Herm; Friday, 02 August, 2019

I got up relatively early as I wanted to make a late morning sailing over to Herm, but mostly as I wanted to leave some time for breakfast as I was expecting it to be good, considering how good dinner had been, and I wasn’t disappointed. Once again the food and service were excellent.

After breakfast I headed back to my room, packed my bag, checked out and walked round the corner to the bus stop to pick up the bus down into St Peter Port and the harbour. I arrive with about 30 minutes to spare before the departure of the next boat to Herm so I was able to book my ticket (discounted as I had a reservation for the hotel) and head over to an ATM to pick up some cash, just in case anywhere on Herm didn’t like plastic. I then headed down to the boat and boarded.

It was a lovely day and clearly lots of people were making the daytrip to Herm, so the boat was already full a good 10 minutes before it was due to depart. The boat company had obviously realised this would happen and 5 minutes before we were due to depart we left the quayside to make way for the relief boat which was coming in to pick up the rest of the passengers.

A pleasant 20 minute sail across the sea we landed at the Rosaire steps – the low tide landing point – and I walked the couple of hundred yards down to the hotel. At this point it was too early to check-in, but I was able to drop off my bag (after having fished my camera out of it) and then head out onto the island to explore.

The first part of the explore wasn’t actually that long as I headed down to the Mermaid Tavern to stop for a quick lunch and to pick up some water from the kiosk as I though I’d probably need it.

Lunch completed I headed off to start a slow wander around the island. I headed north along the main island path and followed it past Fisherman’s beach before I reached the small island Cemetery and the slope down onto Bears Beach. As it was a very low tide the water had retreated so far that from here I was able to continue on walking around the whole of the top of the island at beach level, with the sea itself in places still several hundred yards further out.

I walked along the soft sands of Bears and Mouisonniere beaches before reaching Alderney point in the far North East of the island. At this point Mouisonniere beach turns into Shell beach, so named as the beach is made up of millions of tiny shell fragments, which makes it a slightly less comfortable walk than the other beaches. I stopped off at the small kiosk at shell beach for an ice cream and to finish my water before heading back the quick way across the common to the hotel as it was now time to check-in.

I grabbed my bag from the luggage room and walked the short distance from the hotel to my room which was actually in one of the converted cottages – conveniently this one was located next to the Mermaid Tavern and the main island shop – which as all the restaurants and pubs had bookings for the night turned out to be useful to be able to purchase some stuff to make my own picnic dinner later.

Having completed my self catering dinner I looked out to see that the tide was now close to high tide, so I changed into my swimming stuff and headed down to the Fisherman’s beach, a couple of hundred yards from my room, for an evening swim. If I though the water in Corfu a couple of weeks earlier had been colder than I was expecting the water off of Herm in early August was every bit as cold as I was expecting – that kind of cold that has you gasping for breath. After a couple of minutes wading out I either acclimatised to the water temperature, or I just lost all feeling in my body. I spent about 30 minutes having a swim before heading back to my room to grab my camera and go for a walk around the centre of the island at sunset.

I headed up the main road that climbs steeply up the side of the island to the old manor and church at the very centre of the island, and on one of the highest points, before descending back down to Belvoir Bay on the opposite side of the island. I’d stayed in my swim wear so I was able to have a little paddle at Belvoir Bay before walking round to Shell Beach and have a little paddle there as well – though deciding not to actually go swimming as there was nobody else around – great for the views, not so good if I’d gotten into trouble. From Shell Beach I headed back over the common to my room, watching the end of the sunset as it disappeared behind Guernsey on the horizon.