Saving the Best Until Last
Channel Islands Day 5 – Guernsey – Route 7 + Route 8 + Route 10 40 Km (Sat 11 August 2018)
Weather: 13⁰C min – 23⁰C max, mostly cloudy
“I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle; I want to ride my bicycle; I want to ride my bike; I want to ride my bicycle; I want to ride it where I like…; I don’t believe in Peter Pan, Frankenstein or Superman; All I wanna do is bicycle, bicycle, bicycle…” ~ Freddie Mercury, Queen, 1978
Always expect the unexpected! First thing this morning I received an email from Condor Ferries informing me that my 5:20 pm ferry from Saint Peter Port to Portsmouth is delayed, now leaving at 1:00 am tomorrow morning – a 7 hour delay! The reason given was “due to earlier weather disruption, Commodore Clipper has been delayed further due to tidal constraints in St Helier”. Sounds feasible, but on checking Condor’s website I noticed that my vessel is being withdrawn from service on Tuesday “in order to carry out essential engineering repairs”. Great! Hopefully it will hold together for one more voyage!
So what does one do in Saint Peter Port until after midnight, when one has checked out of one’s AirBNB in the morning? My kind hostess Ann came to the rescue, offering me her bathroom to get changed after my ride, then allowing me to stay in the sitting room until the ferry boards at about midnight. I never cease to be amazed by the kindness and generosity of people you meet on your travels.
Looking on the bright side, the seven hour delay means that, first, I can spend more time today cycling around the bits of the island I have not yet covered and, secondly, I get to have one more sensational evening meal at the Pickled Pig (£12 two course early bird special between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm).
For my final day of riding in Guernsey I strung together the following three loops taken from the Standard Guernsey Loops to create a 40 Km route mainly around the St Martin area:
R7 (Peninsula and Pasture);
R8 (Hill and Valley Trek); and
R10 (Country Lanes and Cliffs).
Guernsey treated me today to some incredibly beautiful scenery, possibly the best of my three days of riding here. Starting off winding through Saint Martin in the south east corner of the island, I was blown away by the impressive houses. No slums here!
Around every corner I turned there seemed to be yet another gorgeous little cottage and colourful cottage garden. Just as well I had time to kill because I kept stopping to take photos.
Clearly the highlight of the day, though, was the National Trust of Guernsey’s heritage listed Le Moulin de Quanteraine, with its beautifully restored farmhouse featuring a water wheel in a charming garden setting. As picturesque as you will ever see!
Dinner at the Pickled Pig capped off a perfect day. Now I just have to stay awake until I board the rickety old Condor Clipper at around mid-night!
Ride your bycyle my dear who is stopping you? Your photos brilliantly executed as always! It is time you put your blog and photos in a book for others to enjoy!!
Don’t know that there would be sufficient in my waffle!
So picturesque! Lucky you had the extra riding time – you got to take a tractor pic 🙂 I trust the ferry held out for your voyage back to the mainland?
It turned out that the Clipper is quite a comfortable old boat and it held together OK. Only managed to get about an hour sleep though, so might fall asleep on the train to Waterloo.