A Gentle Tour?

I’ve just about got over the jet lag from China. My Fitbit is telling me that I’ve been doing a great deal of “Deep Sleep” which is what tends to be missing when on Tour, so I should be just about ready for the next one! I leave on Friday 10th May.

I’ve taken on an extra Tour – The Charms of the Channel Islands. For some reason this Tour did not have a Tour Manager allocated, and Great Rail Journeys tend to call me up for help when they’ve got something last minute, usually due to sickness or compassionate issues for the allocated Tour Manager. I can just squeeze this Tour in between China and the USA, and since it seems, in theory at least, to be a relatively straight forward Tour, I accepted it. Of course, our life experience warns us all that these are the decisions that come back to bite us… fingers crossed.

The Tour itself looks rather pleasant, being seven days in this rather pleasant corner of the world. I haven’t visited the islands since I was much younger, but everything that I have read up on tells me that they are a charming and beautiful part of the world.

For those unfamiliar, The Channel Islands are located just off the coast of France mainly in the Bay of St Malo. They are not a country but rather a handy way of describing two entirely separate British Crown Dependencies, which are each self-governing in all respects except for Defence and Foreign Affairs, which remain the responsibility of the United Kingdom. The Islands fall into two separate Bailiwicks (historic feudal divisions), each of which has its own separate government, namely Jersey & Guernsey (Guernsey includes the islands of Alderney, Sark and Herm). Starting in June 1940, the islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the German Army during World War II. The end of the occupation came after VE-Day on 8 May 1945, Jersey and Guernsey being liberated on 9 May. The German garrison in Alderney was left until 16 May, and it was one of the last of the Nazi German remnants to surrender.

Our hotels look to be good, and well positioned and the group is a small one – only 18 people. The weather forecast is looking reasonably promising, although I need to keep a close eye on the ferry sailing from Poole to Guernsey. The ferry is a high speed Catamaran type, which makes for a fast crossing (3½ hours) but the seas have to be relatively calm for it to operate – If not we have to transfer to the ferry which take 8 hours and is more complicated to manage.

So, let’s hope that this Tour lives up to its’ promise. I’ll be blogging throughout, so you’ll find out soon enough