Thursday 27^th August

 

We decided that as the predictions by the met office were decidedly poor we’d go by bus to the Occupation Tunnels. An all day ticket cost £7.50 each here and we left from the state of the art bus station. There were many people arriving by coach and after paying the entry fee of £10 each we were rather miffed to be stuck in a crawling people -queue inside the mile long, chilly tunnel .We dreaded the thought of being in this for the whole length, but luckily, eventually whatever it was that slowed people down stopped being a problem and we could read and look at our leisure. It was interesting and worth doing. The displays seemed to convey life of the occupation in Jersey in an unsentimental and balanced way. There was a lot of reading with some interactive parts. The visitors are encouraged to empathise with both sides reminding us that the German soldier had a family at home. When the island ran out of food they were starving too. The tunnels though were built by prisoners and slaves. The underground hospital was hardly used for intended purpose. We had been given replica identity cards of islanders from the period when we bought our tickets. In the cafe afterwards we found information on our characters. I was a hated female collaborator and Bob was a preacher who spread news about the war’s progress to encourage his parishioners and consequently paid with his life in a prison of war camp.

 

We left on a number 8 bus taking us to Plumont Bay and then on to st Ouens where we caught a number 12 back to St Aubyns and where we thought we’d like to look around.

 

It was raining but even despite this we were disappointed -with the local hostelry who couldn’t keep the beer properly and the lack of things to do here. We liked the decanter lamp shades though! We walked back along the promenade for miles to St Helier noting the quantities of sea lettuce that really colours the sea green and makes the sand look like pasture. This must be costing the economy which relies on tourism for how can you swim in this?! We heard on the news that they might introduce a type of oyster which might help reduce the nitrate levels and therefore the weed problem.

 

The tide was in and the amphibious trucks were floating back from Elizabeth Castle.

We explored the town and found a pub for tonight where later we had fish and chips and well kept Liberation ale.