I am writing this post in a guest house at St Peter Port on the island of Guernsey. I am on a family holiday the centrepiece of which is a few days in Fort Clonque on the island of Alderney. We have time on Guernsey either side of that due to the fact the only ferries we could book were one going out of Portsmouth yesterday morning and one returning to Poole a week today. Just for the record these ferries are run by Condor, which is not part of the Pathetic & Obnoxious Group (P&O for short) who are currently treating their employees so atrociously.

KING’S LYNN TO PORTSMOUTH

Owing to the amount of stuff she and my nephew were taking my sister drove from King’s Lynn to Portsmouth, then took her car to Poole ready for the return journey before getting a train back to Portsmouth. I travelled by train (I had intended to do the same for the return journey from Poole before change in ferry times nixed that idea, so I will be a passenger in her car for the return journey). I got the 13:44 from Lynn to London which ran to time, giving me just under an hour to get from King’s Cross to Waterloo for the train to Poole, far more time than needed for that journey. I elected to take the Victoria line to Oxford Circus and then the Bakerloo line to Waterloo, deciding that although changing to the Jubilee at Green Park was quicker in terms of time spent on trains that difference would be more than accounted for by the difference between the cross-platform hop at Oxford Circus and the long interchange at Green Park, especially given the weight of my bags.

I arrived at Waterloo half an hour before my train to Portsmouth was due to depart, and had to wait for the platform to be confirmed. The train arrived in Portsmouth on time, and I made my way to the Travelodge, about three minutes walk from Portsmouth and Southsea station, where my sister my nephew and I were booked into a three bed room for the night.

PORTSMOUTH TO GUERNSEY

Originally our ferry was supposed to set out at 9AM, which would have meant being at the terminal by 8AM (Guernsey is a ‘crown dependency’, not part of Britain, so this is officially an international journey), but a delay meant that check was not until 9:30AM. Once we got underway it was smooth sailing – there were a few small waves in evidence in the open sea but it was never remotely rough.

We arrived into St Peter Port just after 5PM, and were established at our guest house an hour later.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…