Adventures !

Hiya,

So this is just an update on the haps in jersey :)

On Saturday night it was a friend at work's birthday so we went to the pub in St. Aubins and then to the new club Mimosa in St. Helier. It was really fun and although I personally didn't take any photos some might pop up on facebook - not really sure. Anyway it was a good way to catch up with people outside of work and to see the social scene in Jersey - which is slightly better than Perth's - only Jersey has an excuse given that it's a tiny island of only 70 000 people.

Sunday was a very quiet day....

Anyway, today I continued my adventures around Jersey and went to St. Peter and St. Ouen's Bay. For those not familiar with the ins and outs of the island here is a map...

"Hmmm" you might be thinking, "she picked the only map that doesn't have St. Peter on it...what an idiot" well, you're right. But find me a better map of Jersey on google images within 2 minutes and I'll fly back and congratulate you....maybe. or just send you a congrats email. Anyway St. Peter is basically in line with the airport but on that large road that runs from St. Aubin's to St. Ouen's village. 

A friend from work, Hannah, works in a farmhouse tea room ( no joke - it actually is on a jersey cattle farm) in St. Peter and since I was complaining about the lack of decent coffee on the island she invited me to come up and try some from there - so I did. And it was really good ! plus I got some summer berry drizzle cake which was equally delicious. Next time I will take pictures of it cause it was a really pretty shop and the food all looked really good.

From there I walked to St. Ouen's Bay, which was about 2 mile down the road, and then I walked along the sea for a while. It was really nice and reminded me of home which was good cause I was starting to get a little homesick after skyping with the family yesterday.

This was just a cool fairytale house I saw on the road down to the sea. 

 The beach was really wide and flat and was actually sand ! Like most of the beaches in Jersey there was a little castle-y thing out in the water as well which was cool :)

Note to Katherine - it would be an amazing beach for horse-riding !

St. Ouen's Bay looking north

The headland, the lighthouse and then the sand castle :)

Family tradition, gotta touch the rock when you get to the end of the walk !

Looking back down the beach the way I came :)

So, why, you might ask, did I choose to walk 5 miles to/fro/up/down the beach instead of just catching the bus or something like that? well, one, I didn't really know where I was going or whether a bus would go there - as many if not all of you know, I like to just wander aimlessly, usually in the vague direction of where I'm trying to get to - sometimes in the opposite direction and sometimes in ever increasing circles. But, the MAIN reason that I walked is because I am in training.
That's right people, I am training to do the ITEX walk around Jersey...*cue Beethoven's 5th and Ride of the Walkyries and other ominous and exciting music*

The ITEX walk is a...wait for it...77km walk around the coastline for charity which starts at 3am and is done in one stretch...and it's in 2 weeks. I'll just pause for that to sink in............................

So yeah, I'm insane.

Hannah, who's Jersey born and raised, has done it no less than 6 times and she was going to do it by herself again this year but I agreed to do it with her. It'll, hopefully, be a really amazing way to see the coast of jersey and a good way to get involved :) Plus it's to raise money for 3 local charities so that has to be a good thing ! There's checkpoints with free food and massages and a bit of a rest every 5 kilometres or so and lot's of people to spur me on so I'm hoping to get at least half way before I collapse. I'm not stressing if I don't finish it but I hope to get as far as I can and I'll be super duper proud of myself if I can get fairly close to the end if not the end. I've been walking around 4 miles a day to/from work and did 5 miles today on my day off and I've been carb-loading, though admittedly not through any change in diet, and I'll be doing some more training walks of hopefully about 10 kms or so a couple of times a week.


So if you'd like to...here is the website for the walk - it has a route guide and everything on there so if you want to follow along then you can :) http://www.itexwalk.je/ I have to sign-up on the day so I don't have a "my walk" thingo you can see but I will try and take my camera along and take pictures along the way and at each of the checkpoints so you can have some idea of what's going on and where I am.

So yeah, that's what's been up :)

xx

Edit: It has been brought to my attention that in a previous post I assumed you guys know more about the zoo then you actually could. Sorry ! So, to explain, the "Ranges" "Off-show" and "Woods" that I was talking about are all different areas of the zoo. The "Ranges" are two areas much like what we have at Perth Zoo with outside enclosures on public display and then inside area the animals can go into which aren't on view. The "Off-show" area is a group of buildings, again with outside enclosures connected to inside areas ( I might call these dens or sheds), which are not on public display. This is either because the animals are particularly sensitive and get too stressed around people or, and this is true of most of them, because they're our most important breeding animals which are crucial to conservation efforts and are therefore off display. The "Woods" are literally a woodland in the middle of the zoo with some cabin-type buildings with indoor areas if the animals choose to use them. The animals in this area are free to roam around the entire zoo and are only kept inside because they have everything they need here and are territorial so they don't need to leave. I was told, however, that a group of silvery marmosets did once get as far as Victoria village and had to be rescued and brought back! haha ( NB> for those about to flick back to the map - Durrell is in Trinity and Victoria village is where the Y in the "Jersey" label is)