It was still dark when “HSC Tarifa Jet,” left Saint Malo for Jersey in the Channel Islands and made the 66 kilometer crossing in just over two hours. With the time difference—Jersey is on London time, an hour behind France—we found ourselves in Saint Heiler before much of anything was open.
Jersey is only 9 miles east-to-west by 5 miles north-to-south and has a population of around 100,000 “Jèrrais,” a third of whom live in Saint Heiler. With its compact size and cars renting for $150 a day, we decided to rent bikes, deciding against e-bikes not only because they cost twice as much but, frankly, I’ve always thought only wimps rode them.
The woman at Lakeys Bikes set us up with 18-speed Raleigh “city” bikes and gave Connie a map with some routes highlighted. Most of the riding in Jersey, she assured us, is on bike/pedestrian paths or former railroad beds so traffic wouldn’t be an issue. She failed to mention how many hills Jersey has. Or the afternoon wind. She couldn’t have known—but I should have realized—that is has been fifteen years since I’ve done any serious cycling. Nor did I figure on the rock-hard saddle or my jello-like quads.
Thirteen miles round trip to the Corbiere Lighthouse seemed doable—I used to ride that far every day in Colorado. By the time we reached Saint Aubon, e-bikes didn’t seem like such a bad idea. The next two miles were uphill and my poor bum was aching. But we got a nice rest at the lighthouse and it would be pretty much downhill back to Saint Aubon and lunch.
We had to go on-line to find the significance of the statue near the lighthouse. In April, 1995, ebbing spring tides and westerly Force 5 winds forced a French catamaran onto a rock 900 meters from Corbiere Lighthouse. A plaque on the statue reads, "This memorial is erected in thanksgiving and as a tribute to the rescue, which with the help of God and of many strong arms, ensured the safe return of all on board.” All 307 souls aboard were rescued.
The route back to Saint Heiler from Saint Aubon was just as flat as it was coming out. But the freshening wind was now in our face! We made several stops along Aubon Bay, looking for birds on the mudflats and watching dog walkers—with Saint Albons’ Fort in the background. I was very happy to turn in my bike, thank you very much, and look for a place to rest my weary arse.
With time to kill before the return ferry, wandered around Saint Heiler, stopping at Liberation Square to look at the Monument to Freedom sculpture which commemorates the May 9, 1945 liberation from from five years of German occupation during World War II. I just had to stop for a photo of the flying “Jersey Girl” statue and christened another one “Jersey Buoys.”
After a look around the Saturday market we rested our bones and tried to look innocent in the upscale Pomme d’Or Hotel before scouting out a pub for dinner. We were pleasantly surprised to find Beef Bourguignon nestled among the usual pub-grub choices—our tastiest meal in weeks!
We arrived back at the ferry terminal more than an hour before the scheduled departure—a good thing since the ferry left twenty minutes early. Still, we didn’t arrive back at our room until nearly 11:00 PM. Bonne nuit et fais de beaux rêves.
