Icelandic Volcanic Ash

Eyjafjallajokull. These random letters spell out the name of the Icelandic Volcano which caused chaos for many travellers in Guernsey. The volcano eruption itself did not makes news headlines it was only a few weeks later when the ash caused the closure of UK airspace that people started to take notice.

The ash itself was not at all visible in the skies over Guernsey and for most of the week the UK airspace was closed the inter-island flights to the other Channel Islands continued to fly. I have never seen the skies as clear as they were that week with only a few aeroplanes flying. The flight ban occurred in exactly the same week as I arrived into the UK last year. Luckily for me it had not happened last year as it would have caused major disruptions to my trip. Guernsey is only about thirty minutes flight from London although it can take up to twelve hours on the slow ferry to reach Poole then another few hours to get to London. This extended trip is what a number of our guests had to endure in order to get home when the flights were cancelled. It was the busiest week Condor Ferries had had for years.

I did not need to fly anywhere in the week the airspace was closed. Jess and I though were planning to catch a boat to neighbouring island Herm. The ash cloud did not stop the boats and we enjoyed a relaxing day of sun on Herm.

Herm is the closest of the major islands to Guernsey and after just twenty minutes on the boat we reached an island with no cars, no tarmac roads and just a couple of tractors. The whole island is only one and half miles wide and three quarters of a mile long. Jess and I took a couple of hours to walk around the island sitting for a while on the beautiful shell beach. We then started a pub crawl through the two pubs on the island before returning to the hustle and bustle of Guernsey.

It was a fun relaxing day and a good change not to see any cars for the day as Guernsey is said to have more cars per head than anywhere else in the World. Guernsey drivers very good at reserving as many of the streets are too narrow for two cars. There are also a large number of Porsche's and BMW's for an island where you cannot drive more than 50 kilometres an hour.