N 49.46553°, W 02.44561°
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:49.46553%2C-02.44561
It's been quite a hectic day as I've had to shuffle things round a good bit. Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be dreadful and a call to the ferry company that works the Herm Island crossing confirmed that tomorrow's sailings are going to be a bit of a lottery. I really didn't want to miss Herm and so built things around coming over today.
First off I did Guernsey parkrun. It was really well attended and had a really nice atmosphere but boy was it a tough course. Much of it was on - and through - grassy dunes so there was much up-and-downing and a lot of energy-sapping sand. I tried hard, didn't do so well, but as always with parkruns on the road; it's more about the experience.
Next up I went to watch some beach racing. I'd seen signs earlier in the week and had expected it to be sand-yachts competing but far from it. It was actually a motorsports event with different classes including grass-track style buggies and modified speedway bikes. It made for a spectacle with the speedway bike riders in particular putting on awesome demonstrations of fearlessness and bike handling.
I didn't have time to watch the full meeting as the ferry to Herm called. I had originally intended to spend a full day on the island but figured if I was purposeful I could walk the full perimeter and see all the touristy landmarks in three hours. And so it came to pass.
It's a lovely warm and sunny afternoon and the island was in good form. Things got off to a good start on the way over with a ferry-bow-riding dolphin putting in a couple of full breaches.
Herm has some quirky and hugely desirable attributes. No cars or even push bikes are allowed. No one can own a house here (only lease), it's illegal to play music in public; it generates all its own power (with a diesel-burning generator) and there are fewer than 100 residents.
It's as good as anywhere in the Channel Islands I've seen for wildlife and it's very pretty with some lovely coastline, beaches and heath.
I'd not been there long when I saw a Jersey tiger moth (pic) - only my second ever and my first in GB. I also spotted dunlin and ringed plover - the first I've seen on this trip.
The downside was people like me, well not exactly like me, but tourists. There were gazillions if them, especially on the beaches towards the north of the island. The island's campsite was also rammed. Loud, plummy middle class English accents were very much the order of the day. It should be a lovely place to live but - for me anyway - just isn't: not in August, anyway.
I'm just about to leave and when we get back to Guernsey I'm off to kip back at a quiet spot I used the other night as it'll be night by the time I arrive and I don't want to be foraging in the dark. Navigation and spot-finding is definitely a daylight pursuit, even more so on labyrinthine winding roads no wider than one car!
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