Right, if you’ve an allergy to the Channel Islands I should come back to this blog in, ooh, October.
Twenty-three GBG entries for 170,499 islanders, and I needed ten (10) ticks for the set, having not set foot there since 2014 (before this blog started).
If I’m going to finish the Guide this year, I needed to get those ten done in one trip. Nipping back to Sark for one pub in September is far harder than nipping back to Sandwich, and costs ten times as much.
The Channel Islands Tick cost almost as much as our Fjords cruise, with four flights and six ferries and even (spoiler) a 5:45 am taxi. And the planning involved, to co-ordinate pub opening with ferry times and taxi availability, was akin to an NHS PFI project. I must have spent 77 minutes alone phoning hotels to ensure they’d be open when our ferry arrived at 10pm.
Our trip starts at Manchester, as most great things do.
You’d think we’d have learnt our lessons about Manchester Airport in March, but if anything Terminal 1 was even worse now, with hordes crushed into luggage check-in and no staff to tell you how to get straight to security.
We joined the Spanish tourists in voting with our thumbs.
No criticism of Jet 2, who flew us the 50 minutes cheaply and cheerfully.
We’d opted to NOT pay the surcharge to have seats together, so were a bit distraught to find us placed together anyway.
At least I had the window seat;
My arrival at St Helier Airport coincided with 4 days of unremitting sunshine. What can it mean ?
It took 3:40 hours from arrival at Manchester Airport to take-off; within 10 minutes of touchdown we were standing in the bus stop outside the airport.
Three Jersey ticks in three miles; surely Mrs RM would be happy to walk to those in the heat with her rucksack before check-in ?
She wouldn’t.
I gave her instructions to catch the bus to St Hellier, and set off to the Tipsy.
retiredmartin 
A taxi? You really do want to get this done.
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I’d have walked the 4 miles to the airport at 5am in the morning, less stress than worrying if the taxi would turn up. But, you know, company.
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In my experience, taxis usually do turn up, but looking at the bigger picture, as Dave says, you really do want to get this done. 👍
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As with bus drivers, there’s a shortage of taxi drivers on the Channel Islands (and no Uber !). Coupled with the risk of Covid the fear the taxi wouldn’t turn up kept me awake !
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Most places have a surfeit of hackney carriage and private hire drivers and a shortage of passengers except on Friday and Saturday nights.
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Inspirational ticking! Or very daunting. Might nab a screenshot of your flight n ferry times etc 👍🏻 Or maybe the islands will sink before BRAPA finishes 🤞🏻
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Best bet is they’re invaded by Greenland and excluded from the GBG. It’s a sod.
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