It was lovely to wake up to blue skies and the sun shining this morning, so we decided to head out for a walk and to explore somewhere new. We drove North and parked at Pembroke Beach. Unfortunately, the Beach House Cafe was closed, so we couldn’t top up on tea before heading out into the cold (a reminder to check what’s open in the winter).
Pembroke Beach looked beautiful in the winter sun and there were lots of dog walkers taking advantage of the good weather.
We looked to the right of the beach and saw a Loophole Tower, a Fort and some German fortifications in the distance, how have we never seen them before!!
We followed the path past The Beach House Cafe (with the beach on our left), past the L’Ancresse Beach kiosk (also closed in winter but a good stop-off in the summer) and had our first bench stop to admire the view.
We stayed on the footpath which is very defined and easy to follow.
When you get beyond the beach, the path forks in a few directions. We chose to stay close to the sea.
We walked for about 5 minutes, at quite a leisurely pace, when we came to some large rocks and an old stone building with an iron door (which instantly made the girls think it was a jail!).
We spent a while here admiring the views in all directions.
The Guernsey flag was blowing in the wind above Loophole Tower No.5, above us on the right.
We then carried on the path past a rocky bay to our left. Whilst walking, I was checking my phone because we have recently got into Geocaching. and we were tracking down a Geocache.
If you haven’t heard of Geocaching, it’s a real-life treasure hunt. Our kids absolutely love it and it can give a purpose when going on a walk. You use the Geocache app on your phone to indicate where Geaocaches (containers) have been hidden. The app uses a specific set of GPS coordinates to guide you to the Geocache.
The Geocache app is free to download and there are over 300 Geocaches in Guernsey to find.
After a few minutes. we got to the area where the Geocache was hidden and the girls got searching. It didn’t take long and they found it hidden under a rock, which caused a lot of excitement!
A lot of the containers contain little toys that can be taken as long as you replace them with something else. We always carry a bag of ‘swaps’ with us (a great way to use party bag items/ cracker toys etc).
Once you’ve made some swaps and signed the notebook (with the date and your name), you hide the Geocache back where you found it.
With a Geocache find under our belt, we carried on the footpath in search of another. We got to admire more beautiful scenery and saw a German structure on the hill.
I was amazed how we kept getting to another headland with more breathtaking views, and so much for the girls to explore. This section had a large rock formation that needed to be climbed in order to pick up the footpath on the other side.
We followed the footpath towards Fort Le Marchant with the girls excitement rising because we were getting close to the Geocache.
Lottie could see from the Geocache app that the Geocache was hidden in the rocks on other side of the headland, and she made a run for it!…
Lottie was very excited to find the Geocache before anyone else and wrestled with the container to get the lid off to be the first to see the treasures inside!
We’d now been walking for around 40 minutes and Tilly was getting tired (and moany!) whereas Lottie was still very spritely and wanted to find more Geocaches. I saw that we could find another on our way back to the car, so we carried on following the footpath (Fort Le Marchant is great fun to explore but having one moaner already we skipped it today).
The path led to an outcrop of rocks that the girls climbed to find our final Geocache.
We then headed back and Tilly ended up having a bit of help from Daddy!…
I can’t believe the girls walked for 1 1/2 hours with only a little bit of help for Tilly at the end. The beauty of this walk is that you can turn back at any time or choose a shorter footpath. Aside from the rocks that needed climbing on the route we took, it is buggy friendly and safe for little explorers as you can stay inland.
If you have reluctant walkers, Geocaching can make all the difference, everyone likes to find treasure!
We’ll definitely try this walk again and will take a different route, as there were a number of stone buildings we could see in the distance, but didn’t get near too.
