Wednesday 16 September 2015

UK & Ireland - day 7 (2015-09-16) - Jersey

As we have only two full days in Jersey, we set out to explore a few places today.

First off, we walked about 10 minutes to the village of St. Aubin, which sits on the opposite side of St. Aubin's Bay from the capital city, St. Helier.  St. Aubin is much prettier than St. Helier and has many good restaurants and cafes.

                                                  St. Aubin's Harbour, Jersey

From St. Aubin we caught a bus into St. Helier, and then another bus to Bonne Nuit Bay on the north coast of the island.  A single journey bus ticket in Jersey is 2 pounds (twice the price of Guernsey), so we opted for the 7.50 pound day pass.

On arrival in Bonne Nuit Bay, the rain was coming down so heavy that our pants were soaked within the few minutes that it took us to run to the nearest cafe, which became our refuge for the next hour as the thunder crashed and the lightning flashed around us.

Once the storm passed, we had several hours of sunshine, and so we walked west along the cliff path towards the Devil's Hole.  We had great views of Guernsey, Herm, Sark & Alderney, & could even make out wind turbines on the Cherbourg coast of France.  

                                            Bonne Nuit Bay (from the cliff path)

There was a fair bit of up and down on the path, but it was in remarkably good shape considering the heavy rain earlier, and there was almost no wind, so different from our last cliff walk in Guernsey.

                                       Marlene, Randy & Marty on the cliff path

                                              Sorel Point Lighthouse, Jersey

The Devil's Hole is a (now) collapsed sea cave, which was so named in 1851 when "La Josephine" struck the nearby rocks, and her figurehead washed up through the hole in the Creux de Vis rocks.  A local sculptor added arms and legs to the figurehead, giving it the appearance of the Devil.  There are several other caves in the cliffs nearby the Devil's Hole, but access is very difficult.

                                              Caves near the Devil's Hole, Jersey

Our luck with the buses ran out (who ever heard of a bus that runs on all days except school days?), and so we had to take a little walk to catch an alternate bus back to town.  The bus ride back let us see a different route than our journey out from town, so not all bad, but a lot of standing around waiting.

Tonight the rain has returned, but thankfully we are safely back in our B&B, after a very enjoyable Thai Curry in St. Aubin a few hours ago. 

Tomorrow, the weather is forecast to be a little brighter, so hopefully we can get out and see some more of Jersey, before we fly out on Friday morning.

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