Easy day

It seemed a very good idea to take it easy this morning after our busy day yesterday.  John and I walked up to the village bakery in St. Martin for rolls freshly out of the oven and then we all sat out on our patio over a leisurely breakfast in the sun/shade, enjoying the entertainment of various people leaving at the end of their holidays, Sandra and Janet (our friendly housekeepers) buzzing around with baskets laden with fresh towels, loo rolls etc., each topped with a gache - a Guernsey fruit bread (that's the baskets not our housekeepers!).

Later we set off out in the car to explore some more of the island, following the coast road north of St. Peter Port, stopping at some of the occasional car parks to admire the view.  At Fort Doyle at the NE corner, we parked up and had a stroll around the point and in the fort which has been here since Napoleonic times.  Then we continued on to the beautiful Pembroke Bay.  The low tide (at the moment because of the moon's orbit, is a10m change from high tide) in the afternoons is proving a bit of a handicap for having a dip in the sea, but paddling is very therapeutic.  The photo shows that even here, Val and Bernard can't get away from the Scarborough sea frets - one was approaching very fast, but fortunately the sun beat it off again before it reached the beach.  Our relaxing on the sand also included some people watching, especially the family trying to collapse one of those new-fangled sunscreen hoop tents for babies.  After some time we offered the advice of holding the hoops together and twisting them, but the chap was still having no success.  Soon they started up some banter about this man who was going to be the last off the beach with his toddler and pregnant wife, while he was still battling with the dratted tent .... but eventually the wife said that she could see B & J were itching to get up and have a go .... John worked out where you clasp the hoops and did the twist and hey presto it was the size of the small bag it was meant to fit into!  She said, oh, you must be an engineer .....!!  She also hoped that we'd be there again tomorrow ...... They left in lots of laughter and we waved bye bye to their very patient little girl.

We followed the west coast road from there, with many more rocky bays with sandy beaches - we hope we shall have time to come back and visit some of them.  Then it was surprisingly quick to come back across the island to home.  Our meal this evening was at the Queen's Inn just up the road in St. Martin - really good, but we all found the main course much too big - perhaps we are getting old ......