Jersey

Well I've now had a day to soak in Jersey, and I have to say it's been wonderful. The weather when I arrived was amazing and sunny - a stark contrast from drizzling London I'd left not more than 30mins earlier. After catching the bus into the main town (in fact the only one on the island) of St Helier, the first task was to ditch the bag, 3 pounds (I can't decide whether i'm missing the English keyboard or not...) later and that was sorted. Then it was time for my usual behavior when presented with new surroundings - get absolutely lost and try to find my way back. This lead to my first revelation about Jersey, it has massive tides. When I left the marina was dry, there was a billboard on the exit displaying an exit of 0.0m. After getting lost for probably only an hour, it was already at 2.7m. Apparently the tidal variation is about 13m, which in some places turns low tide's total beach desert into waves crashing over the 5m ocean wall.


The Island is dotted with forts and castles who have used the island as a strong hold. It's quite amazing that the brits held it so well when it was so much closer to France - yesterday on an exploration round the island welcome to France on a remote tip where apparently i got better reception from France.