Awoke to another sunny day and after yesterday’s rest day I was ready for a decent walk. There is a large reservoir at the other end of the island which supplies Guernsey with 25% of its drinking water and because its nowhere near a main road you don’t ever get to see it, so we decided on the five mile walk overland and have a look. Although it was sunny there was a cool breeze blowing which made it excellent for walking and after about an hour and a half we arrived at the start of the two mile walk around the perimeter of the lake.
It turned out to be a very interesting and surprising walk with most of the way through wooded paths punctuated by beautiful views through the trees.
Guernsey keeps turning up surprises every year.
We made our way back on to the minor road and plotted a course down to Vazon Bay and some lunch…
We soon dropped down onto the main coast road and Vazon Bay where we found a small cafe’ and a good supply of Tuna sandwiches and tea. Close by was the bus stop to take us back to St Peter Port and after around nine miles of walking decided to call it a day…
The day started with the usual six mile run, thin cloud covered the rising sun but it was quite warm for six in the morning. I made my way down the steep hill at George Road and jogged my way along the deserted harbour with just the odd street cleaners and flower basket waterers for company. Occasionally I’ve spotted other runners along here but not this morning perhaps I’m a bit earlier than usual. I laboured up Grange Road and where the road levelled out a lady runner appeared coming in the opposite direction, she was very attractive in her skimpy purple shorts and figure hugging tee shirt with thighs like Tina Turner, I suppose they’d have to be, living round here with all the hills.
It’s just less than two miles by road from the hotel down to the sea front in St Peter Port, but for a more exciting and adventurous journey you could take the coast path, at five miles long it’s full of steep climbs, rocky paths and loads of steps both up and down, It’s three hours of enjoyment, so this is what I did after breakfast.
Mrs Fox decided to go to town on the bus and do some shopping, being as I was getting to an interesting part in my latest book I said I would meet her later. I finished the chapter and because It was not a running day I had loads of spare energy, and so it began, ‘Man versus bus’ I would take the coastal path and race Mrs Fox to St Peter Port. Although I did very little running I did crack on and completed the 4.6 mile in one hour thirty nine minutes, which turned out about three hours faster than yesterday when I was accompanied by the same Mrs Fox.
At one O clock we attended an organ recital at the local church, although it was good I would have prefered it if I had recognised any of the pieces (so I could possibly have hummed along) Mrs Fox did have to nudge me a couple of times as I started to drift away…Don’t you just love Bach…
While gradually coming to life this morning a cruise ship passed by our window and anchored in the bay. What a coincidence, it was the P&O ship Britannia the same ship that we are due to board at the end of September for a cruise round the Canaries…
I decided to extend the holiday from ten days to fourteen, it’s cost me a kings ransom to alter the flights, book another room for four more days and inform the car park at East Mids Airport that I’m not coming back just yet…Oh well! you can’t take it with you…
It’s turned out very hot today and with no running on a Saturday I had a lie in and a walk into Town after breakfast. Since we decided to stay another four days my medication will run out on Monday; most of the stuff I take is multi vitamins, Primrose Oil and Aspirin, all readily available over the counter. Unfortunately, Ramipril is not but I don’t foresee any problems missing a few days. (If I stop blogging on Tuesday I was wrong)
There’s this department store in St Peter Port called ‘Creaseys’ and on the very top floor is a restaurant with this Greek bloke who makes the most epic crab sandwiches, he also makes scrumtious Crab salads. So that was today’s lunch.
Oh, I forgot to mention the splendid view of the harbour from the window, here it is, see what you think…
They do this thing up a winding road every year, they see who can race their car up the hill the fastest. It’s alright if you’re a ‘Petrol Head’ we watched it for a while then got bored so moved on…This is an example of a typical race car…
It’s more fun running up the hill if you ask me.
A couple of cruise ships paid us a visit today and with over three thousand passengers between them it makes Peter Port very busy indeed so we caught the bus back to the hotel and jumped into the pool for the rest of the day…
This was the MV Magellan the smaller of the two cruise ships. Around nine this morning they all queued to be brought to the shore by tenders, and at 13:00 hours they all queued on the quayside under a blazing sun to be taken back…Soft sods…
Okay, I know other peoples holiday snaps are about as boring as other peoples wedding photos. You don’t have a clue who the people are and probably don’t give a Monkeys about some obscure resort at the other side of the world…So here are my last three…
Shell beach on the island of Herm just off the coast of Guernsey…
On our way back to the harbour for our short boat ride back to Peter Port we came upon this seat calved out of a tree trunk. It’s supposed to be good luck to have your picture taken sat in it…We will see…
And finally before Bob’s Bits disappears without trace behind the ramblings of some Aussie bloke and his pals, this is the queue waiting to board the tiny ship that looks nowhere near big enough to accommodate all those people…
enjoyed that Bob you should stop jogging and take up holiday writing! I can’t believe you can get anywhere far on those spindly legs! How Mrs B puts up with it I don’t know - my commiserations to her please. you’re just an endorphin junkie!
but the box Kodak seems to be holding up well??
Thanks Mytle, it’s nice to know that someone appreciates my little snippets, and I think Meg also has a brows on a morning…
I can always rely on Gumbud’s support…Well, Mrs Fox can at any rate…Cheers Gummy.
The good weather seems to have deserted us this morning as we have been engulfed by a heavy sea fret, but over breakfast I heard that once it gets burned off it is going to get hot again. No running this morning so we’ve got a good walk planned to the ‘Little Chapel’ and then down to this remote little beach that we know for some lunch. As you would expect, it contains the most gorgeous little cafe’…
It’s goodbye to some friends we have met today; That’s if they ever get off the island. Apparently planes can’t land here when it’s foggy because the runway is low tech and doesn’t have any modern GPS guidance systems installed, pilot needs to see where he is going…
Due to popular demand (well two of you anyway) pictures will follow if this fog lifts. Ta Ta for now…
Since we decided to stay an extra four days we had to move out of our favourite room with a beautiful sea view into a room at the back overlooking the pool. Just as good a room but we can’t see the horizon, but it didn’t matter this morning with visibility down to a few hundred yards. It was still warm though and after breakfast a hazy sun made an appearance.
Another good opportunity for a long walk saw us head out for the four mile walk to the little chapel. The chapel is choc o block with shells and pieces of pottery stuck to every surface. Apparently a monk made it his life’s work to create this beautiful work of art.
The chapel is so small you can only fit around ten people in it and it’s very difficult to get decent photographs without some random holiday maker appearing in the shot.
And to make it more difficult it has been undergoing some restoration work and has been covered head to toe in scaffolding and polythene sheeting so I’m afraid this is the best I can do under the circumstances…
I know what you’re thinking and when I get home I will post some proper photo’s of the chapel that were taken previously.
So after visiting a clock and jewelry shop (Mrs Fox loves jewelry) we left the scene in search of some lunch and while walking down to Petit Bot Bay in the bottom of a tree covered valley I thought you might like this fine example of a ‘Cuckoo Pint’
After a grueling walk down a steep road with no walkway and large Ford Galaxy’s with excited families speeding by trying to be the first to occupy the best places on the small beach we eventually reached the tearoom at the bottom of the valley.
The ham sandwich was full of fat and gristle and the milk left globules of white stuff floating in my tea. Fortunately it was Mrs Fox who had the ham while I had the fresh crab and it was delicious…Unlucky Mrs Fox…
From the photo it looks deserted cold and foggy, but I can assure you that it was very sticky and warm with loads of people on the beach. It’s just that you can’t see them…
My alarm was set at six this morning but at 5:15am I woke and decided that if I went back to sleep it would be half seven before I woke again. It was my last run of the holiday so I did the necessaries and tumbled out onto the road at 5:45am. A heavy sea fret obscured the view and it was only just light as I made my way along deserted country roads to the outskirts of St Peter Port. George Road is a very steep road of about a mile long heading down to the harbour, It’s just as hard running down as it is running up. I resisted the urge to overspeed and kept to a steady pace and I was soon on the quayside at the bottom of the hill. A large ferry was in port unloading supplies and there were several small council vehicles cleaning the streets and watering the flower baskets, I turned the corner and prepared to do battle once more with the long climb up Grange road. It climbs to the top of the hill that I had just run down but not quite as steep as George Road, It is twice as long though. I had included Grange Road in all of my previous runs and it had not beat me yet so I dug in and was determined it would not beat me today especially since it would be my last run here for a while. My arms felt sticky and beads of sweat formed on my forehead as I laboured up this monster of a hill hoping to see the crest around every corner. Legs turned to rubber and wishing good morning to the odd worker coming in the opposite direction was turning into a challenge as every gulp of air was required to power my muscles ever higher. Just when I thought I could not endure anymore pain the end came into view and I quickened my pace realising that the hill had thrown everything at me this morning and I had survived once more. The last three miles were undulating but enjoyable and as I jogged into the hotel car park I could start the last day of my holiday content and happy with my effort this morning…
A last walk down George road to say goodbye to St Peter Port.
After all the phonecalls to the airline and car park at East Mids Airport to amend our holiday from ten days to fourteen I was just waiting for something to go wrong on our journey home yesterday, but it never did. The only only hold up’s were due to the volume of traffic on the M1. At around four thirty we dumped the luggage, collected some friends and went in search of food…
No enthusiastic chatter in the dining room, no table full of assorted serials, fruit juices or croissants, no eggs, bacon, sausage or tomatoes, with hot toast cooling in the rack. Just me and Mrs Fox and the sound of the washing machine gently cleaning away the memory of a beautiful holiday while I spoon up a bowl of porridge.
I thought I’d be running better after all the hill work I’ve been doing in Guernsey, every run included a steep climb and even the flat bits were hilly! But my legs felt heavy and tired as I started out on my Sunday Eight miler. It did get a little easier after a couple of miles and I even managed to shake up the pace with some fast half mile sprints, but come the last mile I was hanging on and struggled to keep going.
It was nice to have a shower; the room which we moved to for the last four days of our holiday only had a bath and it took some getting used to after many years of showering. Washing lines are full of clothes blowing in the breeze and dinner is prepared on the hob, the family will be along shortly to hear about our adventures and look at the photos. It just leaves me time to walk the two miles to the Tesco and back which will hopefully prevent stiffness from accumulating in the muscles.
Love reading your blog … but running up hills ??? Phew !!! .
I enjoy walking … only up to 7 miles though … I prefer not to walk up hills nowadays but of course it’s the only way to get a better view … so I have to do it
I’ve just had a great weekend in Exmouth … the Jurassic coast … so a few uphill walks involved
Thanks for looking in Myrtle and taking the time to comment I really appreciate it.
Seven miles is a good distance to walk and although I sometimes push myself on to go further, seven miles is a comfortable distance and as we used to say down at the running club “Don’t leave the best of you out on the road”
Ah yes the Jurassic Coast, a beautiful part of England Myrtle, we were down in Weymouth a couple of years ago and walked some of the coast path including a walk around Portland. We didn’t get as far as Exmouth, Lyme Regis was as far as we got but I would love to walk the entire path right around the English coastline. Maybe one day…
I love the coastal paths … we are so lucky in this country
As I usually only go on coach trips Friday to Monday time is of the essence so I don’t have time to do much “proper” walking but I do try to do at least 2 miles of the coastal path wherever I am :-). Having said that I usually walk about 7 miles just sightseeing :shock:
I visited Weymouth a few months ago when I went to Bournemouth and also Portland Bill … WOW!!! Chesil Beach
well you could read Kingdom by the Sea by Paul Theroux who walked/bused and trained around the entire coasts of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales in the mid 1980, and describes the peculiarities of the British coastline peoples!
Well I should have been packing today for the forthcoming cruise on Monday but I’ve spent the day swanning around a garden centre helping a neighbour to choose some plants for her newly created Garden…Lunch was excellent though.
So it looks like it’s going to be tomorrow instead, I hope I haven’t left too much to do in one day…Car is going to need cleaning and checking over for the long drive down to Southampton, and let’s not forget the Sunday run first thing in the morning. I think I’ll keep it to an eight miler.
