Mourier Valley

Mourier Valley is on the north coast of Jersey.  We parked at Sorel Point and walked west along the cliff path.  It was a gorgeous day and it was lovely to be able to walk sans coats!  We hope you enjoy the view as much as we did!

This rocky reef is knows as The Paternosters.  You can see Guernsey in the background!

This poor tree is a victim of the elements!

We just managed to get the moon into the shot below with some extra contrast.

Seymour Tower

Seymour Tower is a coastal defence tower built on a rocky tidal island called L'Avarison, located 1.25 miles east of the south east corner of Jersey.  It can reach it on foot during low tide, but walkers must take care when walking to or from the tower as the tide comes in very quickly (see below!).  If you are used to roughing it you can rent out this "delightful" tower. Facilities are minimal. There is some electricity but no running water. Guests must bring back all waste (including bagged toilet waste) for disposal on shore. Guests staying overnight must bring their own sleeping bags and must be accompanied by a registered guide! Not really our idea of a holiday!  You can see below a doorway on the left hand side which is approximately four feet from the base and only accessible by a rusty iron ladder.  Before we even knew about the lack of facilities this put Rebekah off straight away!  Once at the tower you can only leave once every six hours due to the tides so no quick trips to the supermarket for those forgotten eggs!

As you can only access this at low tide we check the tides for the first weekend of February and these combined with sunny weather made the perfect combination so off we went with camera in hand!

Love on the beach!

As mentioned before the tides come in VERY quickly, at a rate of 10 kph (6.21 miles per hour).  The contours of the land vary and from the shore to Seymour Tower the land rises around half way then falls again.  Click here for a real time film of how quickly the tide comes in a half tide (three hours after low tide).  We experienced this at a beach just a mile up from here and its quite amazing how fast the tide comes in! We just managed to escape with dry feet!

These are markers to guide you around the smoothest parts.

If one should happen to be out walking and get cut off there is an emergency tower around half a mile from the shore.  The wait is around 3-4 hours before the tide is low enough to walk back to shore or the coastguard comes to rescue you!  The same sign as above is displayed on the slip where the walk begins to warn walkers of the danger of the fast incoming tides.  Its best to walk out with the tide if you have small children so that you have more time to walk out and return in good time without being stranded.  We walked there and back in just over an hour and the tide is slowest at the turn of the tide so we were safe!  It was also a very low tide as a result of an exceptionally high spring tide. 

Mussel beds!

Portelet Common

As you may have gathered by now Jersey is a BEAUTIFUL island! We have so many opportunities for gorgeous walks on beaches, commons, cliff paths and the many bays that make up the coastline.

One Sunday we went to Portelet Common for a walk.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, too beautiful to stay indoors. Mike charged up "the dog" and off we went!  Below are some photographs of the coastline.

The small building here is Janvrin's tomb which was named after Captain Janvrin who was buried there after he died of plague aboard his ship.

The small tower here is Noirmont point.  A few months ago we went and watched a meteor shower there, sheltered inside a WW2 German bunker!

Who could this be..........?

Mike and "the dog".

Petrified Forest

A few weeks ago we read on the news that a section of petrified forest has been uncovered at St Ouen's. 650 years ago, a man called John Willis owned a large house - the Manor of La Brecquette, at L'Etacq.  It was surrounded on two sides by a forest of oak trees. One year, waves moved up St. Ouen's beach and began to flood the land.  The sea rose until it covered the manor, and eventually it covered the oak forest as well.

When the tide is very low at St. Ouen's, you can still see black tree stumps - the petrified forest, all that remains of the oak trees that once surrounded the manor.  The stumps can be seen at the northern end of the bay.  This strip that had been uncovered after a high tide and windy weather was more like a mass of petrified wood.  It was spongy to walk on and we could still see the roots underneath the main petrified mass.

As it was raining quite heavily Rebekah took these photographs with her 12 year old phone so they are poor quality for enlarging!  We did not stay longer than 10 minutes as it really was a grey miserable day!  We are glad to have finally been able to capture this piece of history as there have been other times that we have been down to see if the forest has been uncovered after a high, stormy tide.