islands at the fore

maz arrives backpack along a deserted beach......

If you've been following our progress over the last year or so you will see an amazing theme running through our lives, that being the fact that we seem to end up on some incredible islands and this last week or so has seen us add another to our list.

stunning sea views

However before we provide a short travelogue around our most recent trip to Jersey there is another island that is at the forefront of our minds, that being the fourth biggest island in the world, Madagascar. 

maz and franny catch up along another deserted beach

Again if you know anything about our lives we have made the huge commitment to return to that most needy island in September where we will be seeking to train up to 300 trainers who will take the Emerging Leaders 'Leadership for Life' material into the wider poverty hit communities where we are certain that the training will make a massive impact on those peoples lives.

gorey castle

We are still looking for further support to help towards the costs of the trip, the main costs are both the international and internal flights and also the accommodation that we are looking to book as we host those we will be training on the week long training events.

out towards the west coast

If you feel you could invest a few well earned Pounds (or Dollars, Euros, Rand, etc) in the development of some of the most vulnerable people on the planet then please follow this link to our online giving page.

thanks.

Now for a short update on our recent trip to the most gentle of islands where we were blessed with a week with our lovely friends Rebecca and Lisa who live on the biggest of the channel islands.

strange beachscape 

I (Tim) met Rebecca many years ago when we worked together on quite a few projects around the island, since then both she and Lisa have visited us in South Africa and were great supporters towards the work that we undertook there at the Village of Hope.

Set only a few miles off the north coast of france, Jersey is normally blessed with slightly brighter weather than the rest of the United Kingdom, last week was not one of those weeks, although it was quite warm with blustery showers, however that didn't stop us getting out and enjoying the stunning scenery.

rockpooling

We were staying on the south side of the island, which has long sandy beaches and is home to the capital St Helier with its castle (St Elizabeth) sitting just outside the harbour wall. Jersey has one of the highest tides in the world with up to 20ft drop within three hours, this results in large rock pools which are a draw to children and adults a like.

Our days were filled with walks, runs (another blog post will follow about that exercise) and bike rides, in fact one day we ventured out for a short ride along the long prom, up and over the old railway line to a delightful lighthouse out on the west side of the island. 

maz even went for a swim....unusual!

The ride was supposed to be an easy with much of it spent on cycle paths and where we had planned to enjoy our bought lunch and a bottle of wine overlooking the stunning clifftops, but being us Walkers (or newly named Bikers!) we weren't not content with the view and the fact that the cafe was closed when we arrived we moved/cycled on, and on, and on, up hill and down dale, stopping for Maz to enjoy a swim across a cliff enclosed bay and for us to wolf down our now well earned lunch.

fresh seafood lunch with rebecca and lisa

In 2005 I had completed the 48 mile round island walk to raise funds for the work in South Africa and spent a total of 17 hours (in one hit) completing that, so I sorta knew where we were going, however by the time we'd made it back to the house we'd completed over 60kms on a couple of cross bikes (road frames, and seats!, with heavier duty tyres). I was so pleased with Maz who kept up so well and thoroughly enjoyed her time as we completed a whole lap of Jersey!

stunning sunsets

We were blessed to have the chance to meet up with a few other friends, Franny and Spencer, and Franny's sister Katie, who had all volunteered with us at the Village of Hope, after spending a couple of hours in the oldest pub on the island with Franny we joined her parents for a wonderful cooked dinner at their home in Gorey.

tour de jersey!

Amongst other things Maz also had chance to have her haircut, which she is very pleased to have sorted before a couple of weddings that we have been invited to later in the month, but as always it was all too soon to return to England where our lovely son Josh completed the drop off and pick up from Gatwick airport.

We do love island life........next one will be Madagascar in September, God willing!