Down by Rouge Terrier looking towards Dixcart and Terrible

I love Sark. It is one of the most magical places on this Earth. I love that there are no cars, that you can only move as fast as your legs can take you either on foot or on bike (unless you have a mobility scooter or a tractor of course!), that you are surrounded by nature; by the sea and the sky and the trees and the fields full of wild flowers and the birds and the butterflies and the movement of the sun and the moon across the sky so visible and the stars shining brightly at night, a dark sky isle.

I love that the wind blows the cobwebs away and that there is always somewhere to go where you might escape it, even if the northerly does whip over the cliffs so you have to find a break in a valley, Dixcart Valley is one of my favourites, but there are so many magical spots, where you can hide amongst the trees and enjoy the shifting light and the tinkering of the streams, where you can find solitude and space, away from the maddening of the crowds on Guernsey, the endless traffic that saps the soul and the pull on time.

An impromptu Downward Facing Dog on the cliff path!

Getting off the beaten track, views towards Bec du Nez and Herm in the distance

Here one can be timeless, I don’t have a phone or a watch on this trip, mind you I haven’t worn a watch since i was a teenager, and as for the phone, it is freeing not to be tied to this either, to flow, no messages distracting me, making me think about the future, or what has happened previously, to feel no pressure to connect for the sake of connecting (and disconnecting as a result) , nothing to tell me I have to be anywhere at any particular time, just the freedom to be and enjoy this rare spaciousness - sometimes it is helpful to get out of one’s routine and comfort zone to find that there is another way.

On Little Sark, views towards Breqhou and Havre Goslin

I love the wells and springs and streams. Water has always been celebrated, it is of course the life blood of the Planet and its presence will determine whether we humans can survive or not. On Sark, the streams and wells that provide fresh water have long been honoured as sacred and with good reason - they provide life here on Sark because there is no mains water on Sark, and residents are dependant on boreholes and wells to fulfil their water needs.

Sark is interesting because it is comprised solely of igneous rocks which cannot hold water in quite the same way as porous rocks and it takes about twenty years for rainwater to seep down to the level that boreholes are drilled and about one hundred years to get right down to its lowest point in the ‘Aquifer’. Therefore all the rainwater on Sark collects in a giant bowl beneath the island, precariously floating on the denser salty sea water - quiet amazing!

Hanging out on ‘the rock’ at Port du Moulin

I love the fact you can find a quiet place to swim, without anyone else, so that you don’t always need to bother wearing bathers, one can be as free as a mermaid, without having to find a naturalist beach as one does on Guernsey. There are places that are lovelier to swim at high tide and those at low tide and over the years my soul Sark friend, Estelle, has taught me a lot about this. She has shown me so much of the island that has taken us off the beaten path, that finds us surrounded only by nature in dips and magical cliff and swimming spots.

Amazing tree out on cliffs on walk down to the Harbour

Little Sark is one of my favourite spots and when you look at the geology, maybe it’s not surprising as it sits on granite (diorite), while the majority of main Sark sits on Biotite gneiss. Granite usually contains some quartz and quartz, like other crystals, is piezoelectric, which is to say that it generates electricity when it is compressed and when subjected to shocks or vibrations. So, in simple terms, one finds (in theory), both electricity and magnetism in granite at the same time, which will have an energetic effect on us humans, especially those more sensitive to energy.

Out on the cliffs, off the beaten track, windy!

What is interesting is that the northern tip of Sark, where you find Bec du Nez and L’Eperquerie also sits on granite (diorite) and both this northern tip and Little Sark are where you find the majority of the neolithic structures, which tend to tap into vibrational frequency to echo the sacred geometry of the planet, in creating harmony, well in theory. Of course we don’t live in a very harmonic world anymore, but if you spend time in and around neolithic structures, you may well experience greater inner harmony and a progressive expansion of consciousness - they are built where they are built for a reason!

One of my favourite spots on Little Sark is the dolmen, which is unusual in its positioning, but is not alone, there is another neolithic site on Brittany that has a chamber aligned with the midday sun on the winter solstice. It’s a fabulous spot to get away from it all and sit back and just listen to the sound of the sea and the trees and watch the sea birds. The clear skies at night here are just incredible, I have often gotten a clear visual of the milky way and the plethora of shooting stars that you might miss with all then light pollution elsewhere. It’s always a shock cycling back to main Sark and being bombarded by the artificial lighting on Guernsey

I love the fact that the whole island is alive, there’s a plethora of crystals that can be found. Copper and silver mines were once in existence on Little Sark but little can now be seen of either as they have been picked over by generations of mineral collectors since Victorian times. But nonetheless there’s pyrite and serpentine, violet coloured Sark Amethyst, chalcedony, jasper and white-quartz, and we keep our eyes out as we move from bay to bay, each one offering something different, it can get very exciting!

Yesterday we spent a good while forging in the Creux Harbour where there is a plethora of quartz. Eben is amazing at finding just the right pieces, and I was lucky too, little bits, such sparkly. We have learned to be selective and to ask first. We have a stone dotted with pyrite in the healing space at home that Eben insisted we bring home with us one trip but we promised to return and we will do so when the time is right.

We love cycling to new places, exploring the nooks and crannies, the bits that are virgin to us. I am always on the look out for stones, for magical stones at that. A rose quartz boulder was unearthed during archeological excavation in July 2011. It is believed to have been one of four marker stones (two pink, two green) carried up the beach and placed on a terraced site that was buried by Neolithic people over 4,000 years ago. I am always keen to spot something similar and yesterday we stumbled across some beautiful quartz boulders not far from the dirt, I just had this feeing and there they were.

I can’t help thinking that the mineral content of the land here is what makes Sark so special, that and the fact it is an island surrounded by sea, but I’m biased as I LOVE islands and I LOVE crystals and the combination of the two is really rather sublime, let alone the lack of traffic, yes, i know, I wrote that earlier, but I really loathe cars. I also loathe development and Sark is lucky that development thus far is kept to a minimum, or at least it’s subtler than Guernsey which is gradually becoming a metropolis.

There is no doubt that a trip to Sark soothes the soul, well as long as you can get yourself beyond the pubs! This is the reason I have always enjoyed offering yoga retreats here, to support the process of slowing down and reconnecting with nature, which is the balm, as it helps to ease feelings of separation, from true Self as much as from the outer world. Teamed with Caragh and her yoga and Qi gong fusion, the retreats have always been well received and this year we have decided to go more intimate, just a small group, with Reiki and chocolate making on offer too.

Talking of Caragh, I enjoy getting to one of her classes while here and went last night and was treated to a sound healing relaxation. A lady who has moved here from Germany has a selection of Tibetan singing bowls and Caragh had asked her to come and play for us - what a treat. Those of you coming for treatments recently or to Yoni Yoga will know that I am very fond of my new crystals singing bowl and have been incorporating it into sessions, hoping to expand on my collection. Sound healing is a fave and what a surprise to find sound healing here too - a wonderful compliment to a fabulous class with Caragh in the Island Hall!

Caragh’s chocolates is always a pull too. Not least because Caragh is a friend and I like to say hi and support her, and the chocolate is very yummy, especially the vegan coconut truffles, but because there is a trampoline and a pool up there too. The boys love the trampoline and many an hour is spent watching them bounce away. They love Sark’s relatively new children’s playground too, which I have to say is my favourite children’s playground too as often it is just us using it and it is peaceful and fun.

On the way to the dolmen and all the Ox-Eye daisies

Mon Plaisir shop its virtually opposite the playground and I love visiting this, sharing friendly chatter with the ladies who run the shop, who have been best friends since school, and seeing what fresh and home made cakes are for sale, and whatever else we need to keep us going during the day. There is a larger shop in town, which sells Waitrose products, and this now offers freshly baked French artisans breads and pastries too, including sourdoughs, which the boys tell me are amazing!

There are nw numerous places to grab a coffee and a croissant, or to sit down and eat a proper meal. For a time, just after the pandemic, you were hard pushed to find much that wasn’t deep fried, unless the Fleur du Jardin was open for a salad or you went to Stocks, but now Hugo’s has appeared, with an Italian themed menu in Dixcart Valley, and Nova’s in the high street and Hathaway’s has new owners, and a more extensive menu. Stocks is still a favourite for many, especially as you can use the outdoor pool at lunchtime, ideal if you have children.

We’re lucky, we’re staying at Le Grand Dixcart cottage, just up the road from Stocks and owned by the lovely Helen and Alex Magell. They are a really inspiring couple, trying to live as sustainably as possible, they use solar and have adopted permaculture principles to grow fresh produce for Stocks. The gardens are just beautiful, the flowers exquisite and the herbs too. They have chickens providing eggs for their B&B residents, sadly not enough to sell. But that’s OK as we collect your eggs from Josie, who studied Reiki with me once, and now lives on Sark with her partner and many happy chickens - the eggs certainly are different when the chickens are loved.

The cottage is perfect for us, cosy and clutter free with everything that a family of four needs and held by nature which surrounds it and the beautiful energy of Dixcart Valley. There’s an indoor pool we can use too, which is a bonus for the boys! We can also use the pool at Stocks if we choose but the weather hasn't been warm enough for that with these crazy NE winds blowing in, which has been challenging the horses and the boat and indeed local business. It’s also a little relentless for the skin, but hey, at least its not raining!

The late spring/early summer flowers are just incredible. Walking out on the Gouillot Headland earlier, I was blown away by the diversity; the bright yellow broom, the gorgeous pink foxgloves, the pink thrift, the wall pennywort (I have to stop Eben destroying this, he loves to run his hand along it, pulling at the seeds!), the glorious pink campion, the pale purple dove’s-foot Crane’s bill, the copious white sea campion, the bright lilac-blue sheep’s-bit scabious, the mauve common Stork’s-Bill and my favourite, the Ox-eye daisies - Eben stumbled across a double head out by Dixart the other day, quite amazing!.

Pink Campion and hands held in prayer in rocks

I am particularly fond of the grasses, some glow purple when the sun catches them at a certain angle, nodding their heads in the breeze that has lessened today but due to come up again. The butterflies - Red Admiral especially - are in abundance which is surprising given the wind, and they up on the path towards Caragh’s chocolates and fluttering in Port du Moulin valley.

I’m very excited about the elderflowers appearing again, these are one of my most favourite smells, a treat for my nose, and I am keen to get making elderflower cordial when I get home - I get really excited when the elderflowers appear, summer is on its way!. The honey suckle is absolutely exquisite too, another of my most favourite smells, a treat when out walking the lanes at night.

We watched a Gannet dive bomb in the sea off Port Moulin, which was also a treat. We visited Gannet’s Rock off Alderney a few year’s ago and I have been fond of these birds ever since, but they don’t tend to venture to Guernsey, so it was a real joy to see this one in action. The oyster catchers sound divine down on Derrible Bay and we have caught sight of a Buzzard too.

Walking down Dixcart Valley this morning on our way to Derrible I was blown away by the bird song, reminding me of those nature programmes of the bird song in the rain forest. It was music to the ears and we just stood and listened, I just wish I knew which birds were which!

Tractor heaven for tractor boys like Elijah

One of the many magical valleys, this one on the way to the boat

There are an abundance of little birds flitting in and out of the hedges and fields. We stumbled across some netting attached to poles up in Ewok Village, and a bird caught within it. We set it free without realising that the netting was intentionally placed there by a Nature group visiting the Island to tag birds and learn what happens to them year by year. Apparently there is an abundance of tits at this particular part of the island, making it a real bird paradise.

To be honest, there’s not many places we haven’t been, maybe Pot Bay on Little Sark, which we wanted to get to but time and tides didn’t coincide. We’ve swum at a plethora of beaches, avoiding those on the NE coast because of the wind. We also didn’t make it to the Venus pool now I think about it, but I don’t get excited about that place particularly, too popular!

The boys both love animals so we went and visited the dog on Little Sark and they have been very taken by Ninja, the black cat living back next to the cottage. We’ve visited the Sark dairy and communed with the cows, and we’ve visited the pig and tried to give all of them some Reiki. We’ve even caught up with the sheep out towards the north when we were on the hunt for local honey, which isn’t yet available.

We’ve had an absolutely amazing time and it’ll be a shock returning home. There is no doubt that life slows down a pace over here. I feel rested and renewed, restored and I have started writing again, after a lull - you need space to be creative and I didn’t have much of that the last few weeks at home. It’s been a joy to hang out with the boys and flow, I’ve enjoyed the lack of time and needing to be somewhere (other than yoga) other than where I’m at. I’ve learned a lot. Nature is a wise teacher.

Home for the full moon on Sunday, looking forward to that as I have been watching the moon rise each afternoon getting fuller…hope you enjoy the ride and manage to get to Sark yourself sometime - we will be running another intimate retreat next April, our October retreat is currently fully booked but do email me if you’d like to go on the list for April and have first refusal when dates known, emma@beinspiredby.co.uk

Thank you Sark and you beautiful Sarkees, we love you!

Love Emma x

Sark: An Island Paradise

Be here now.

Happy new moon!