Cycling the other half of Jersey        Friday 28^th August

 

We set off once we had extricated the tandem from the car park where we were blocked in by a hire car. We still hadn’t sussed out the one way streets and Bob tried to find the route we’d take tomorrow for the ferry but we came out too high up and decided to try later and just carry on for now. We were on cycle route 1 again going east past the industrial part of the harbour, then on the main road by the sea. The beaches here are rock strewn and also with the dreaded sea lettuce.

We passed another look-out tower, which are dotted all along the edge of the sea and then cycled  through a golf course in a beautiful situation, right on the coast with a good view towards Mont Orgueil Castle. We stopped at Gorey where the castle sits on rock above the village. The beach is expansive and clean. It is 9 miles from where we started today.

Now the road seemed less busy and the route very scenic. We climbed quite a bit and the houses are more spread out. The sea is almost turquoise in the sunlight. We looked over a field of sunflowers at the cove below.

At Catherines’ woods we saw a red squirrel with a black tail. They are apparently hard to spot but we must have been quiet unusually!) We haven’t seen much wild life generally but then it did rain a lot.

We arrived at the Gerald Durrel Wildlife Park at 1pm where we would be guaranteed some sightings. At the cafe we battled with some wasps and consequently left are OS map which when we realised and went back was nowhere to be seen. Still the cycle paths are well marked.

We loved the gorillas and listened to the talk about them in the blazing sun. It is better than an ordinary zoo as there aren’t the bars and cages if the animals want to be outside. We seemed to be really close to the animals. The fruit bats were lovely to watch once the noisy people had left- you were told to be quiet because there was a baby bat attached to its mum. Everyone seems to love otters and there were 6 I think -a big family. All the enclosures were well thought out and we really enjoyed our afternoon.

We were on lanes past beauty spots where you could see France, Sark and Guernsey. We had to get off the bike for a short way as someone had been cutting a hawthorn hedge and the clippings were everywhere.

We went to the Devils Hole, accessed from the Priory Inn pub car park passing the sign for its play area-Little Devils which looked good for kids. From the car park, after locking the bike we walked down a wooded and winding path, passing a pond with a giant metal effigy of the “devil” over the years changing as the former statues have become worn. It was quite a steep descent and shingly which made it slippery in cycling shoes. It is about a mile walk there and back. There are 2 platforms from where you can view the crater caused by sea erosion of what once was the roof of a cave. It is 100foot across and 200 feet down. The views out to sea were good too. It has only been called Devils Hole since the 19^th century when the figurehead of wrecked boat was thrown into the hole by the tide. As it stuck there someone had the idea of adding horns to the wooden torso and so it started.. The walk back up is strenuous.

We headed back across the island via Vic in the Valley where we had dinner again. We were disappointed that the menu hadn’t changed and was fairly limited but we still enjoyed it. It was cold riding back through the valley and in St Helier we successfully did a ferry reconnoitre, arriving at the hotel just before 8. It was probably 30 miles today to complete the island circuit, though it might have been a bit less.