Guernsey – Take Two

Thanks to an annoying bout of island fog, cancelled flights, stand-by sagas in Gatwick and unexploded World War 2 bombs, my weekend visit to Guernsey was certainly not lacking in drama! Who said life was dull on the island huh?!

Despite all of these things, coming back to Guernsey for the weekend in mid-August was brilliant. Along with my younger sis Liv and her boyfriend, James, Dan and I flew over to hang out with the parents for a few days and enjoy the summer. Cue copious amounts of G&T’s, heaps of mum’s homecooked food, bbq’s, boules, bike rides, boardgames and beach swims…

Dinner on our first night was at our local The Deerhound in the Forest (name of parish not an actual Forest!). James, a newbie to the island, discovered Liberation Ale here along the Deerhound’s famous ‘Espatadas’ main meal – a glorified fancy kebab with either peri peri chicken, mixed grill or seafood. The definition of delicious if you’re after a nice dinner or a long lazy lunch. FYI they don’t take reservations but you will usually get seated within about 30 mins, and a perfect excuse for a drink at the bar anyway right? We used the wait to cheers us all being together as a family…

(ABOVE: Espetadas Extravaganza)

If you’re visiting Guernsey, I would recommend Saints Bay for a gorgeous little swim. The following day, post bike ride, we all grabbed our towels and headed to the beach. One of the bays nestled away down the bottom of a valley in the St Martins parish of the island, it’s a hidden gem with a lovely little cafe too for tea, icecreams and scones.

Suitably chilled from our beach jaunt, it was time for a BBQ in the garden (dad’s famous for it) and a cheeky game of Boules whilst the sausages, burgers, prawns and chicken grilled away. Tip: If you are holding a BBQ yourself in Guernsey, you HAVE to head to Forest Stores and get Jason’s Pork Sausages, I’ll say no more…just trust me and do it!

Mid-scoffing, we started chatting about the crazy news of a WW2 bomb that had been found over the weekend on the island – and it was unexploded. This is BIG news for the island. The radio had just announced that it was going to be detonated at 8pm that evening off the coast of St Peter Port and we decided we couldn’t miss this. Decamping into our cars, we shot off to a great vantage point at Fort George to mark this one-off event.

It turned out that we had the most unbelievable view and it was really quite incredible to see something from history explode in front of our eyes. The WW2 history here in Guernsey is what makes the island so incredibly unique for me (for those who don’t know, Guernsey and the Channel Islands were taken over and occupied by Nazi Germany in WW2 – the only piece of the UK to be taken over by Germans.) This picture is from Google as sadly my camera didn’t justify the explosion but this gives you an idea…

We all left with excitement on our faces at being part of history in a small way. And in the word’s of Jeremy Clarkson in Top Gear ‘And on THAT bombshell’ (pun massively intended)…until next time readers!

LMNH x