Channel Islands - Jersey with Rachel, Leo, Marguerite & Oli

 Channel Islands - Jersey 

The sun was shining and we were excited to explore the history of this wonderful island. Luckily for us the boat show was still on and we enjoyed looking at them bobbing around on the water. There was a steel band and in true JollyDays style we danced away, enjoying the party vibe.  

It was a day of celebration so we headed to St Helier ready for the festivities that had been planned. We took a short walk towards the main square and joined the throngs of people lining the street in anticipation of what was to come. We found a spot with a great view and very soon we heard the sound of the marching band begin and round the corner came the magnificent parade. We were lucky enough to be in the perfect spot to watch a special motorcade of rare and classic cars drive slowly through the streets, beeping their horns, with the drivers and passengers waving to the crowds. The cars were adorned with flags and flowers in celebration of this special day. We saw some beautiful cars go by, we thought the bright red MG, or the pale green Rolls Royce were our favourites. 

The atompshere was wonderful and we joined in partying with the crowds to some war time music. 

The brass band led the marching troops of Scouts, Girls Guides, Jersey Field Squadron, Veterans, Cadets and St Johns Ambulance. It was quite a sight to behold with the brightly coloured flags flying in the breeze. We all clapped and cheered along with the crowd as the parade passed us and marched on towards Liberation Square. We then followed along with the rest of the crowd and gathered to hear some of the service of remembrance and then watched the re-enactment of the Liberation of Jersey, the day the island was freed from Nazi occupation, 79 years ago today. 

A brilliant time was spent at the Maritime Museum. It was full of exhibits showing the history of the sea and boats around Jersey. There was an incredible tapestry exhibition called The Occupation Tapestry which was made by 233 embroiderers and described the history of Jersey in pictures from The Outbreak of war here in 1940 up until The Surrender on the 9th of May 1945. As we walked through the rest of the museum, there were some amazing model ships fully equipped with decks, rigging and sails, all made with such intricate detail which we found fascinating. There is also a replica of a full-size bow of an old ship that we could walk on and pretend to sail it!

Our tour in the island took us to the Elizabeth Castle which was built in 1594 to defend Jersey against invasion. We were all very excited to be visiting the castle as it is out in the bay and can only be reached by either walking at low tide over the slippery causeway, or by taking a ride on an amphibious vehicle, otherwise known as a ‘puddleduck’. We chose to ride on the puddleduck, a very clever vehicle that has wheels to drive on land, but when the tide is high it can also float and turns into a boat! Once at Elizabeth Castle some of us chose to take a guided tour of the castle. This involved climbing up to the top of the tower and taking in the magnificent views out to sea in one direction and back towards St Helier in the other. We all went down to the parade grounds and looked at the cannons and saw displays about the history of Elizabeth Castle over the years. It was very interesting and the views from every point of the castle were sensational. 

The sun was shining making it the morning to visit the zoo. We were all excited to see what the Zoo had to offer, especially as it is the Gerald Durrell Zoo that some of us had heard of from the television adaptation of his childhood years. We saw reptiles and amphibians and we soon spotted a yellow poisonous tree frog, although tiny they are deadly! There were monitor lizards which looked huge, one of them came right up to the window and seemed to be having a good look at Richard through the glass! There were constricting snakes and also many more lizards of various sizes. We went past the meercat enclosure and thought they were really funny, rolling on their backs in the sand and standing up on their back legs, they looked very cute. 

We went past the meercat enclosure and thought they were really funny, rolling on their backs. As we walked further around the park we saw lots of tropical birds in huge aviaries. They had beautiful, coloured plumage and made some very interesting noises, we all liked the look of the Madagascar crested ibis. He looked very fancy with his long beak and spiky crest on top of his head. It was then time to search of the orangutan. We looked high and low in their outdoor enclosure but couldn’t see any. As we entered their indoor enclosure, we were delighted to find 3 orangutans just hanging out on their ropes and climbing up and dropping down from their platforms, they were having a great time and we thoroughly enjoyed watching them.