Day Nineteen - Jersey - 21 April

As we headed out to the Farmers’ and Craft Market at St Aubin’s Harbour the rain came down. We had only got to the end of the hotel driveway when we had to don our raincoats. By the time we made it to the markets we were quite wet and all the little market tents were covered in plastic. There were very few people around. We briefly walked around the market avoiding the heavily iced cupcakes because we had just had breakfast. At the square we joined the wide walking path to Corbiere Lighthouse as our intention was to make it to The Old Smuggler’s Inn at Ouaisne Bay near St Brelade’s Bay for lunch and to read the Daily Telegraph we had bought.

It only took us thirty minutes to arrive at the bay as it was flat walking along an the old railway line and downhill through little lanes to the bay. As we walked the clouds went and we had a mostly sunny day for the remainder of the day. The Old Smuggler’s Inn dates back to 1721 and is set back from the bay. It is the quintessential English pub. We spent two hours there relaxing, eating and reading. As we had arrived early we got the best seats in the corner overlooking the bay. We got the impression we had taken the seats from some of the locals of which there were many when lunchtime came around.

We chose a different route to return to St Aubin walking up a steep lane passing potato pickers along the way.

When we reached St Aubin the tide was at its lowest and we headed out to St Aubin’s Fort which was built in the 1540’s.

We can see this clearly from our hotel and have been walking past it all week. There were good views back over St Aubin and St Helier from the high walls of the fort. We walked back along the walkway from the fort to the harbour walls and returned to a very busy St Aubin. The sun had brought out the crowds and the market was just packing up. We visited the Harbour Gallery which is run by Jersey art and craft people. It was over three storeys of paintings, photography, jewellery, knitting, sewing etc. The standard was very high and I spent a considerable time there soaking up all the creativity. Henk soaked up the sun on a seat outside the gallery. We slipped into The Cabin for an afternoon coffee before heading back to the hotel. It was a very pleasant, relaxing last day on Jersey.

This is the last blog post from the Isle of Wight and the Channel Isles. We have had a wonderful time over the past three weeks. Each of the islands is unique and we have thoroughly enjoyed exploring them. Our next blog will be for the Coast to Coast Walk. The blogsite address for this is: http://henkanddi2012b.blogspot.com