Sark, Guernsey and Channel Isles
Imagine a place with no cars, no paved roads and, relatedly, no noise pollution. A place with long, tree lined lanes, the sound of muted horse hooves flopping along packed soil and a gentle breeze blowing in the scent of the sea. Place these characteristics on a 2 square mile island in the southern stretch of the English Channel and you have the charming island community of Sark.
The morning was dedicated to exploring the island via horse drawn carriage and/or strolling the light dappled lanes that radiate from the island’s town center. Located roughly 20 miles off the north shore of France, Sark is doing well to preserve the look and feel of a 19th century English community. This was apparent in the minimal use of electricity and machinery (tractors are their only form of motorized transport). In fact, Sark’s roughly 600 inhabitants generate such little visible light (due to the dearth of street lamps and headlights) that in January of this year Sark become the first island community in the world to achieve “Dark Sky” status by the International Dark-Sky administration. This designation recognizes that Sark is sufficiently clear of light pollution to allow naked-eye astronomy- an event we unfortunately had to forego as the second half of the day took us to the much larger and more well lit community of Guernsey.
Guernsey is the largest of the Channel Islands and became an unexpected port of call last night when a surprise visit was announced. Not only did we find Guernsey to be bigger and noisier than Sark but it is the largest city we, aboard the National Geographic Explorer, have visited since day one in Madeira. With a population in the hundreds of thousands our afternoon was spent roaming the streets, harbor and docks of this major Channel Islands hub. In addition to our fleet of rubber Zodiacs there were hundreds of other vessels (from sail boats to ferries to small cargo ships) coming and going all day — leaving little doubt to this regions dependence on seafaring.
