Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the channel islands. This post finishes the Alderney segment.
THE FINAL FULL DAY ON ALDERNEY
The final full day on Alderney ended up being a very quiet one – the events of Wednesday, covered in the seventh and eighth posts in this series, had taken a lot out of me and I was not up to the walk to the nearest point from which I could have looked at the gannet colony.
THE BOAT BACK TO GUERNSEY
Our boat back to Guernsey was leaving at 8AM on the Friday, so we had a taxi booked to pick us up from the fort at 7:30AM that morning. The voyage back was rougher than the voyage out had been, and we were all pretty relieved when we alighted on Guernsey.
I end this post with a final look at Fort Clonque…
Continuing my account of my recent holiday in the channel islands with a special post dedicated to the birds of Alderney.
I continue my account of my recent visit to the channel islands with a special post dedicated to the birds of Alderney (the island is justly famed for its bird life).
TWO MISSES
It was too early in the year for boat trips to be running to the island of Burhou, just off the coast of Alderney to the north, and home to puffins (it has no human residents at all), and Wednesday took so much out of me that on the Thursday I was unable to face to fairly steep and fairly rough path that would have started the walk towards a point from which I could view the gannet colony. Here a few maps…
THE BIRDS I DID SEE
Although I missed two great ornithological sites for different reasons, I still saw a fine range of birds during my few days on Alderney…
I spotted this one (and took the picture) through the window of the taxi taking us to the harbour to catch the boat back to Guernsey.
I end this little post with a view of Fort Clonque:
Continuing my account of my holiday in the channel islands. The main feature of today’s post is Alderney’s Roman Fort.
Welcome to the latest installment in my series about my recent holiday in the channel islands. Today we look at the second half of Wednesday’s explorations.
THE ROMAN FORT
The Roman fort is well preserved although there is also a considerable amount of stuff there relating to the German occupation. Admission is free, and there is a detailed plan just inside. Why only one Roman fort when the Victorians deemed the island worthy of 18? The Romans controlled the English Channel in its entirety, so no hostile power could have used these any of these islands as a base from which to attack them – the main danger to Rome would have been pirates looking to base fleets there.
THE REST OF THE WALK
We now headed back on a long circuit towards Braye. We saw some more forts, and when we hit a road once again a taxi was called, four of the five of us electing to get home that way while my sister chose to keep walking. Before I share a general gallery, this is the image that now forms my desktop background:
Now for the general gallery…
Now it is time to sign off with a view of Fort Clonque:
Continuing my account of my holiday in the Channel Islands.
We are up to Wednesday March 23 in my account of my holiday in the channel islands. I have decided to divide this day’s events into two as I have so much to share. Here to help you orient yourselves are a couple of maps of Alderney (click to view at full size):
FORT CLONQUE TO BRAYE
This part of the walk was the reverse of the walk to the fort on the Monday, but this time we were doing it in full daylight, whereas it had been getting dark by the time we arrived on the island on the Monday.
BRAYE TO THE CROSSING OF THE ISLAND
In view of where the most interesting sites were, and where we planned to have lunch we had decided to cut off a loop of the footpath in the first instance and then circuit back. This leg of the journey included a spell close to the Alderney Railway.
UP TO LUNCH
Our route to the place we were having lunch took us past the entrance to the Roman fort which was to be our first port of call after lunch. The lunch was really excellent, and in my case included a local beer (brewed on Guernsey – Alderney is not big enough to have its own brewery) called Patois (French for ‘slang’).
A visit to St Anne, as I continue my account of my recent office.
As I continue my account of my holiday (18th-27th March), this is the first post solely dedicated to Alderney.
EXPLORING ST ANNE
On our first full day on Alderney, the Tuesday, we set out to visit St Anne, the only town on the island. Our departure was delayed by the necessity of waiting for a high tide to go down. As was the case through this holiday we were blessed with excellent weather.
There was much to see on the way to the town:
The town itself was quite an interesting place, and the information office was very useful.
We walked back the same way we had come.
It was even pleasant enough to eat outside.Guernsey (and hence Alderney) still uses £1 notes.
All photographs in this post can be seen at full size by clicking on them, but we end with a view of the fort:
Journeying through cricket history and from King’s Lynn to Alderney in honour of John Arlott.
Having reached Alderney in my account of my recent holiday it is now time for a special post in honour of John Arlott, the legendary cricket commentator, who lived his last years on the island. We will travel through considerable space and time in the course this journey.
STOP ONE: CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge, which my route from King’s Lynn to Portsmouth passed through, was the birthplace of Jack Hobbs, ‘The Master’. It also provides a specialist spinner for the XI since after his falling out with Yorkshire, which ended his first class career, Johnny Wardle played minor counties cricket for Cambrigeshire.
STOP TWO: VAUXHALL
The train from Waterloo to Portsmouth passes through but does not stop at Vauxhall, which overlooks The Oval, home of Surrey County Cricket Club. It is not my purpose to pick an time Surrey XI here (I did that a while back) so I am not actually using this location to pick any players – I am merely noting it.
STOPS 3,4 AND 5: SURBITON, WOKING, GUILDFORD
As with Vauxhall the train passes through Surbiton. Surbiton is not in itself of major relevance, but a line branches off here to Thames Ditton and Hampton Court, and at one time of his life the legendary fast bowler Tom Richardson had a home in Thames Ditton.
Woking, the first stop on the London-Portsmouth route, was home for many years to the Bedser twins, Alec (right arm fast medium, useful lower order batter) and Eric (right handed batter, off spinner).
Guildford, also a scheduled stop on the route, is home to the earliest verifiable reference to the great game of cricket. Testimony regarding the usage of a piece of land, made in 1598 and referring to the childhood of the man testifying, tells us that some form of cricket was being played in Guildford by the 1550s. Surrey still play the odd match at Guildford and one of the more recent of those games featured Kevin Pietersen scoring a double century in the course of which he hit a number of balls into the river Wey which flows past the ground.
STOPS 6-7: GODALMING AND PETERSFIELD
Godalming is home to Charterhouse School, where George Geary (Leics and England) was cricket coach for a time and one of his charges was Peter May. More recently Martin Bicknell (Surrey and England) has been director of cricket there.
Petersfield has a connection that dates to much earlier in cricket’s history: John Small, one of Hambledon’s finest batters in that clubs glory days of the late 18th century, lived there. According to John Nyren in “Cricketers of My Time” Small was a keen skater and enjoyed skating on the surface of Petersfield Pond when that body of water froze over in the winter.
STOP 8: PORTSMOUTH
Portsmouth was one of Hampshire’s out grounds when such were regularly used. In 1899 Major Robert Poore smashed Somerset for twin tons there, and then confirmed his liking for west country bowling by scoring a career best 304 in the return match at Taunton (when another army officer, Captain Teddy Wynyard, scored 225, in a sixth wicket stand of 411).
STOP 9: GUERNSEY
Guernsey has not to my knowledge produced any significant cricketers, though it has produced a couple of well known sportspeople: tennis player Heather Watson, at one time British number one, and footballer Matt Le Tissier who played for Southampton for many years. However it did indirectly give me a squad member, because it was there that I consumed bottle of ginger beer whose place of origin was significant:
Bundaberg, where this variety of ginger beer comes from, was the birthplace of Don Tallon, Australian keeper batter named by Bradman as keeper in his all time XI and considered by many of his contemporaries to have been the best ever in that role.
THE TERMINUS: BRAYE ROAD, ALDERNEY
Braye Road is one terminus of the Alderney Railway, once a genuine commercial railway transporting stone from a quarry, now a heritage railway using carriages of 1938 tube stock (I was not able to travel it being there too early in the year for it to be open). It also gave me, by way of a piece of lateral thinking, a final player for my cricket journey:
The cricket significance of this picture lies in the name of the road rather than that of the station: it provides a tenuous link to opening batter Tammy Beaumont.
SELECTING OUR XI
In terms of the players I have linked to specific locations we have:
Jack Hobbs, Johnny Wardle (Cambridge), Tom Richardson (Surbiton/ Thames Ditton), Alec and Eric Bedser (Woking), Kevin Pietersen (Guildford), Peter May, George Geary, Martin Bicknell (Godalming), John Small (Petersfield), Major Robert Poore (Portsmouth), Don Tallon (Guernsey, by subterfuge), Tammy Beaumont (Alderney, by cunning use of a street sign). These are 13 players, from whom 11 must be selected. My XI in batting order is:
This XI is well balanced, with good batting depth. The bowling has a genuine speedster in Richardson, two high quality fast medium/ medium fast bowlers in Geary and A Bedser, a great left arm spinner in Wardle and off spin back up from E Bedser, with Hobbs’ medium pace as sixth bowling option. I end this post with a view of Fort Clonque:
Continuing coverage of my holiday with the trip from Guernsey to Alderney
We reach a transition point in my account of my recent holiday – the journey from Guernsey to Alderney.
THE MORNING
Although we had to check out of our hotel by 10AM and the boat to Alderney was not due to sail until 4PM we were able to leave our bags at the hotel to be picked up immediately before boarding, which enabled us to spend an enjoyable morning in St Peter Port. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, and picked our bags up from the hotel, before heading for the boat.
THE VOYAGE TO ALDERNEY
The boat on which we travelled over to Alderney (a voyage that takes about an hour) on a small boat run by a company called Salty Blonde. The voyage itself was fairly uneventful (the sea was very smooth fortunately). The main drama came on our arrival at the harbour on Alderney, when we had a substantial climb up a vertical metal ladder from the boat, and the platform at the top of said ladder was covered in seaweed. The boat crew managed our bags for us to that point, but the climb was not an experience I would care to repeat even so.
FROM THE HARBOUR TO FORT CLONQUE
A taxi conveyed the baggage and my mother to the fort while the rest of us walked. The walk was a pleasant one, and then it remained only to decide on rooms at the fort.
Resuming my coverage of my holiday to Guermsey and Alderney, setting the scene for what is to come in this series of posts.
I wasn’t entirely sure when I put the first post of this series about my holiday up as to when I would be able to post. There was no internet connection in Alderney, although I was able to edit plenty of photos ready for use. Yesterday we travelled back from Alderney to Guernsey, and then visited two places which both proved of huge interest, and left me with over 300 photos to edit to catch back up with that side of things. Between last night and this morning (I was underway before 7AM) I completed that job, meaning that at least until the end of today I am up to date in terms of photos. I am going to use the rest of this post to outline the rest of the series for you.
PLANNED POSTS
I will devote one post to the day we spent on Guernsey before we were able to travel across to Alderney.
The journey to Alderney will account for the next post.
The Harbour at Braye, Alderney – the boat bottom right of shot is the one we travelled on from Guernsey to Alderney.
I will produce several posts about Alderney:
A cricket themed post in honour of John Arlott who spent his last years on Alderney – this will take the form of a two-fold journey, through a large amount of space and centuries in time as I cover cricketing links relating to my journey (two of them highly contrived, I admit), creating a spectacular XI in the process.
Students of the game will instantly realise how the road sign in this picture enabled me to sneakily fill one of the opener’s slots -the other was already filled fair and square.
A post about our first visit to St Anne, the sole town on the island.
Probably two posts about the walk we did on our second full day on the island.
A special post featuring maps of Alderney and the Channel Islands, several great examples of which I saw:
A special post dedicated to the birds of Alderney, of which I saw some fine specimens.
A post about the return journey to Guernsey.
Every post relating to Alderney will feature a view of Fort Clonque, where we stayed.
A view of the fort taken from the far end of the causeway that links it to the rest of the island.
Events since arriving back on Guernsey warrant at least three posts already:
A post about the Little Chapel.
Two posts minimum about the Occupation Museum (Guernsey was occupied by the Germans from 1940-5).
I have no doubt that today’s events will be worth at least one further post, and then there is the return journey.
Some stuff about nature, with a sidelight on public transport. Links to several nature/ transport themed posts and many appropriately themed photos.
INTRODUCTION
This is the first of several posts I will be putting up today. Two of the links I shall be sharing are to posts that have already appeared on this site as reblogs, but which I consider so important, that I am going to link to them again. There is also among my links a piece relating to public transport for which I make no apology, as transport policy can have a big impact on nature, whether positively or negatively depending on the nature of the policy. As usual plenty of my own pictures will feature as well.
TAKING THE LOCAL AUTHORITY TO TASK
Two pieces in this section:
Anna’s searching questions of her local authority as part of the ongoing campaign to save Trosa nature. For those who have not already seen the piece, please click on the magnificent infographic/ meme that Anna created based on a comment IÂ made on one of her previous posts.
A cabal of Tories seeking to force through the building of an expensive and environmentally damaging incinerator is all too familiar to a West Norfolk resident. This time the dodgy dealing is going on in Gloucestershire and again it is a Tory controlled County Council that seeks to force through the building of the incinerator. The Skwawkbox have picked up on the story, for which I am very grateful, and I urge everyone who reads this to visit this post by clicking on the image below.
Illustration of GCC’s planned Javelin Park incinerator
BADGER CULLS AND BIOSECURITY
This one appears on Chris Packham’swebsite, and consists of a brief introduction to a person by the name of Anna Dale, and then an essay by this same Anna Dale titled “Below-par biosecurity should mean no badger cull licence”. To read this detailed essay please click on the graphic below.
BUSES IN CRISIS
This comes to you courtesy of the Campaign for Better Transport. Contained within this worrying piece is a bit of good news – an infographic relating to the achievements of 2016. To read the full detail on the crisis with Britain’s buses please click on the shocking graph below.
These figures do not speak so much as shout for themselves about Tory attitudes to public transport.
PHOTOGRAPHS 1: WORK
In this, the first of two sections of this post devoted to my photographs, I share some nature and transport related pictures from yesterday and Thursday at work. The first of these is of an item in the March auction, which I therefore use as a link to our online catalogue, while all the rest are from lots in our April auction.
Part of lot 948 in our April auction
Part of lot 950
Part of lot 951
Part of lot 953
Part of lot 956
Part if lot 961
Part of lot 962
Part of lot 963
Part of lot 964
This image and the next relate to lot 948
Likewise this image and the next relate to lot 934
PHOTOGRAPHS 2: LEISURE
To end the post here some photos from in and around King’s Lynn…
Several other species besides Cormorants enjoying “Cormorant Platform”
aspiblog 