Glorious Gorey

One of the best things to do while you’re visiting Jersey is to walk. There are special footpaths made for walkers, and also tons and tons of walking maps created just for walkers to follow. If walking on your own with a map doesn’t tickle your fancy then why not join a guided walk? That’s what I decided to do on Friday last week.

 It was the perfect day for walking, too! Sunny, hardly any wind and I’d guess the temperature was about 65 degrees (sorry my fellow Floridians who are suffering in the diabolical heat right now, I love you!!). So I rang up the Pontac House where they always have a printed list of things to do on the island for every day of the week and I asked about the walks that would be taking place the next day, Friday. Gorey is one of the most beautiful and historic places here and one of my personal favorites, so when I heard that there was a guided walk called “Glorious Gorey” taking place at 2 p.m. I decided to go for it.

Arthur Lamy was the guide for my tour, but not just any old guide….a Blue-Badge guide. There’s a small number of Blue-Badge guides in Jersey and I was lucky enough to have one as my guide. He’s a third generation Jerseyman and he’s been a tourist guide for more than 15 years! He’s also a writer and apart from walking tours he does cycle tours as well.

I had Beth drop me off at the meeting point for the walk, which was the bus stop at Gorey. I thought for a second that if I was the only person signing up for this walk then I would quietly and discretely sneak away and call Beth to pick me back up. I saw Arthur ride up on his bike and lock it up, it was 2 o’ clock on the dot and I was still the only person standing at the bus stop. As he walked up the street to the bus stop I had to make a quick decision--leave or stay? Of course I stayed! He looked really cool and I wanted to give it a chance.

 We ended up going on the three-hour walk together and I really got a lot more than I expected. Arthur was incredibly knowledgeable, intelligent and he knew more about the island and about Gorey than anyone I know. We walked through the village lined with shops, restaurants and hotels then up to the castle. From the castle we went up a steep hill and down a small lane to some Neolithic graves! He showed me where the man who captured the Rosetta Stone lived, the gravesite of Sir William haley, the author of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and he told me the short version of the Lilly Langtry story. By 5 p.m. we were walking back up the route of the old Jersey Eastern Railway back to our starting point. I had such a good time! You get to see so much more of the island by foot than you ever would by car. I will be doing another walk very soon that’s for sure. And for only £5 there’s no better and cheaper way to spend your day.

I was completely parched after the walk, so I popped into the Dolphin Hotel to wet my whistle with a pint of cider and black. That’s my favorite drink to have here, it’s a pint of Strongbow cider with a dash of blackcurrant to give it an even sweeter taste. Inside the bar one of the first World Cup games was playing. Sitting at the bar on my own and sipping on my pint of cider and black made me feel like I was truly having a Jerseylicious day. Cheers!

xx

Lindsay