Wednesday 16 September 2026

An early flight from Southampton, and an even earlier pick up from Hampshire, has us landing in St Helier shortly after 9am.

Four US Marine Chinooks are there to greet us

Oh, apparently they are not for us after all, but support for US Commander In Chief’s visit to Ireland.

We’re welcomed in style, and always ready for a chat

We collect our car at the airport and drive straight to the hotel, an old building right on the waterfront. We take a walk and observe several people swimming. The tides are obviously extreme here – extreme high and low. As the tide recedes later in the day we note a concrete swimming pool which was completely covered earlier.

We hop back in the car and spend the day driving the coast. The roads are narrow and the coastline is great. The top speed limit is 40 MPH and quite often if two cars meet oncoming, one has to reverse. There’s just not enough room to pass.

Jersey has an interesting history. First settled by the Normans, and a Duchy of Normandy, it then fell to the British after which Jersey remained loyal to the British Crown. It was invaded several times by the French, the British defended and the Nazis occupied during WW2. It’s now a self governing British Crown Dependency. The coast is lined with forts, mostly built by the French to keep the British out, but some built by the British to keep the French out

A visit to Gorey Harbour shows the extremes of the tides

But everywhere we go, we see people swimming

A drive by several old ports introduces us to how charming this little island is. It’s only 45 square miles but it sure packs a punch

Thursday 17 September 2026

This morning Cherrie has an appointment with the Jersey Archives. It’s true that we have both long wanted to visit the Channel Isles, but the real catalyst for now is Cherrie’s recent interest in tracing her family history. She has a great-grand uncle, on her mother’s side, Charles Binnie, a single man (read into that what you will). Charles lived on Jersey for a couple of years until 1938, when the Nazi’s moved in. He also lived in Quirindi (NW NSW), Sydney, Canada and the Bahamas. Not sure why, but hopefully her continuing research will reveal more. Today the archives office has allowed her to view his will and identify some property he owned.

Whilst she is doing that, I find a chiropractor who can get my spine back to where it should be, so I can walk again. Missions accomplished.

We spend the afternoon sucking our bellies in so we can transverse the narrow roads. Lots of French spoken here and the street names reflect this

We are, after all, only 23kms from France and 85kms from England. Of course le francais est parle

Friday 18 September

We set off to find Charles Binnie’s house. And we find it

We knocked on the door but no one was home. Shame

A visit to the Botanic Gardens, and an outrageously expensive entry fee, reveals very little garden but the sweetest rose aroma Cherrie has ever smelt. And it wasn’t even Hyde-ing

Here’s the rest of the garden

There’s also a curious museum at the gardens

The Long Arm of the Law crosses our path. Filming of Bergerac (Series 3) prohibits us finding a park on our return visit to the little village of Gorey Harbour, but we have wandered around yesterday so no big deal. All Jersey roads lead to the same place at least three times we find.

Tonight, back at the hotel, all hell breaks loose in the room above us. Yelling, screaming, furniture throwing and general mayhem wakes us and keeps us awake. Cherrie finally phones the night porter at 1.15am to complain and things settle, for a short while. But they heat up again and at 3am we think our ceiling will fall in with the noise and furniture throwing above. It finally goes quiet at 3.15am

Saturday 19 September

Hotel reception phones at 8.30am asking us to go down to meet the police. They are here to gather evidence with regard to last night’s assault, which finally settled at 3.15am with her leaving the hotel and him being admitted to hospital. The room is totally trashed and the police need statements. Cherrie delivers hers in great detail, including a recording she took on her phone. She is so impressive that my statement is poo-poohed and not required!

It’s rainy today and after our post interrogation breakfast, we check out of the hotel. As we are loading the car we see the police departing the back door of the hotel with several evidence bags. There’s a lot of bloody towels in those bags.

We don’t fly out until mid afternoon, so we head to town and wander around the city of St Helier, doing not much. But, good gourd, look at those pumpkins

This is Liberation Square, where they clearly feel liberated

We’re leaving Jersey. We’ve seen the namesakes

we’ve seen their milk and their cream and their ice cream. But the myth….the myth of the Jersey Caramel. It is just that. A myth. The Jersey Caramel does not exist. It is an Australian thing. No one in Jersey has ever heard of them. Fudge yes, caramel no. Life is full of disappointment

We return our car at the airport and fly to Southampton at 4.30pm,where we collect another car and drive to our hotel which turns out to be right in the famous Southampton docks. Tomorrow to Hereford and our dear friends, John and David