The Channel Islands

Guernsey is only one of several islands but does have roads and cars. We also visited Sark and Herm which do not. On Herm you could walk everywhere, and on Sark there are horse and carts, bikes and tractors. Mostly they are holiday destinations with hotels, tents and self catering accommodation. They all have good beaches, with lots of boating too.

Guernsey's main town is St Peter Port , where Katrina and Charlie live. It is very steep with lots of steps and stairs up from the port, has a large smart shopping area, a very busy harbour with cruise ships coming and going, a castle, and a thriving financial sector. There is really no government except some sort of cross between heriditary and nominated officials, and no taxes are paid to Britian, although they are still British Territory and defended by the British military. They run their own schools and health services but go to England for anything major. There are many very good restaurants , all serving crab in many varies forms, but best in crab sandwiches. Lots of fish as well, including sea bass and sole.

The Occupation is still their main tourist focus, with lots of stories from the children who were evacuated and those that were left behind under German rule. They all ran out of food by the end of 1944 but Churchill wouldnt allow supplies to be sent because that would benefit the Germans, but a Red Cross boat did come in December and they were finally liberated in May 1945.

We saw some lovely gardens with great perennial borders in the traditional English style, although we went to a garden walk on Herm, and the young gardener was taking great pride in being waterwise and was growing many Australian and African plants, such as callistemon and many echiums

This is the view of Sark as we flew over with a very dramatic road which links Little Sark with Sark. The road is on a narrow strip with cliffs falling away on either side. We went to a lovely garden here at the home of the Seignor (the hereditary boss).

We went for 3 days to St Malo in France and 2 hours on the ferry. We all enjoyed this very much , and you realise that living on an island can be quite limiting, also the food was great in France. We went to Mont Saint Michel which was really spectacular, even without being cut off from the land, just a huge structure started in the Middle Ages built on to solid rock.

SEE YOU ALL SOON HOME VERY SOON

THE WEDDING

The wedding has been now going for about 4 days but the partying is winding down, mainly because the party girls and boys are going home today. It has been great fun, and as some had been to Mooltan for Christmas we had quite a lot of connections.and Jan (Maytone) is here.

We woke to a lovely sunny day on Friday, the first for the week, which made it just perfect by 3o'clock when we all gathered around the pool, then the wedding ceremony was at 4pm . It was very short and just the official bit. Then we had drinks and canapes on the lawn and photos. This is the view from the bottom of the garden. We couild see the lights of France when it got dark.

Dinner was served in the marquee and the dancing began. Some of us sat in the summerhouse enjoying a lively discussion. Katrina made a great speech and Edwin made a very good one too.

Then the end of the night and Charlie is wondering how he can get Katrinato give up the idea of going on clubbing with the rest of the crowd.

Public Transport

The weather took a turn for the better and so did Eddie's cough, although I have a fresh cold. We have had some great experiences, with Rick Stein the highlight. His session was generous, self-effacing, and entertaining. We were close to the action and they kept filling our glasses up with good wine and Chalky's Bite, his new beer. The food was also generous with three dishes from his new book, which is based on his trip through Asia. He has a real empire in Padstow, sometimes called Padstein, with a deli, a patisserie where we bought a Cornish pasty (very good), a cafe ( where we had a lovely lunch served by a very outgoing young woman from Zimbawe who had just been to Australia), a Roof terrace( where we had oysters and beer), we couldn't fit in Fish and Chips from his fish n'chip shop, or his pub which is a couple of km away from the town. The food was not expensive and the emphasis was on simple, straight forward local product. He is about to start a restaurant in Sydney where he lives for part of the year. Padstow is at the mouth of a river which rises very quickly when the tide comes in so we went on a boat up to Wadebridge one evening. We also went for a long walk -about 8 km on a coastal path then back along the beach. Padstow has very white wide sandy beaches just like home. It is very pretty but still a working fishing port.

We came across to Polperro using every kind of public transport there is. There is a great website which gives you all the options although a bit of local knowledge helps. First we got the big bus, with the driver egged on by most of the passengers, intimidateing all the other drivers into backing off in the narrow little lanes, then we got the train, then we got a smaller bus to Fowey to the ferry to Polruan. We didnt know where to find the ferry so that was a problem, dragging our luggage up and down hills, and the ferry was a very small boat. Then we got the smallest bus to Polperro. Politicians (and friends of) reading this please note- people with concession cards ride free in off peak, so there are always lots of people, sometomes just getting a ride up the hill. They all seem to know each other too.

At Polperro we had 3 days to settle in which was good. The first day we went for a 9km walk along the Coastal path, going around to Looe in a small boat, then walking back. It is only a narrow path and we were pretty tired by the time we finished, very glad to come around the corner and see Polperro which is behind a very narrow opening in the coastline. There are modern smuggler stories as well as old stories. Yesterday we went to a National Trust property which was very grand with lovely gardens as well. Today we are back to the other side to Newquay the surfing capital to go to Jamie Oliver's Fifteen and tomorrow back to London to meet up with June, Edwin and Frances,

Sunny England

Here we are in Plymouth, Cornwall which hasn't changed in 30 years. Last time it was Bank Holiday in August and it rained and rained. Since we got here it has been misty, grey and wet. We gave in and bought waterproof gear, but still came back damp. NB June - dont depend just on an umbrella. Tell Edwin & Frances you need serious wet weather gear, unless the weather takes a dramatic turn for the better.But somehow the greyness is part of the charm. In the background the gulls are making that special cry you hear in every English film about the sea. Everything is such a lush green. the roads are overhung with vegetation. The sides of the railway lines are covered in buddelia and evening primrose.

Plymouth has lots of connection to Australia, although I suppose that applies to all the places England was colonising . Drake sailed around the world nearly 200 years from Plymouth before Captain Cook sailed from here. Yesterday we battled up the Hoe, where Frances Drake played his game of bowls before his Amada defeated the Spanish and made England King of The Waves, the umbrellas were blowing inside out and really the only thing to do was retreat into a pub., appropriately named of course, the Admiral McBride just opposite the Mayflower Steps where the Pilgrim Fathers left for America.

We went up the Tamar Valley on a train ride today, to a small village that had pubs and not much else, so guess what we did? This train ride is famous for passing over the Tamar River on a very long viaduct, but from the train it didnt seem nearly as dramatic.

We also went over another famous bridge -the Royal Albert which is the subject of a really interesting exhibition at the City Museum and Art Gallery. We spent quite a bit of time there because it was warm and dry. The exhibition was also about the Eddystone Light as well, which was a remarkable engineering feat, when built in the 1700's about 14 miles off shore. The rock it was built on started to crack, and they dismantled it and brought it back to Plymouth (and became Smeaton Tower), after the replacement had been built nearby. I hope the Gabo Lighthouse is on solid foundations. This Museum had the best kids' program I have ever seen. There were stacks of kids playing with lego and train sets making things, and they even had wooden blocks showing how the lighthouse was fitted together, so kids could build up a lighthouse.

On our way back to our B&B, we walked through a very new shopping centre which wasn't a patch on the one we were staying near in Kuala Lumpur. I think the English might be the last to notice. Eddie still has a shocking cough, and had a very miserable plane trip. Our plan to get the train straight to Plymouth worked fine, although the train was so crowded we couldn't sit together for part of the way, but I knew where he was sitting because of his cough. Conversations invariably swing to swine flu whenever he is in the vicinity. Katrina's friend Jan who used to fill in at Maytone was on our flight from Mebourne with another friend of Katrina's on their way to Bali before they go on to Guernsey for the wedding. Also Kate White and Peter Dunne from Hepburn Springs were going through to London . Kate was planning to have a significant birthday in Paris.