11 bunker converted into a seafood depot. The fishermen bring in their catch of crabs and lobsters and put them into tank filled with water.
They are then sold to the restaurants. 20 pounds a pound.
We looked at one giant one. It was worth 30 pounds. $50 AU. The Spider crabs also looked great.
We ventured up into the Highlands. Covered in heather and at least 30m above sea level.
This was horse country, race track was up there as well. The season runs from April to September with one meeting a month. Lots of horses were out being ridden along the roadways.
There were bunkers everywhere.
The air space above the Channel Islands is the most busy in the world. Makes sense as Heathrow is the busiest airport. The sky is always full of con trails.
And then we started to see cows. Adorable Jersey cows with their dear deer faces, and their huge dark liquid looking eyes. They were developed here in the 1700’s– are quiet small, huge milk producers (per size), and produce a very high butterfat content – and very yellow milk. The butter is so yellow.
We then got caught in another traffic jam. Remember every single day I have travelled in the UK in a car I have been caught in a stationary traffic jam. Well again today! This one was on the main highway around the island. A funeral procession was off to collect the family. We were able to back up a drive way but then had to get out and run back along the line (about 6 cars) and tell them all to back up the long and windy lane to let the big black cars through. All very exciting.
And then we got to the real Jersey – the big dairy on the island. It started as joke about seeing the Jersey;s in Jersey, but it was actually really exciting. The big dairy farms are shed operations. The girls are in really huge shed with great air flow and sunlight. The pens are big – at least 100 x 30.
Feed is in two supplies. A silage (cut and slightly fermented grass. Really sweet and animals love it) that is dropped by tractor along the front of the pens. They stick their heads out and don’t walk on the food. It was beautiful – local grasses, barley and a molasses mix. Smelt amazing.
At the back of the stall were grain dispensers. The girls walk into a cubicle and put their head into the trough. They then hit a lever with their heads and a drop of grain came down. They munched till they had enough then backed out to let the next one waiting in queue in. You could see a few thinking “Hurry up Clarabelle, I’m hungry”.
The cows were so sweet and friendly. All happy to have cuddles.
And then their were the babies. Not cuddly – too scared – but so sweet.
There were also sleeping cubicles, lined with sawdust.
The calves had a similar set up – just no grain for them.
Many of the cows were so friendly. I did get a big face lick from one.
So exciting to see them!
The locals were so friendly.
Lunch was at another lovely village – Rozel Bay.
All the beaches were busy as it was school holidays. Some were even patrolled beaches.
Potatoes are an incredibly important and a famous crop here. They have a high salt content, are fertilized with sea weed and are delicious. During the season they are sold through honest stalls. People (adventurous ‘blow in’ people – not ‘Jersey Beans’ (born and bred people) as the distances are ridiculous – it could be a 20k return trip!) drive out every few days to buy more potatoes. 
We saw a team of lovely harness horses.
We then got caught in a another HUGE traffic jam. All tractors and us. It wasn’t just that the roads were narrow and the tractors large – it was that the drivers had important information to impart to the next driver.
Bunkers. Everywhere. Many are done up as accommodation. One is out on an outcrop and can only be reached at low tide.
Guernsey people call Jersey people “The Crapaud”, French for toads.
Jersey was amazing. Fantastic day. After lunch our wonderful guide dropped us at the ferry, and off we headed to on the one hour trip to Guernsey.
Guernsey.
Our hotel looked so wonderful on the web when we chose it. They lied!
We were up on the top floor. On the gable side behind the dormers. We need to thank the gods of travel that we left most of our possessions in the car at the car park in Poole. Had we have taken all our luggage – we would still be there ferrying it up and down the stairs.
I have never seen so many stairs. Long steep flights straight up, then turn left through a door, then right, up a shot steep flight and through the door behind you, then up another flight and on and on. Coming down was just as bad. They were ‘Hogwarts staircase’ that moved every time you used them. You would think you had it right – down two, past the pamphlets, through the door, right then left, and down two….But no! We got lost each time and kept adding a few extra flights up and down. Dead ends everywhere. Lucky most of the dead ends were staff areas and could be used in an emergency.
Dinner was at The Octopus. A VERY French restaurant but lovely oysters and scallops and teeny tiny muscles. Fantastic seafood.
TUES 1ST AUGUST – GUERNSEY
A relaxed day today. After breakfast we took our gear down to the ‘secure storage’ that all hotels offer. “Put it over there in the corner of the bar. I think I offended him when I said it was all our most treasured possessions and was their somewhere a bit more secure (and a bit less stinky – I didn’t add). “We’ve never had a problem in the 20 years I’ve been here!” So off we went. Most of our in the car park – we hoped and the rest in the front bar!
We rode the town bus around the full island and saw heaps. We did a full loop of the island. A guy sitting near me was happy to share info about Guernsey. He was one of the rare ones who had left the island -20 years in the forces. He talked about all kinds of thing like “The Yobs” and what they were up to.
Heaps of beauty to see. 
I saw heaps of young looking kids with scooter. Riding on the roads. I asked one what age they got their P plates. 14! The roads were full of kids on holidays on scooters.
Rebels. Yellow phone boxes and blue post boxes.
The Obelisk, to commemorate the liberation of Guernsey. There is a large bench seat with marks formed into them. On the anniversary day, the sun hits the obelisk and the shadow hits the markers at the exact time that things happened – hand over, Churchill speech etc.
And yes, we did find Guernsey cows.
Storm walls and flood gates were along many of the coast lines. At high tides in Jan and April (I guess what we call King Tides), the water comes over the storm walls and floods the roads and houses. A lot of the houses have their own stone walls and metal flood gates. Not sure why they don’t raise the storm walls a bit – maybe for the view.
We then wandered around the main town. And it too was pretty damn stunning. 
Great fun.
After a beer at our pub – which was very much a pub not a comfortable Inn (as per the advertising) we headed off to the ferry.
Wow. Ferry travel is the way to go. The 3 1/3 hr trip was so painless. Seats are like airline seats but we managed to get two each so had room for gear. We both sat and sorted photos etc – and suddenly we were back in Poole.
The drive back to London was via The New Forrest. No, we didn’t get lost – this was by choice. A stunning area of forest that has been protected for hundreds of years. Full of so many animals. Badgers, Deer, Horses, Donkeys, and all the others. We saw a great herd of ponies.
Small villages with thatched houses. So many stone buildings. Cattle grids to keep the ponies out of town.
There was a stallion with them who must have been one of the selected stallions who gets to spend a season with the heard introducing new DNA. He was stunning and wore a collar as ID. A true New Forest Pony. The Welsh people have been doing this for a very long time where the best of the show stallions via for the right to spend the year out helping to keep the wild ponies stunning.
We also saw a fox. Very handsome. Big and with a giant tail that was proudly displayed straight out. He was also very grey. Shy but peeked at us from under the bush he popped under. The light as really low so no good photo.
I love the New Forest. That was my third visit and I was still enthralled.
We got to the hotel at Heathrow after 10pm. Lucky we ate on the ferry. We played the tetras game of try to fit two people, 2 suitcases, 2 wheelie bags and 2 small day packs into the room.
Yay – good pillows finally. (Yes, I am a Princess!!!!)
Even after re arranging the furniture we still had to wiggle around each other. Helen got up in the night and tried to navigate without turning the light on. Unsuccessfully. She was stranded in the dark amid a pile of gear. Of course we then laughed for a long time. After the rescue that is.
Wednesday 2nd August
We got up earlyish, returned the car and got the shuttle bus to Heathrow.
So……. the warm up part of the holiday is over…….we are now onto the real part. Poland and The Channel Island were just extras to make the trip worth while, to let Helen see some of Europe. And both places are on the list of places worth going back to.
And now we go to Iceland. How exciting.
We flew with ‘Icelandic Air’ to Iceland. Not to be confused with ‘Air Iceland’ that we are flying to Greenland with. And numerous other flights with either or, this could get confusing.
Iceland Air are pretty funny though…
Now to the next tab – Greenland