St Peter Port; Monday, 11 August, 2003

Monday was a much more sedate day. Getting the 10:30 sailing from St Peter Port to Herm. The crossing takes about 20 minutes and once there Herm is a beautiful island.

Unlike Sark, Herm has been very strict with the motor transport. 1 tractor and a couple of quad bikes to empty the plentiful bins around the island. Even the kids have to give up their bikes by the time they get to 16! The island is very small (less than a mile long by 3/4 mile wide) but as most people head for the beaches on the East coast you can very quickly find yourself in absolute peace a quite overlooking the white sand dune beaches of the north coast or looking back onto the main bays from the South cliffs path. To walk the whole way round the island takes little over 2 hours if you walk fast, but it is well worth gently strolling to get a better view of the island.

After getting a late afternoon sailing back to St Peter Port, and a quick shower, it was time to visit the German Naval Headquarters, that open on Monday evenings from 7-9.

Built during the war to house the Naval intelligence for the German forces, this site is unique in not only giving you an idea of how the average German soldier spent their time at work, but because most of the details and information came from interviews with the officer who oversaw the construction and running of the site throughout the war. There is a short video presentation that includes part of those interviews and he (sadly now deceased) walks you round the site reminiscing on where things were and how the headquarters operated, especially once the islands had become isolated after D-day.

Finishing off the day I decided to get the bus from near the German Naval Headquarters back to Grand Rocquez on the west coast to watch the sunset. Unfortunately for me, the sea mists had different ideas and by the time I got there the sun couldn't be seen and all there was, was a light grey mist!