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War bunkers, chicken tractors and speeding jetskis

Channel Islands
channel islands
Chicken tractors provide the perfect feed / fertilize cycle at the permaculture garden at Stocks Hotel on Sark in the Channel Islands.

What do GLPPPS, rentable war bunkers, bat-and-hedgehog walks and chicken tractors have in common?

You’re right: The Channel Islands, which in most ways belong to Britain but lie in the English Channel just off France’s Normandy coast.

I didn’t get to Jersey, but enjoyed these highlights from the four other islands.

Guernsey. A recent movie, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, based on a book with the same name (GLPPPS), described life during the Second World War when the Channel Islands became the only part of Britain the Germans occupied.

The German Occupation Museum has posters the Germans translated into English, bringing home the reality of war when you read Louis Berrier released a pigeon with a message for England and was shot.

The same fate befell François Scornet, who fled France bound for England’s Isle of Wight but landed on Guernsey by mistake.

You see Red Cross food parcels sent from Canada and New Zealand, with brands that still appear familiar today.

Fast forward to the present and I had my first jetski experience at JP’s Jetski Seafaris – managing not to fall off into Guernsey’s 12-degree water and delighting JP when I finally broke through the 10 km/h “speed” barrier.

Alderney. Almost the total population was evacuated to England days before the German troops arrived.

The island has been fortified since Roman times 5,000 years ago, most recently by the Germans. Renovated bunkers can now be rented for about $85 a year as vacation homes.

Alderney is big enough to have some excellent restaurants yet small enough to enjoy the quiet charm and slow pace of a country island, where you can go for a bat-and-hedgehog walk guided by the Alderney Wildlife Trust, watch the bell-ringers practise just below the belfry of St. Anne’s Church, take a ride on a historic train and then climb up inside the Alderney lighthouse.

Sark. When traffic congestion is defined as “horse-drawn carriage meets two tractors” on this car-free island, you know you’ve come to an especially peaceful place.

And when chickens take over the job of tractors (although naturally on a smaller scale), you can expect some healthy eating.

Chicken tractors (for those who have never heard of them, and that included me until my visit to Stocks Hotel’s permaculture garden) are like portable chicken coops you move from one part of the garden to the next, allowing the chickens to scratch in the dirt, eat the insects and fertilize the ground with their manure – the perfect organic cycle.

Herm. This tiny island has only 60 permanent residents and no cars but some cows. You can easily cover the island in just a few hours, following sweeping Shell Beach and scenic cliffside trails, staying in a cottage or at a camping ground, and eating at a couple of restaurants.

Weather permitting, the Channel Islands are easily accessible from England (and France) by air and sea.

– Mike Grenby is a travel writer who teaches journalism at Bond University on Australia’s Gold Coast – mgrenby@bond.edu.au