St Peter Port; Wednesday, 18 August, 2004

First stop for the morning was Fort Richmond, which looks quite similar to many of the forts on Alderney. Like most of the forts in Alderney it is not open to the public and in a state of decay! Nearby is more evidence of the length of time that humans have lived on the islands with a small collection of Mehnirs standing by the side of the road.

After coming back into town and having a spot of lunch I headed off to Pleinmont and the Pleinmont observation tower. It is one of the few German observation towers that are open to the public (Wednesday only!) There is lots of information inside on the construction and use of the towers and the views from the roof are well worth the dodgy final climb up a short ladder and a large step back over the open cover you have just emerged from!

After leaving the tower I walked down the cliff path to Pezeries Point and the aptly named Fort Pezeries. All that remains of the fort is a small amount of retaining wall and one of the magazine stores.

After walking back to the bus stop at Pleinmont I decided to get the bus the long way back into town, via the North of the Island. In the end I was very glad I did as we went through one of the most spectacular storms I have ever seen. One minute the sky was clear, then full of very dark clouds and then from nowhere the wind whipped up and massive hail stones started falling. It was barely 5 seconds from the storm starting to the bus reaching the bus stop, but in that time the person waiting was absolutely soaked!

Thankfully, by the time I got back to St Peter Port the rain had stopped.