Distance walked: 16km (approx), Time Taken: 4 1/2 hours (approx)
Got an early morning wake up "call" again. Not a smoke alarm this time. Instead, it was garbage collection day and restaurants throw out a lot of empty bottles. Crash, bang, crash, bang, rattle, crash.
Carb loaded at breakfast today - cereal with fruit, toast with marmalade plus yoghurt from bio-dynamic Jersey cows (how do you tell the difference between a dynamic cow and a lethargic one?). They make a big deal about Jersey dairy products here - the butter, the yoghurt and the ice cream. I haven't actually seen a single cow yet so I don't know where they are hiding.
The decision on whether to walk from B to C or in the other direction turned out to be easy to make. When I got to the bus station the bus to B was leaving before the one to C, so clockwise again it was. It turned out to be a good decision as the first 7km was a walk along the beach from one end of St Ouen's Bay to the other. This was rather dull as the scenery doesn't change much but was surprisingly hard work. I had this tower ahead of me for about the first half and then receding for the next part. That was about it.
Lots of happy, wet, sandy dogs being taken for walks. I saw lots of these strange piles of sand. Presumably from crabs or something like it burying themselves in the sand, although there didn't seem to be anything underneath the piles.
Once I got to the end of the bay the route climbed around the headlands at the north-western corner of the island. The scenery was spectacular and the cliffs dotted with Neolithic dolmens, an ancient fort and WWII bunkers. It would have been a real letdown to finish the walk with the dull trudge along the beach rather than the cliffs. Unfortunately, the batteries in my GPS had died so I don't have cute elevation maps.
I had planned to have lunch at a seafood shack in an old bunker at the end of the bay but it turned out it was shut. It was an hour to the next cafe so I regretted not pigging out at breakfast. Fortunately the next cafe, the Plemont Beach Cafe, was open. I had crab cakes with salad and chips and 1/2 litre of alcoholic ginger beer. When I was at the cafe there was also an elderly couple with a professional photographer taking pictures of them. It wasn't clear what the purpose was. Some sort of brochure for a cafe or some such it seemed. Why at that cafe wasn't obvious since they weren't the owners.
I got to the end of the walk 2 minutes before the bus back to St Helier left which was great luck as there is only 1 bus every hour. Mind you there was a pub next to the bus stop so it wouldn't have been any great hardship to have to wait.
After a wash and brush up at the hotel I went out for some Jersey ice cream and a little shopping. However, Jersey's idea of late night shopping is to stay open until 7pm and they only do that on a Thursday not a Friday like today. I settled for an early bird dinner at Aromas. As a solo diner I was once again crammed in at the back of the restaurant next to the bar. Turned out to be a great location as I got to eavesdrop on the conversations between the front of house woman, the waitress and the woman at the bar who did the drinks and the bills. They were rushed off their feet but kept it all under control.
Unfortunately the food was a great disappointment. The ideas were good but the execution poor. For entree I had baked mushrooms stuffed with goat's cheese on a piece of garlic bread. The goat's cheese was bland - not an accusation that is often levelled at such a cheese. The bread was from a french baguette and just disintegrated from the moisture in the cheese and mushroom. For main I had grilled fillets of plaice with prawns and lemon butter. This was good but the accompanying roasted veg was 1 piece of carrot (i.e. not a whole one), 1 piece of parsnip, 1 floret of broccoli and 2 pieces of Jersey royal potato. Harmless if a little sparse so to bulk it out there was also a big bowl of chips, which was just bizarre. Why not just a bigger serving of veg? Some oil, garlic or herbs or some flavouring on the veg would have been pleasant too. Dessert was a raspberry and whiskey creme brulee. However, there were no obvious traces of raspberry or whiskey in it and the custard had curdled.
Better luck tomorrow hopefully.
Mum & I are enjoying reading your blog, Barb - and to visualise you plodding along from A to B and B to C - and yet only staying a few minutes in each destination!
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