We've been on holiday in Jersey with some of Joyce's Weekly Walks group for a week walking (most of) the Jersey Tidal Trail around the perimeter of the island and visiting a few of the sights.
Today we walked all of
Section 1 (St. Aubin's Bay) and most of
Section 2 (St. Brelade) of the trail.
This was our route.
Dawn and I stopped at Portelet Bay and got the bus back from there missing the last 5 miles to save overdoing it on our first day with my dodgy knee.
Here are a few of my photos.
Dawn and I passed through the market on our way to our meeting point.
We visited Charing Cross too.
We were meeting at
Liberation Square. The Liberation Statue was unveiled in 1995 to mark the
50th anniversary of Liberation Day after five years of occupation during
WWII.
I had time to cross the road and photograph the old harbour...
...and Steam Clock.
We had a group photo before we started. Sadly, Shaun wasn't able to walk with us as he had a nasty knee injury so he stayed to just explore St. Helier.
Off we go!
We liked these seats with names of boats on them.
The Golden Jubilee needle was unveiled by HRH Prince of Wales and erected to celebrate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's Jubilee in 2002. The work has complex structural engineering to support 20 tons of slate in strong winds, using a central stainless steel bolt. The textures are inspired by shades of sea and sky.
We liked the RNLI mural, but didn't get any closer today.
Other art works we encountered in the harbour area were
The Sail by Zheng Lu. Representing the movement of a sail in the wind, the seven-metre steel sculpture is constructed from more than 300 stainless steel tubes....
...and at the corner of the Elizabeth Marina...
...
Freedom Tree. The work was unveiled by Her Majesty the Queen and was commissioned to celebrate 60 years of liberation and included the planting of 60 oak trees in three locations. It has 30 oak leaves and 12 acorns and explores the nature of freedom and hope for the future. It is surrounded by a solid granite bench on which a poem by Linda Rose Parkes is carved into the surface.
This is where we were heading. The weather was a bit hazy today.
Elizabeth Castle. You can walk there when the tide is out, but when it isn't you can take the amphibious Castle Ferry.
We soon came to
First Tower. In the 1780s, in the wake of an increasingly tense relationship with France, Field Marshal Henry Conway initiated a plan for Jersey’s coastal defences, which including the building of the tower.
We took a little diversion through Coronation Park..
René Lalique, artisan extraordinaire and the foremost glassmaker of the age, decorated the entire church with his finest work. No similar Lalique commission survives anywhere else in the world today.
We liked the paintings too. The Sword of the Spirit...
... and The Rock, both by Louise Ramsey.
Onward now along the beach. We passed another round tower - one of 31 (of which 24 remain) built at the end of the 18th/beginning of the 19th century for the defence of Jersey. We would see plenty more of them on our walks over the next few days.
We came to St. Aubin.
This was the end of Section 1 of our route. This is
St. Aubin's Fort. It was built in 1540 as a means of controlling the entrance to St Aubin’s Port, which was Jersey’s main port at that time.
The
little train shuttles between here and Liberation Square.
We stopped for drinks here.
Onward now onto Section 2, passing the Old Court House.
It had got quite cold sitting outside as some low cloud passed over. Fortunately it passed fairly quickly.
This section is marked "moderate" as there is some up and down. Up we go.
We saw a lot of these white flowers. They are
three-cornered leeks, also known as three-cornered garlic.
They come from the Mediterranean are invasive and all over the island. It is an offence under Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales to plant or otherwise cause to grow this species in the wild on the mainland.
We saw bluebells too, of course. These were growing on top of a wall.
We were soon onto
Noirmont Point cape. A wind-swept cape which overlooks St. Aubins Bay, Elizabeth Castle, and the harbours of Saint Helier. It features a number of well-maintained WW2 structures including Batterie Lothringen, a coastal artillery battery.
Down below we could see
La Tour de Vinde, a Martello tower that the British erected between 1808 and 1810 to command the approaches to St Aubin's Bay.
Carrying on we approached Portelet Bay with a good view of
Portelet Tower, a round tower that the British built in 1808 on the tidal island L'Île au Guerdain in Portelet Bay The site is often referred to as Janvrin's tower or Janvrin's Tomb. Philippe Janvrin, a local seafarer, died of the plague in 1721, while on the way back to Jersey. Fear of contagion led the authorities to insist that he be buried on the tidal island, which became known as Janvrin's Tomb, though his body was later re-interred at St Brelade's.
Don't step too far back Alicia!
Here Dawn and I said goodbye to the others who were continuing to
La Corbière Lighthouse at the end of Section 2. We had time for a beer before our bus back to St. Helier.
The Liberty Bus app allows you to track buses on a map, so we could see when our bus was coming.
Back in St. Helier, we returned to The Premier Inn via Royal Square...
...and the market, but we wandered around a bit looking for places to eatour evening meal.
The Jersey cows on Bath Street.
The tide was out in the old harbour.
We settled on
Habibi Haus for our meal. It was an excellent choice!
From there it was but a short walk up Bath St to our hotel.
Thank-you Joyce for leading us round.
You can see more of my blog posts about our trip below
Excellent account ! JC
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