St Catherine's to St Helier

The weather forecast for today hadn't look great in advance, but when we opened the curtains in St Helier this morning it seemed sunnier outside than I had expected. After a final breakfast in the hotel, we checked out and walked to the bus station, from where we caught a bus to the village of St Catherine's. St Catherine's was where I'd originally intended for us to catch the bus back from last night, but the timings of the Sunday service had meant we had to walk slightly inland and catch it from St Martin's instead.

Parts of yesterday's walk had been quite tiring, but today's route looked like it was going to be more straightforward. We started out with a gentle stroll around the bay.

Having completed our tour of Jersey's northern coastline yesterday, we were now walking along the island's eastern side.

Our route followed the water, sometimes being a separate path and sometimes involving a walk along the sea wall.

The coastline was dotted by small towers...

...and the occasional sign telling us to beware of sudden drops.

The clouds began to clear and the weather started to feel considerably sunnier.

We walked through a meadow...

...and past some more beautiful beaches.

After a few miles we approached the seaside village of Gorey.

The thirteenth century castle, Mont Orgueil, overlooks the village.

It looked like it might be a fun castle to explore, but we were not in the mood today for the extra steps required to climb to the top  

Instead we made our way along the promenade in Gorey, which was really pretty.

As we progressed further we passed another coastal fortification: Fort Henry.

This one was surrounded by a golf course, so we didn't get closer to explore it any further.

As we continued on our way, the castle in Gorey began to recede into the distance.

The walk really was a lot easier than yesterday - we even walked along the beach in places.

Eventually we rounded the final headland which meant we had walked the length of Jersey's eastern side and were now on the final bit of the southern coast.

The views became fewer and further between as we got closer and closer to St Helier and the route mainly took us on roads through residential areas.

We were nearly back in the centre of St Helier when we hit a final hurdle; I didn't think it was going to be possible to walk through this tunnel, which would have necessitated climbing a final hill. I really didn't feel like another hill by this stage  But luckily it turned out that pedestrians were allowed on one side of the tunnel. Phew!

All that remained was a final short stretch to Liberation Square, from where we started our walk on Friday morning.

We'd made it - all the way around Jersey! It was definitely tough going at times but I'm impressed that we made it. The final stats from Tim's Fitbit are 151,868 steps, otherwise known as 71.5 miles (which included the equivalent of 1,822 staircases!).

Wow   We sat down for a well-deserved celebratory meal in Jersey's main square