Thursday 20^th August – 29^th.  Exploring the Channel Islands.

 

 Poole to Guernsey

Home commitments meant we couldn’t leave till well into the afternoon. With the tandem packed in the car we left for Winchester where we stayed the first night, not too far away from Poole where we caught the ferry. We were able to visit our next door neighbours of more than 10 years ago and they kindly looked after the car   - parking is very expensive and hard to find in Poole. From their house it was mostly cycleway by the sea to the ferry.

 We learnt that 70% of visitors to the Channel Islands go by air and though we were lucky with all the crossings we did this holiday we wouldn’t want to go by sea again. You can travel overnight by Condor Ferries with a cabin on the Clipper from Portsmouth, the older boat or in seats on the Liberation from Poole, which looks smart and is new this year. The Liberation, though looking like a catamaran which should give it extra stability and being twice the speed of the Clipper, rocks even when static in dock. When the sea is only a little choppy the motion is greater than what you would normally expect. It is better to stay in the aircraft style seats though we did walk about a bit. It was evident that most of the ship’s cabin crew found the exaggerated motion uncomfortable too.

It was a lot cheaper to go with bikes -£90 for one trip between us (bikes are free) whereas with a car you pay for the passengers and £100 for the vehicle. Bob had the sat nav with him and the boat averaged 35 miles an hour which is a good speed.

The Liberation left Poole at 3 pm and then it was 3hrs to Guernsey, where we got off, then it carried on to Jersey for another hour. It would leave again around 9 pm for Guernsey and then Poole arriving about 3 in the morning. The time varies as it continually sails back and forth until it breaks down or there is a problem.  

We liked the safety rap on the video and it certainly made you listen.

There were lovely views of first Alderney, still in the Channel and then Herm as we drew close to Guernsey both of which are in the Atlantic Ocean. Sun -shine was a bonus in an unsettled week. A toddler asked her grandpa what the yellow bits in the sea were – the sea was really sparkling!

 

At Guernsey we were let off the boat quite quickly and we arrived at our hotel not long after 6. It was a short walk away. Our tandem went in a garage just off the main shopping street and Moores Hotel was handy for shops and restaurants. This felt like a really happy place to work and we enjoyed our time here. Breakfasts were wonderful, especially the red fruit compote. Our room had air-conditioning which we only needed a couple of days as the wind moved up several notches and the rain made it cooler.

 

SARK

Saturday we got up really early, missing what would have been our first breakfast in order to get a really early boat to Sark, 8 am.( early bird at £24 each) This was a mistake as we couldn’t have a boat back till 4pm and we were ready to go back after a few hours. The boat filled up with a noisy football team and some others who looked like they might be doing some sport like cricket. We moved outside to be kinder to our ears! It took about an hour across, passing the Barclay brothers castle hideaway on the next door island. It seems that they have quite a say in how Sark is run owning hotels and properties there too.

Just outside the harbour we passed a huge, anchored P and O cruise ship. Apparently there is one there most days during the summer and they boat in large groups of tourists who help boost the economy in Guernsey. We hired bikes and went all around the island. It isn’t possible to take a path round the coast but we walked to its extremities. Sark is beautiful but precipitous. We only saw one place where you can swim- down a steep, slippery path to a cove a long way below, near the bridge to Little Sark.

The first thing we did on Sark soil is to have a bacon sandwich which we really enjoyed in the little harbour cafe. We walked through a cave like tunnel to a protected harbour and saw how clear the water is. The sea was a gorgeous blue from viewpoints! A lot of people took the tractor taxis that pulled trailors of visitors up the hill( and it was a slow puff - making walk for us!) where eventually there are houses and shops. We hired our bikes form Avenue. They had gears that worked and they looked in better condition than the other Company’s. Ours cost £7 a day each but mine was awkward and I have never looked so drunk in the saddle, it wobbled so much, so a day was too long! The road is very stony. Traffic is just bikes, horses and tractors.

 

We set off north, parked the bikes against a wall and walked down some bramble ( the tiniest ever blackberries!) and blackthorn edged paths to a seat overlooking steep drops down to the sea across to Herm and Guernsey. There were plenty of butterflies- small coppers, red admiral and others we couldn’t identify. There was a clay pigeon shoot advertised and shooting started while we were there, though we could only hear them. There were paths that seemed to go further to the edge of the cliffs but they seemed to peter out and I was too chicken to risk it.

We went back for the bikes and rode to a little shop where we bought delicious peaches. Their homemade lemon curd was very tempting but didn’t fancy its chance on this rocky road. Here we met a lady, an anthropologist, who arrived here 40 odd years ago and after meeting her future husband at a whist drive decided to stay. She had once had a mobility scooter but crashed it and now rides a motorised pushbike that looked far too cumbersome for her to handle. She seemed quite a character.

 

We rode down to the duck pond and then up by vineyards to the Monument. There were flying ants everywhere with clouds of insects around the pinnacle. We felt too itchy to sit in the sun here for long. Later we passed our rowdy fellow passengers, playing their game of football in proper kit with what looked like a club house in the grounds- serious stuff!

 

We headed out to Little Sark. The roads have been full of rocks but here the track was smoothed out dry mud and it led to the narrow La Coupee Bridge, spanning across the 2 islands. Cyclists had to walk their bikes at this point and the views again were stunning though not perhaps for anyone suffering from vertigo.

We passed the hotel, La Slabonnerie and the Tea Gardens travelling on as far as we could go, past what looked like self catering holiday places. We ended up cycling on grass until a wooden barrier told us the rest of the island this way is private. It was back to the Tea Gardens, obviously part of the hotel, where we had a light lunch and marvelled at the unusually marked Jersey Tiger Moth ( we identified later at the Visitor Centre back in the village. We never saw one again, even on Jersey!)

 

The air was getting heavy with stormy weather approaching and the last thing I wanted was to push the bike( that I couldn’t wait to be rid of) up any more hills but it had to be done to cross the bridge again. It was busy around the visitor Centre. There was a small area of craft and second hand sales and a marquee selling cream teas- the whole island was involved in a cream tea competition that encouraged tourists to vote for their favourite. Slight snag here as there is a limit to how many cream teas one person can consume to be able to compare. We voted at the visitor centre which sadly had little of interest though the lady there was able to help us put a name to our butterfly photo.

 

It was slow peddling behind the workhorses pulling their tourist load. The road was too narrow to get by easily. It was good to see them rather than tractors, which create dust and are very noisy. The bike shop was closed when we got there so we leant our bikes against the wall like everyone else and hoped that was OK. The Post Office could boast a gold post box from the Olympic Games for the medal won by the Dressage winner, Carl Hester.

 

In the centre of the village you could only have a drink at the pub if you bought a meal so we walked back towards the harbour where at the top of the hill there was a lively Local. It was playing really loud music, even in the garden ,where we sat under an umbrella with just the first drops of rain falling. Bob enjoyed his exceedingly bitter beer but with dark clouds gathering I was getting anxious about the boat journey back. We whiled away an hour then took the footpath down the hill instead of the road now busy with tractors. There were many more people than came over with us so they had to put on the larger boat. The trip back was better than expected , being still and mild but Guernsey was shrouded in mists.

 

After hearing bad things about the Barclay brothers who own the Telegraph as well as hotels and properties on Sark it was good to hear that they possibly helped save the fishing industry here. I don’t think it compensates for them ruining lives for immense profits on Sark though. They don’t even live in their castle on the next door private isle of Brecqhou which apparently if you stay in one of their hotels for at least 2 nights you can book a tour.

Sark uses oil for electricity which makes this 5 times more expensive than the mainland, said some locals. They have suitable waters around them to generate from the sea and talks are just beginning to that end.

 

 

Back on Guernsey we had a lovely set meal for £12, with their garden vegetables ( maybe!?) at the Pickled Pig and we thought the staff very friendly and accommodating.

Next we decided to go on a circular bus trip-we just didn’t get off at the end of the line- for £1. This gave us the lie of the land and we met some friendly people. Apparently all the derelict greenhouses we were seeing are due to changes in EU regulations and where you would have seen, as we did in the 80s, glass houses full of tomatoes, now only a few are in use having lost out to the Dutch market. We loved the look of Grande Roques -perfect for sun set watching and decided to go to Herm next , before the predicted bad weather, leaving the tandem in the hotel garage yet another day.