La Varde, Guernsey

“Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.” 
Benjamin Hoff : The Tao of Pooh

In the finest traditions of my photography day’s out, I had time for a relaxed cooked breakfast before heading out on the buses to explore Guernsey. We planned on doing a full circuit of the island, stopping off along the way at local attractions. First stop St Sampson’s to visit the church where Linda Martel is buried, still a place of pilgrimage judging by the tokens left at her grave. I knew nothing of her until last night when I was planning a few stops on our circuit, but when I arrived at the church there was a local chap sitting there, happened to stop off for a few minutes on his way to work. We chatted and I mentioned Linda, so he escorted me to her grave. Amazing synchcronicity I thought, no-one else around and I only stopped off there on spec. Didn’t stop long because K1 was at the port waiting for me (checking out the local shops) to continue our walk around the headland via Vale Castle to Bordeaux Harbour where we could pick up the next bus. Enough time for a pit stop at the kiosk and as we waited at the bus stop I checked and double checked the location and bus times. Breathed a sigh of relief when it appeared a few minutes late, seems a long time at the side of the road in the hot sun. Next stop Pembroke Bay for another short walk, this time to the see the Martello towers and the Dolmen at La Varde (photo), conveniently sited in the middle of the golf course. Nearby is the more recent standing stone, the Millennium Stone erected in 1999. There’s also WWII concrete anti-aircraft battery emplacement, so plenty of interest from recent to ancient history. We stayed on the next bus for the sight-seeing circuit around the west of the island back to St Peter Port. There was one more curiosity I wanted to see, we’d passed a signpost for it but too far to walk and it would be closing at 6pm, so we had just enough time to get the next bus out there. The Little Chapel is a small chapel elaborately decorated with seashells, pebbles and broken china/ceramics, modelled on the basilica at Lourdes and built in 1914 by Brother Déodat. Lovely place to finish off our day’s travels around the island.