Portelet Pizza

For a number of years the old beach cafe at Portelet gradually crumbled through disuse, it's decline seemingly linked to the closure of the holiday camp, which used to dominate the cliff top above and the associated drop in the number of visitors to the beach.

This year has seen the refurbishment of the building and its reopening as a pizza place and the Jersey Canoe Club decided to visit the Portelet Bay Cafe for lunch on the last day of August.  A paddle from Ouaisne allowed us to visit some of the historical sites, which exist along this section of coast.

This was followed by a very pleasant break at Portelet Bay Cafe, the pizzas are highly recommended, and the paddle back assisting with their digestion.  Considering it was a rather grey day with an increasing north westerly wind we think we made pretty good use of the time.

 Leaving from Ouaisne is always fascinating as we pass close to La Cotte de St Brelade, which is one of the most important neanderthal sites in north west Europe.  Within the ice age sediments there are thousands of stone tools in addition to the bones of their prey.

 To the south lies the small stack of La Cotte Island, which has a number of short climbs on its west face.

 The first major headland is Pt Le Fret.  It is fully exposed to the Atlantic swell but today it was all calm and we able to thread our way through the gullies.  Earlier this year the swell so large that we had to keep about 200 metres out, when rounding the point.

 Noirmont Tower was completed in 1814 to help protect the southern coast of the island from potential invasion by the French.  Today the lighthouse marks the western approach to St Helier.

 Nicky passing in front of Batterie Lothringen, part of a World War 2 coastal battery.  The first part was completed in 1941 but this tower was built April and October 1943.

 On the beach at Portelet, after our pizza's.  Today was a particularly large spring tide, when we had landed less than 2 hours before, we left our kayaks at the waters edge.

 Another Jersey round tower, it was completed 6 years earlier than the nearby one at Noirmont, in 1806.  A sergeant and 12 soldiers manned the tower, it must have been rather crowded.

Sunday Morning Session

Not surprisingly it was another grey morning, where has the sun gone this month?  In contrast to the last few days the wind had swung around to the north west but the temperature was still struggling to rise above 2 degrees.  In these conditions Ouaisne offered the most interesting kayaking conditions for the Jersey Canoe Club Sunday morning session.

Between Pt le Fret and Portelet the cliffs are fairly steep and some have been developed for rock climbing.  Today there were two Peregrines soaring above the headland.  Always a spectacular sight.

Portelet Bay has its small island, Ile au Guerdain, often referred to, inaccurately, as Janvrin's Tomb.  Philippe Janvrin, a St Brelade's sea captain, had been dead for ninety years when the tower was built, although it is true to say that he was initially buried here as his body was not allowed to be brought ashore.

 Les Fours Buoy with Noirmont headland behind.   It is off the south coast of Jersey and all maritime traffic heading towards St Helier passes between the buoy and the headland behind.  If you didn't know your cardinal marks you could be caught out here.

 Some of the Jersey Canoe Club group around Les Fours Buoy with the south west coast of the island behind.

 Noirmont Tower which serves as a lighthouse, with a visible range of 13 miles.  Construction was started in 1810 and finished 4 years later, part of extensive fortifications to help defend the island from French invasion.  It is rare that sea conditions, in this area, are as calm as they were today

More Archaeological Paddling

Following on from this summers coastal kayaking with visiting archaeologists we concluded the season with another trip along some of the cliffs of the south west of Jersey looking for potential new sites.
In un-seasonably warm conditions we were able to explore sections of the coast which we hadn't been able to get close to in July, due to the somewhat disappointing summer weather.

Looking back towards La Cotte de St Brelade from near Pt Le Fret.  La Cotte is continuing to reveal its secrets and is one of the most important sites in the British Isles, if not Europe.  Re-construction of the landscape has shown that the cave was situated at the head of a river valley.  What look like granite stacks are probably the remnants of the valley sides.  

 Portelet Bay, with Ile au Guerdain a small island with a martello tower on top.  Built to help protect the island from Napoleonic forces.  We were looking for fissures within the granite which had been filled by head, material from peri-glacial environments.

Looking at a potential site.

On the western side of the bay, close to Noirmont it was clear that this fissure in the granite and been filled in, by loose material.  Could this be another La Cotte de St Brelade?

After a great last paddle for the season with Matt Pope who knows what next season will reveal?