Ormer gatherers not put off by weather
DRIVING rain did not deter dozens of ormer gatherers from heading to the west coast yesterday for the first tide of year.
The car parks at Lihou and Le Catioroc were packed with vehicles and islanders wrapped in neon waterproofs were searching the waterline.
However there were mixed fortunes for the ormerers.
Charlie Le Garff managed to find five.
'The weather and the gathering was atrocious,' he said.
'Normally it's pretty good on the first tide of the year. But by the time I got down there, there were lots of people there already.'
He said he got the ormers for his wife, who really likes them, and would be frying them.
Dave Philippe and his son, John, had better luck and managed to find a couple of dozen ormers each.
They said that a number of the rocks had already been turned and that hunters had been down to the shoreline very early on Thursday morning to take advantage of the low tide at night.
'But I am happy with what I got,' Mr Philippe said. 'I'm going to fry them.'
