Jersey. Geddit?

Moving swiftly on from poor word play, I shall recall the tale of how I ran thirteen miles along a beach and still managed 700 m of ascent, and finally came face-to-face with an icon from my childhood.

Strictly speaking I didn’t run along a beach; it was the footpath along the North cost of Jersey. Like all good coastal paths it climbed and dropped continuously along its length, from headland to sea-level or near enough, then up and back down again.

I had previously been led to believe that Jersey looks like this:

But I have since discovered that it can actually look like this:

Being the North coast, rugged and much less busy / populated than the South, it was quite nice to have some atmosphere to the weather rather than benign boringness (which I’m informed is definitely a real word). The path itself is well marked with blue signs marked – rather generically – “Footpath”; these were perfectly sufficient, particularly in conjunction with the £1 sketch map and description available from Tourist Information in St. Helier. They also have details of bus routes so you can work out how to connect with the incredible number of services at the end of your walk/run. I wasn’t taking any chances since I had a plane to catch:

While the run was perfectly pleasant, the highlight of the trip was definitely visiting The Mansell Collection. As well as all of his driver’s trophies and medals etc., they have the Williams Renault FW14b in which he won nine races during his 1992 World Championship-winning season. I remember watching those races, and this will forever be the shape of a ‘proper’ F1 car in my mind.

To say I was excited would be an understatement; definitely worth a visit if you ever happen to find yourself nearby.