Guensey's South Coast

Following Brian's epic swim to the Hanois we headed east towards Pleinmont Point, to meet the south coast of Guernsey and head towards St Peter Port.  The south coast of the island is spectacular and continuous.  There are very few places with easy access to the sea , so there is always a feeling of commitment when kayaking in this area.  

After a gap of a few years of paddling in this area it is pretty satisfying to have completed the south coast paddle twice in just over 8 weeks.  It is probably 2015 before another opportunity will occur.

 Arriving at the south coast, having crossed from the Hanois Lighthouse we reached the coast just to the west of L'Angle Tower.  Constructed by the German's it is one of the most impressive range finding towers in the Channel Islands and is unusual that it is rectangular as opposed to be round.

There is nearly always some interesting geology to be seen.

La Prevote Tower is another large fortification along this section of the coast.

 Just leaving Petit Pot after a quick lunch break.  This is probably the only place along the south coast where there is relatively easy access with a car, although parking is not always easy.  The tower is one of 15 which were built around Guernsey between August 1778 and March 1779, as a defence against possible French invasion.

 Approaching Icart Point

 

 Approaching the Pea Stacks, close to the south west corner of the island.  These are dissected by a number of channels and the height of the tide was ideal for exploration by kayak.  They were painted by Renoir in the summer of 1883, when he visited Guernsey.

 

 Heading through the channel between the Pea Stacks and the mainland.  The tidal flow, which was in our favour is just visible.

 Conditions remained ideal as we headed towards St Peter Port.  Just after taking this photograph we were graced with an encounter with some dolphins.  In contrast to the bottle nose dolphins that I have seen on many occasions off Jersey these were Risso's Dolphins.

Coasteering in Guernsey

I had paddled along this section of coast, in south east Guernsey, numerous times over the years but this week I had the first opportunity to explore it at sea level and I wasn't disappointed.

I was in Guernsey for the Channel Islands meeting of the National Coasteering Charter and it would have been foolish to spend the whole day sitting talking about the activity, without any practical input.  Ant Ford Parker from Outdoor Guernsey collected myself and Penny from Pure Adventure from the airport, to take us the car park at Jerbourg.

We could see quite clearly from the flight over that there was a reasonable swell running and it was likely to create entertaining conditions as we headed west along our chosen route towards the Pea Stacks.  The quality of the coasteering along this section of coast was higher than we expected, as we spent just over 2 hours playing along a fascinating stretch of coast.

 The descent route from Jerbourg Point car park.  St Martin's Point lighthouse is just visible on the rocks.  Our route went off to the right.

 The was plenty of swimming in the relatively choppy waters.

 A few small jumps along the way maintained the interest.

 There were a number of narrow channels to swim through, although at times the swell would surge through the gaps.

Some of the gullies provided a degree of shelter which allowed relatively easy egress from the water.

At times leaving the water was a matter of timing.

 A times a larger swell could appear creating more challenging conditions.  The white helmet of the swimmer is just visible above the right hand side of the rock.

 The Pea Stacks marked the end of the journey.  They were painted by Renoir, during his short stay in Guernsey during the summer of 1883.

 Looking back along part of the route once we had regained the cliff path.  Sark is just visible in the distance, the location of great coasteering.