Jersey

The ferry to Jersey was on time.  It was the same ferry we'd left last night, which had been to nearby St Malo overnight.  We met another couple of lovely cyclists, who had been delayed by the weather, with an extra three nights on Guernsey,  a scramble to find somewhere to stay, and missing three nights of their paid-for stay on Jersey.

Jersey looks different to Guernsey.   It was daylight, for a start.  But the approach was littered with jagged rocks sticking out of the sea, giving it a wild feel.  Once ashore, the town of St Helier feels like a modern spacious town, laid out in what seems a French style.  Maybe it had to be rebuilt after the war?   The harbour and town are at one end of a long crescent of a bay with miles of sand at low tide.

One of the harbours at St Helier

This is not strictly about cycling round the coast but might be interesting;   Liz and I improvised a ride to the west, along the bay and across an old railway line to the far side.  It was beautiful and culminated in an out of this world ride across a tidal causeway through jagged rocks to a lighthouse.  Jersey has a network of cycle routes and "green lanes" with a 15mph speed limit, where motorists have to give way to cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders.   We followed a couple of these back to the sea and had a lovely half day out with only gentle climbs.

Riding in Jersey is much like the UK, with a few twists:  The maximum speed limit is 40mph.  Traffic lights go straight from red to green, like in France. They don't have a lot of traffic signs: Give Way, No Entry and bus stops are just indicated by something written on the road.  All the street names are in French, but house names are mostly in English.  Many of roads on hills are called Mont de ...something ..., which is a bit off-putting at first.  It feels familiar, but just a little foreign as a place to cycle.

Jersey cycle routes

Round the island

I rode round the island the next day.  Jersey is shaped a bit like a croissant, with the points facing down (south).  St Helier, the capital, is on the lovely southern bay,  towards the west end.  So I set off east along the bay towards St Aubin, at the west end of the bay.  The gentle railway walk we followed yesterday goes up a valley from here, but today I was going right to the south, so instead I had an alpine climb, with several hairpins, out of the village to the plateau and down to the point of the croissant, where there were several old WW2 gun emplacements guarding the approaches to the bay.

 

Leaving St Aubin

Guarding the bay

I was now in the Jersey National Park, which seems to stretch round the coast from the south east to the north west.  Just around the corner, a picturesque bay and the hamlet of Le Portelet, with the odd Bentley and Rolls Royce parked by the roadside.

Le Portelet 

After another vast sandy beach, St Brelade's bay, I came to the Corbiere lighthouse and the amazing tidal causeway that we visited yesterday, but didn't cross it this time, instead continuing round the coast.  Mostly quiet road with a couple of sections of heathland pathway, to get to Le Braye, another beach with miles of sand. I was a third of the way round, and it was coffee time.

Tidal Causeway to Phare Corbiere

I let Liz go first, in case it was dangerous 

St Brelade's Bay

Leaving the flatlands and Le Braye beach

Easy cycling north along the beach, with a few sand dunes and a decent tail wind for company, until I reached the eastern point of the island.  After this I climbed up on to the plateau and rode across the north of the island, mostly on the high ground.  There was the odd swerve down to a little rocky cove, pretty little places with a bit of sand.  And then, inevitably, back up again: a couple of the climbs were pretty serious with a few hairpin bends.  

Giant Puffins!  (Guernsey in the distance)

North coast

Greve de Lecq

Rozel Harbour

Eventually, I was on the west side, St Catherine's, with views of France - the Cotentin (Cherbourg) peninsula not far away.  From there it was pretty flat, and there were some small sandy beaches.   St Catherine's had a huge breakwater/pier, like Lyme Regis on steroids.  My favourite place on the west was Gorey bay, with a pretty harbour overlooked by a big castle.

 

Gorey bay

After Gorey I was on the main A3 and A4 coastal roads, not that busy but a bit boring for a few miles, until I got to the south of the island again and pedalled back alongside the beach to "home" at St Helier.  It was a brilliant day out, very varied countryside and coastline, plenty of hills, and some interesting wildlife.  I saw a red squirrel at St Brelade, and a black squirrel in the North somewhere, and a bit later I think I saw a snowy owl flying over a field.   However Google says they are not found in Jersey, so maybe it was a seagull.  Easily confused.

We came to be very fond of Jersey, its scenery, roads, drivers and the friendly people we met.  The ferry journey back to Poole with DFDS was calm and uneventful, but the following day's ferry was cancelled due to high forecast winds, so we were pleased to have dodged that one.