The Channel Isles!

You may have noticed that I missed a bit of coastline on my last trip.  The Channel Isles are reached by ferry from Poole or Portsmouth, but when I was passing earlier this year, the ferry times weren't convenient,  and anyway, they don't seem to encourage un-booked trips.  So I devised a plan to visit the two largest islands, Guernsey and Jersey, in September, and booked ferries in advance.

It's complicated.   You're supposed to go to one or the other, for, say, a week. Ferries don't run every day, and are operated by different companies.  My plan was to spend a day cycling round Guernsey, hop over to Jersey, another day riding round, and come home.  Three ferries, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, seemed to work.  I asked Liz if she'd like to join me, and she said yes.

I looked at going to the smaller islands: Alderney, Sark, Herm; but it doesn't seem possible to take a bike to them.  Cycling is simply not allowed on little Herm (about 1 × 0.5 miles), and you can send a bike by separate boat to tiny Sark (3.5 × 1.5 miles) but it's a lot of fuss.  (Actually, I later discovered you CAN take a bike to Alderney.)

Ferries, accommodation,  trains all booked, and after a few months of long hot dry summer, it was nearly time, when the weather changed.  On the previous Friday evening, an email informed me that the Monday ferry was cancelled due to adverse weather.  We'd been re-booked onto the Tuesday ferry instead.  Cue gnashing of teeth, but also some relief on my part because Liz doesn't like rough ferry crossings.  Maybe it was for the best.

Plan B:  Ferry to Guernsey Tuesday (arrive 17.15), one night in hotel, ferry to Jersey Wednesday (depart 10.00), and the rest of the trip unchanged (so far).  It must be one of the shorter holidays in Guernsey,  but I decided that I'll have to come back another time, as the option of riding round the island overnight didn't really appeal.

Ferry

The ferry crossing, on a whizzy catamaran thing taking cars and vans, was one of the rougher crossings I've been on, and we arrived shaken but not stirred, only half an hour late.

Welcome to Guernsey

St Peter Port

First impressions of Guernsey from the ferry were of a fairly low-lying island, but they weren't entirely accurate.  We were first off the ferry, and after speeding along the harbourside we found the last half a mile was steeply uphill through the narrow, haphazard streets of the old town to our guest house.  After a lovely meal nearby, we saw the sights of St Peter Port by the light of the very quaint and dim street lights.  It's a beautiful old town with a strange mix of English language and French heritage, or so it seems.

Tomorrow we have to be at the port before breakfast is served, so they have arranged a takeaway breakfast for us.

Today's mileage: 8.5 miles.  Tomorrow:  Jersey.