JERSEY: THE CHANNEL ISLAND WAY: 3: Where is it?

OR:   PAY ATTENTION: YOU ARE GOING TO NEED THIS BIT LATER!

Right then! Let’s start off with a Geography lesson…. No! Wait! Don’t go. Come back!         

Okay – It’s just us now. Well – we can still have fun together. So then. Sit up straight and no slouching.

Jersey: It isn’t very big, and I would imagine if you were to row there in a little rowing boat, you would have to be jolly careful with your map and compass, because it’s small and you could easily miss it and head off into the middle of the Atlantic, or even worse, end up in France. And we wouldn’t want that, would we? No. Certainly not.

This map might help. Remember to take plenty of sandwiches and pop if you are going by rowing boat. For the softies amongst the congregation you can get there by air and sea quite conveniently from a multitude of embarkation points in the UK and with no need of sextants or emergency flares. Drainpipes will do fine.

You can see that the island is dangerously close to La Belle France; in fact just fourteen miles separate you from the land of berets, bicycles and brandy. So if you were desperate for a little French snifter, you could nip over quite easily. But you don’t want to do that right now as we are going to explore the States of Jersey. And I have to say, that Jersey is in a very good state indeed!

I know it looks a little unnervingly like Australia but trust me, this is the right map (this time). I didn’t meet any Aussies in my time over there but we’ll get on to the local accent later.

I would guess that this little island paradise is about 9 miles wide and 5 miles deep, but its coastline is just to die for, which is what the Channel Island Way is all about.

The whole of the Channel Island Way takes in the coastlines of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm and is 110 miles long. We are going to explore the largest island’s coast; that of Jersey, which, quite surprisingly for a little island, is an impressive 48 miles long.

Now I am sure that there are rufty-tufty types amongst us who could quite possibly knock this off in a few days but we don’t want to do that! (There are about a thousand hardy souls who do in fact set off one day in September every year to walk the entire coastline in a day! Deliriously wonderful, mad fools!) No: This is an island to be savoured, to stroll through at a pace more in keeping with having a jolly good time. You need time to wind-down on your holiday and this is just the place for a gentle post luncheon snooze on a sun-soaked cliff top with the Sheeps-bit tickling your ear. Yes – you have read that correctly. More on that later.

To enjoy this walk it’s handy if you have a few bits and pieces to help you on your way and to give you maximum pleasure. So – you will need the Guide Book:

GUIDEBOOK: COVER AND INTERNAL LAYOUT (CLICKABLE IMAGES) 

And as we are all keen walkery types who would be bereft without one, it’s also a good idea to have the 1:25k map of the island as well:

JERSEY MAP: COVER & MAP (SHOWING CORRESPONDING AREA OF GUIDEBOOK MAP)

So, suitably equipped, you are now hopefully on the correct hemisphere, on the right island and have everything you need for a fantastic walk.

If you really wanted to push the boat out, after all that rowing, it really is rather splendid to hire a local guide who will maximise your enjoyment and fill your head with dizzying facts of which if you could only remember a fraction, you would be going home an authority on the island, it’s history, geology, culture, flora and fauna.

I can heartily recommend our guide, Arthur Lamy, who was fun, witty and incredibly knowledgeable, whose details are set out here:

But enough of the preparations: Walk this way to find out all about Jersey’s section of the Channel Island Way!