Jersey Walk Day 2

Steve, Iva and I begin the climb up the road above the harbour at Bonne Nuit.

And at last reach the top of the headland and a well earned bench!!

The way ahead for the rest of the morning from the headland above Bonne Nuit.

Rocks on the headland

Steve and the way ahead!

Above: Looking back at a lovely beach just after the first quarry

Right: Iva Pointing all the way along the cliffs to Greve de Lecq

We set off up the road again, past another quarry, this time below us and off to our right and then we re-joined the cliff path again. It seemed to take us much longer to cover this part of the cliff path than the earlier section before our lunch stop. The path was far more inand out of valleys, though still not too up and downy. We went into one valley with a dammed stream in it and then back out again to look back and down at a narrow natural arch. At the next valley containing the ‘Devil’s Hole’, we ignored the Priory Inn in the village here, though with the intense heat an ice cold pint of soda water with lime would have been nice. The next parts of the path were very picturesque, but seemed to take for ever with all the ins and outs around headlands. It was beautiful though – deep crystal clear blue and turquoise water at the bases of the cliffs.

A small natural arch just after the valley with the dammed stream

The way ahead from above The Devil's Hole

Cliffs with lovely greeny blue and crystal clear waters lapping at their bases

Iva's 'Chicken's Arse' headland.. hehe... maybe more like a turtle Iva?

Nearing Crabbe Point at last before we angled inland around a shooting range and downa green track to the lovely little beach at Greve de Lecq.

At last we reached the track at Crabbe, which lead us inland and around a rifle range, to join a green track leading right down to our first real sandy beach of the day – the beautiful Greve de Lecq. The plan had been to have a swim or something here, but looking at my watch, it seemed that if I was going to get to my planned destination of L’Etacq on the west coast, before the last bus back to ST Helier from there which seemed ridiculously early, then I was going to have to press straight on. Steve and Iva decided to carry on with me rather than laze on the beach. AT this point I think I would have chosen to laze had I been them!!! Iva had a quick paddle and we had a drink at a café above the beach and then we set off again at a bit of a forced route march pace to make sure that we caught at least one of the ridiculously early last busses up to this north west corner of the island.

Greve de Lecq from the green track

And from the final steeper descent right at the bay.

The climb out of the Bay was steep but manageable and we joined a track at the top and turned right to go between two lovely remote houses. It was then another descent through lovely woodland with a dammed stream splashing its way down the valley bottom on our right. We eventually crossed this half way down the valley and climbed back out the other side. The rest of the path to Plemont Point was the same as this… crossing small valleys with gurgling streams. All very pleasant. We had been walking really quite quickly, with the clock ticking in the back of our minds.

Greve de Lecq again after a much too short stop and a big climb out of the bay!

Plemont Point comes into view in record route march time!

Steve on our approach to the less than impressive (from this angle) Grosnez Castle ruins.

German observation tower as we made our way between the shore and the race course through the scrubby heathland in this the top north west of the island.

And at last the beautiful sweep of St Ouen's Bay comes into view, making up almost the entire west coast of the island.

The little hamlet of L'Etacq at the very north of St Ouen's Beach.

I woke up really early, at about 5.45am I think, and decided that if I needed the loo, I may as well get up and shower and do a few of my chores such as writing up some of the diary. I had decided that today I really needed to crack on with my planned round island walk, as I’d already been here 3 days and only completed a paltry 6 miles of the 50. Hmmm… not EXACTLY on schedule so far then!!! Of course, Karen and David were heading off home this evening!! I had a dilemma. I didn’t want to waste a whole day, doing something near to St.Helier with them and I really wanted to crack on with the walk, but I didn’t really want to not be with them on their last day either. They were quite late getting up – after 9.15am and I knew that they would have to get showered and pack up their tent and stuff before being ready to go anywhere!!! Looking at the bus time tables, if I was going to get to Bonne Nuit Bay in anything like a sensible enough time to get ANY walking done, then I would have to leave very soon. Steve and Iva said they could get ready before the next bus and they wanted to join me, so I made a snap decision decided to pack my day sack and make a dash for it. I had hoped that Karen and David might come and join us at one of the places along the days planned walk a bit later on, but she seemed upset and offended with me. Sigh!!! I DID say before I came on the holiday that I had wanted to do this walk, but, as usual, I think Karen just saw the anal retentiveness of wanting to complete what I had set out to do!!! Anyway Steve, Iva and I got the 9.35am bus from by the campsite into St.Helier and even then we had to wait an our to get the next number 4 bus out to Bonne Nuit Bay. It turned out well though, as we had time to wander around some more parts of the town that were actually fairly nice and also managed to get some cheap lunch with a meal deal from Boots… especially cheap with Iva’s staff discount card on top!!! We caught the bus to Bonne Nuit ok and it arrived at 11.30ish. We set off straight away and it was a steep slog up the road and then an even steeper zig zag up the steps of the cliff path up to the top of the headland overlooking the harbour. We stopped at the top at a handy bench admiring the nice view. I phoned home, as bizarrely it seemed that I could only get a signal at a few high points along the north coast and nowhere else on the island at all!!
Steve, Iva and I begin the climb up the road above the harbour at Bonne Nuit.	And at last reach the top of the headland and a well earned bench!!
The way ahead for the rest of the morning from the headland above Bonne Nuit.	Rocks on the headland
	Steve and the way ahead!
We set off again. The cliff path was quite flat once we’d got up there, which was quite pleasant, so we made good progress. We walked under what seemed to be a quarry and then joined a track up to a fairly main road. We turned right along this and walked along until we came to Les Fontaines Tavern. We sat ona picnic table in their yard with a cold pint and ate our Boots sarnies. The sun was STILL beating down relentlessly.
Above: Looking back at a lovely beach just after the first quarry Right: Iva Pointing all the way along the cliffs to Greve de Lecq	Lovely rocks

We set off up the road again, past another quarry, this time below us and off to our right and then we re-joined the cliff path again. It seemed to take us much longer to cover this part of the cliff path than the earlier section before our lunch stop. The path was far more inand out of valleys, though still not too up and downy. We went into one valley with a dammed stream in it and then back out again to look back and down at a narrow natural arch. At the next valley containing the ‘Devil’s Hole’, we ignored the Priory Inn in the village here, though with the intense heat an ice cold pint of soda water with lime would have been nice. The next parts of the path were very picturesque, but seemed to take for ever with all the ins and outs around headlands. It was beautiful though – deep crystal clear blue and turquoise water at the bases of the cliffs.
A small natural arch just after the valley with the dammed stream	The way ahead from above The Devil's Hole
Very pictuesque....	Cliffs with lovely greeny blue and crystal clear waters lapping at their bases
Sigh.....	Iva's 'Chicken's Arse' headland.. hehe... maybe more like a turtle Iva?
Nearing Crabbe Point at last before we angled inland around a shooting range and downa green track to the lovely little beach at Greve de Lecq.	At last we reached the track at Crabbe, which lead us inland and around a rifle range, to join a green track leading right down to our first real sandy beach of the day – the beautiful Greve de Lecq. The plan had been to have a swim or something here, but looking at my watch, it seemed that if I was going to get to my planned destination of L’Etacq on the west coast, before the last bus back to ST Helier from there which seemed ridiculously early, then I was going to have to press straight on. Steve and Iva decided to carry on with me rather than laze on the beach. AT this point I think I would have chosen to laze had I been them!!! Iva had a quick paddle and we had a drink at a café above the beach and then we set off again at a bit of a forced route march pace to make sure that we caught at least one of the ridiculously early last busses up to this north west corner of the island.
Greve de Lecq from the green track	And from the final steeper descent right at the bay.
The climb out of the Bay was steep but manageable and we joined a track at the top and turned right to go between two lovely remote houses. It was then another descent through lovely woodland with a dammed stream splashing its way down the valley bottom on our right. We eventually crossed this half way down the valley and climbed back out the other side. The rest of the path to Plemont Point was the same as this… crossing small valleys with gurgling streams. All very pleasant. We had been walking really quite quickly, with the clock ticking in the back of our minds.
Greve de Lecq again after a much too short stop and a big climb out of the bay!	Plemont Point comes into view in record route march time!
We crossed the headland and joined the road down to Plemont Bay, turning left off it before too long to rejoin the cliff path. Photos we’d seen of the bay taken from here were of a lovely sandy bay, but at this time the tide was in and there is seemingly no sand at all at high tide!! We carried on apace and got to Grosnez Point in quick time, helped by the path being flat and stoney and rather bleak through heather and gorse up in this north west corner. The castle ruins here were a little disappointing from our approach angle, but as we passed them a nice gateway arch was revealed, which helped make them more picturesque.
Steve on our approach to the less than impressive (from this angle) Grosnez Castle ruins.	We tramped on, realising now that we could easily make the last bus from L’Etacq, which was at 6.35pm . We passed the German observation/machine gun tower off to the right on the headlands and the racecourse off to our left, and made it to L’Etacq with about an hour to spare. The little place is actually quite pretty… a few rows of terraced houses and odd detached houses around a small hill at the far northern end of the HUGE sweep of St Ouens Bay that makes up the whole of the western coast of Jersey. Its main drawback was a rather sewagey/rotting seaweed pong from the beach at this end!!
German observation tower as we made our way between the shore and the race course through the scrubby heathland in this the top north west of the island.
And at last the beautiful sweep of St Ouen's Bay comes into view, making up almost the entire west coast of the island.
The little hamlet of L'Etacq at the very north of St Ouen's Beach.	When we got back into St.Helier, we went for a fish and chip tea at a restaurant we’d seen when we came in to eat on an earlier evening with Karen and David. It was OK, but not as nice as we’d all been anticipating. We got the 8.45pm number 3 bus back to the campsite and went to play cards in the lounge for a while after having a cooling float in the rather cold pool.