Change of plans today as it started grey and wet – not a beach day, but brunch at a beach café then a wander to Noirmont. Bloody hell, that’s all I can say. More gun emplacements, command centres and other remains than you could shake a fist at.
After which we descended about a million steps to a lovely little beach. See that line of large stones in the cliff? That’s the Neolithic beach level.
The final part of our adventure last Sunday was down a Hohlgangslagen (cave passage) in St Helier. Both interesting and extremely moving. This split into two passages, neither of which were competed due to hitting a rock fault, so used for storage rather than a way to swiftly take injured soldiers to the military hospital.
The soldiers based there had apparently passed the time by painting the wall with a town map, featuring their favourite strip club.
But more poignant were the etched names and dates that must have related to slave workers who worked – and probably died – creating these structures. We must never forget the horrors of those years.
Having explored Strongpoint Corbiere, we went to Greve de Lecq tower, which was built in the 1770s and fortified with blast wall, etc by the WWII occupying forces. More ladders to challenge us – just as well I wasn’t here 40 years ago because I couldn’t climb even a couple of rungs back then.
Great view from the top – we resisted throwing things on invaders.
We couldn’t resist playing in the armoury, though.
Last night the Cochranes had a remarkable adventure, courtesy of the Jersey Bunker Tours team, having a private viewing of some of the fortifications on the island. We started with Strongpoint Corbiere and two bunkers – one for a machine gun and one for a mortar – connected by an underground passage. Readers, you’d have been amazed to see me shinning up and down ladders, but it was all worth it.
Chilling words and a chilling reminder of what might have been.
More of those magnificent cocks…
a kestrel (couldn’t zoom in on the puffins that were sitting on the sea in a cove below)
and my fave, the lizards…
So we went to find guns
and Roman/Neolithic sites
en route to a fish barbecue
all of which were great, BUT the best thing? Unexpected sighting of choughs. I’ve never seen a wild one before.
So off we set to find the remains of a WWI POW camp. Stunned at how much remained!
Then we spotted an interesting looking stone in the distance. Turned out to be something 4,000 + years old, as opposed to a mere 100.
Then there was:
