Day Nine - Sark - 11 April

We had a lovely day visiting Sark, an island forty minutes east of Guernsey. It was a mainly sunny day and a good one to visit the island as we spent most of the day walking. Our ferry left St Peter Port Harbour at ten o’clock and we returned to Guernsey at six o’clock. The ferry ride took forty minutes through large rolling swells. Henk and I sat at the back of the boat on the top open deck and it was very exciting.

When we arrived at Sark the majority of the ferry passengers including us took the opportunity to catch one of the tractor taxis from Maseline Harbour up to the top of the cliff to the main street known as the Avenue. This only cost a pound each and was well worth it as we didn’t know how steep the walk from the harbour would be or how far to the town centre. It would have been a steep climb of about twenty minutes. The town centre comprises a long line of little shops with a dirt road running through the centre.

It felt like we had slipped back quite a few decades to a simpler life. There are no cars on the island nor any street lights. The main transport options are walking, bicycles, tractors, horses and carriages. Many locals cycle on the island with very Enid Blyton looking bikes with large cane woven baskets. The fire engine and ambulance are pulled along by a tractor. We passed the doctor’s tractor on our walk.

We headed straight for the Visitor Centre at the far end of the Avenue. It was a good move as we received some good advice as to how to see the island in the six hours we had. We were keen to see Little Sark and cross the narrow isthmus at La Coupee. This joins Sark to Little Sark as we had seen on Martin Clune’s “Island” program. The views from the isthmus were stunning over the rugged, steep-sided cliffs down to the sea. We could see Jersey and France in the distance.

We reached Little Sark at lunch time after forty-five minutes of walking and found a tea room set in a beautiful garden. We opted to sit outside and stayed stoically under the umbrella when a shower went overhead whilst we enjoyed our cucumber sandwiches and fruit scones with Guernsey cream.

When we walked back to Sark we went on a circuitous route on the main dirt roads, little lanes and across farmland on the cliffs to reach La Seigneurie, the island’s garden. It was well worth the visit as flowers were in abundance and it was very pretty. At the end of the day we would have probably walked about four hours and managed to cover the majority of the very attractive island.

When the ferry came to pick us up the tide had once again dropped significantly but the swells remained. It is an island well worth visiting.