WHILE some Islanders may have moaned about the soggy start to the week, one long-distance walker in rainbow-coloured attire said a spot of autumnal rain was nothing compared to 150 wet and windy miles of the Hebridean Way.
Tracey Hannam (57) is in Jersey as part of her challenge to walk the entire coastline of Britain, with a stop-off in the Channel Islands, to raise money for the RNLI. She is also planning to visit all the lifeguard stations that she comes across on the way.
“Dora the Explorer” to her grandchildren and “Florence Gump” to her friends, she began the 12,000-mile journey in July 2020 in aid of mental-health charity Mind.
But after receiving warm welcomes from the lifeguard stations along the coast, she decided to swap charities and has raised around £11,500 for the RNLI so far.
Inspired to set out on the challenge after she “lost everything”, including her job at the RSPCA, during the pandemic, the mother of three and grandmother of eight, who is originally from Somerset, said the coastline had become her “happy place” after she underwent abuse and trauma when she lost her mother to suicide as a child.
She decided to give half her redundancy money to her youngest daughter and then bought her walking kit to embark on the adventure, which has attracted followers from all over the world who keep track of her through her social media page entitled Tracey and Aggie’s Epic Trip Around the UK Coastline.
The JEP caught up with Ms Hannam while she was drying off at Bonne Nuit, and it seemed that the Island had made quite an impression since she arrived at the weekend.
“I knew nothing about the Channel Islands before I came, but it is one of my favourite places I have visited,” she said.
“I cannot even tell you how absolutely beautiful it is, and the people are proud. There are lots of public restrooms, lovely cafés and restaurants and stupendous beaches.
“I get up in the morning, and I don’t know who I’m going to meet, what I’m going to see, what I’m going to eat, where I’m going to stay, but everyone here has been really lovely and friendly, and I have felt so welcomed.”
Examples of “human kindness” she had experienced in Jersey included lifeguards letting her charge her devices in their hut and conversations with locals at coastal cafés.
“It is unbelievable how clean it is here as well; there is no rubbish on any of the paths and beaches,” she added.
Miss Hannam said she was “promoting the heck out of it” on her blog because she wanted others to see how “fantastic” the Island was.
She was planning to start the trek to Bouley Bay later yesterday, and said the north coast was “stunning”.
The challenge, she added, had been “the most life-changing experience”.
After Jersey, she plans to cover the coastlines of Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm, before going back to Dorset and fulfilling some other goals, which include publishing a book about her journey and starting a “wild woman walking group” to introduce older women to the hobby and show them how to experience the wilderness safely.
