Goodbye yellow brick road

In the early 20th century ​Jersey had two railways, one on the east of the Island (St Helier to Gorey) and one on the west (St Helier to Corbiere via St Aubin). Strangely neither line was linked to the other, so St Helier had two stations! 

Neither line was ultimately financially viable, the east line closing in the 1920’s and the west line in 1937 after a fire at St Aubin station burnt a lot of the rolling stock. 

All of which leads me to today’s adventure, walking part of the old railway line from St Aubin to Quennevais (& back)! As the photos show you can still see parts of the railway but it is now a well used walk/cycleway. It’s a comfortable walk slightly uphill going from St Aubin and therefore slightly downhill on the way back. Lots of trees to give shade, 4 miles in total and a very enjoyable hour and a half. I’ll do the second half from Quennevais to Corbiere and back at some point, so that’s another post for which I’m sure you can’t wait! 

The motivational sign was an unexpected bonus just after one of the bridges. 

Nous Somme du Soleil

​I lived in Jersey in the early 80’s and while I’ve been back a couple of times, I’m now here for a few weeks. Yesterday was a day of reminding myself what a beautiful island it is which started with a walk along St Aubin’s Bay. Glorious weather too! I then drove over to St Catherine’s along the narrow the roads and discovering new 20 mph zones! Everything takes longer. 

Lunch was taken at the cafe at St Catherine’s followed by a walk along the breakwater, where in the distance I could see Guernsey another home in the 90’s. There were dolphins swimming off the breakwater but they kept underwater while I was hoping to video them. I do have two nice videos of open water though! 

The trip home bought me to Gorey and I stopped, took the classic photo of Gorey Castle and then walked in to Gorey to take yet more photos of the castle. Day One ✅