August 7
First thing this morning, Dave came and grabbed me to go down to St. Catherine’s Breakwater to meet Paul Burrows and his crew. Paul is doing a 7-day running circumnavigation of the island - that’s a 48 mile run every day for 7 days to fundraise for the local hospice. Here’s a link to the Facebook page if you don’t believe me: https://www.facebook.com/rtrx7 (Glen didn’t!)
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| The support crew waiting at the pier. |
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| Paul and his crew of supporters |
Dave wanted to go cheer them on, and buy the crew and Paul (the runner) breakfast before they carried on. He took photos of them all and had them posted on Facebook right away to help drive awareness of the run. This is the kind of guy he is. Nice to know him. He bought me breakfast too :-)
Glen came down and joined us after awhile, and we took a walk out to the end of the breakwater - it’s VERY long, and very big. Lots of fishermen, and even a little tackle and surf shop built into the wall about halfway down.
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St. Catherine's Bay from the breakwater. This is what we look at from
our beautiful deck! |
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| It's a huge breakwater! |
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| Camera on camera |
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| The battle of the cameras continues |
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| Ah - got his face! David on the breakwater. |
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These HUGE rocks for the breakwater(about 30 feet down from the deck)
were importedfrom Norway. ummmmm, I've seen rocks on Jersey . . . they
had to ship these in? Can't imagine what that cost. There were a lot
more than these along the length of it. |
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| Glen and David admiring the views and discussing important stuff. |
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No, it's not mistletoe. Just a random plant growing
out of the rock wall! Quite a pretty little succulent. |
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Little shops built into the breakwater. There are two levels of roadway
on it - one above the shops, and this one in front. |
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| Heading back - time to get on with the day. |
Back on shore, we passed by an old German bunker that is now a Turbot farm (a much better use for it), and another smaller one that was almost completely buried by ivy. These bunkers are all over the island from WWII, when it was occupied by German forces from 1940 until 1945. There are also a number of round towers (martellos) that date back to the 17th century - most are locked up, but there is one nearby that is rented out as a hotel.
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| Ivy covered WWII bunker |
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| The WWII bunker that's now a Turbot farm! |
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| A little bunker in the woods. The doors are all locked. |
We did a long hike along St. Catherine’s Bay this morning, and then Sarge drove us up to the north side of the island along some very tiny and winding roads to such places as Bouley Bay, Giffard Bay and Bonne Nuit Bay. The scenery is stunning, and there are hundreds of walking paths - it would take a couple of years to explore this island which is not very big - it’s about 8 miles by 11 miles. I’m told that the island slopes downward from the north side to the south side. There has been a huge French influence here over the years, but it is tied to England although it is somewhat autonomous. I don’t really understand how it all works, but I suppose it’s something like Canada - the queen is head of state, but is probably more of a figurehead. They have their own Jersey currency (which is equal to the British pound).
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| See on our walk this morning - near the Turbot farm |
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| Huge 30' tides here. |
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| Walking paths along the beach all over the island. |
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| Jersey cows near Bonne Nuit Bay |
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| Miles from nowhere |
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| See the walking trails along the cliffs? Fantastic! You can go for miles. |
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One of several "Martello Towers" built around the island
in the late 1700s to protect against French invasion. 24
of these remain out of 31 that were built. They were
subsequently used by the Germans in WWII |
Sarge has been here for 25+ years, and is a fountain of knowledge on local history and landmarks - it’s hard to keep up with him on what’s what. He’s a great tour guide, and has been so generous with his time taking us around the island. He and Edwina are both dealing with back and leg issues that really hamper their mobility and energy right now, and so we don't like to take too much of their time. Despite those challenges, they have generously welcomed us into their home, and even given us the use of a car - we’re somewhat nervous about driving here though. England has narrow roads, but it’s got nothing on Jersey! And there’s a lot more traffic and blind corners on these little roads. So we're walking a lot and loving it.
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| 'Our' street! |
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| Walking up the road to Oakbank on the left. |
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Lovely little bench design seen on the paths. We took this so Glen
could remember what it looks like. |
We are enjoying having visits here at the house, reminiscing our glory days back in Horseshoe Bay, and having great conversations when we all happen to wind up in the same room together. Glen and I have our own suite where we cook our meals and try not to be too much trouble to our fab host and hostess. There are two dogs here as well - Colin and Harvey, who have got me pegged as a good person to get treats from.
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| Colin and Harvey - great dogs! |
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Me and Edwina in front of the big fireplace in the big beautiful kitchen.
A more generous and welcoming person would be hard to find. We arrived
to a stocked kitchen and guidebooks to Jersey that had been specially ordered
in for us! |
It’s so comfortable here - maybe we’ll cancel our trip home and just stay! We’re feeling very lucky right now.
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