Friday 29 January 2016

115 - Les Platons - Channel Islands - 1st July 2015

There is an official list of high points in the UK and as you may know I have added a few honorary high points along the way, such as the Shard in London, It was time now to do another honorary high point and there is a reason why I needed to do it. The Channel Islands are a group of islands about 90 miles directly south of Weymouth and roughly 10 miles west of France, it is not listed amongst the list of official UK high points for the same reason that Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands are excluded, I do however have a link to the islands as my family comes from Jersey, I still have family on the island so it would be a shame not to visit the highest point during a visit to see my 95 year old Grandma (actually she will be 96 in the next few days (Happy Birthday Nan)) and my Auntie and cousins.

A first for this blog is a plane trip, I travelled from Southampton to the island of Jersey where I was collected up by my lovely Auntie Caroline, she would also be putting me up for a few days at her home in St Clement in the south west of the Island.

The day of the hill trip arrived and I was left to my own devices all day as my auntie had some errands to run, so I wandered to the bus stop and caught the bus into St Helier where I changed for another bus which took me north to a remote bus stop on the side of a road in the north of the island.

The bus dropped me off pretty much exactly where I needed to be, at 136 metres (446 ft) Les Platons is the highest point of Jersey and this became pretty obvious when you see all the various radio towers and masts in the area. I didn't wander around too much here, I didn't know how much was private land and there were people around so didn't want to trespass so I took some photos as close as I could and then wandered down the road to a car park. 

I had decided on the previous day that I was going to start at the highest point and work my way down to the sea so I found a footpath and wandered along it towards the sea and the cliffs, eventually I came out at a house right on the edge of a cliff and below me I could see my destination, the beach at Bonne Nuit bay. From my location at the easterly end of the beach I had to walk along a few paths and past some houses to the opposite end, here there was a small tidal harbour (the tide was out) and a small cafe. It was time for lunch (crab sandwiches) and a sit on the beach for a while, I had some time to kill as the bus from here was once every hour so I sat on the beach and enjoyed the sunshine. 

All that was left to do was to get back to my aunties house so I eventually caught the bus back into St Helier where I decided to have a wander around town for a bit then I walked back the 2 miles to St Clements and my aunties house. The rest of my time in Jersey was filled with swimming in the sea and more crab Sandwiches which are lovely. Thanks to the weather my visit to Jersey was AMAZING and I look forward to returning again soon.