Family who are walking around British Isles reach Guernsey

Chris Lewis and Kate Barron, together with their dog Jet and eight-month-old baby Magnus, known as the 'famous walking family', plan to spend a week or so making their way around the island’s coastline.

‘Since the day I started walking I went without a plan,’ said Mr Lewis.

‘I’ve been completely winging it since then.’

The foursome started at Jerbourg Point yesterday morning and are walking anti-clockwise around the island.

‘The weather was beautiful when we arrived, we came in on the ferry and thought “wow, this is stunning”, but it’s gone downhill since then,’ Mr Lewis said. ‘We’ve had a bit of a pasting today.’

Neither of them have been to Guernsey before and knew little about the island.

‘We don’t like to find out too much about a place before we visit. It’s best to go without preconceptions and learn about it from the locals.’

Mr Lewis, a former paratrooper, started his walk back in 2017, from near Swansea in Wales, covering the whole of the western side of the British Isles, including Northern Ireland, then the Inner and Outer Hebrides where he adopted Jet, his white Whippet cross, before continuing through northern Scotland, including the Orkneys and Shetland. He has lived on his wits for quite a while, foraging for food at times or relying on the generosity of others.

He spent the two lockdowns alone on an isolated and uninhabited island called Hildesay in Scotland.

When he started off again, he met Miss Barron near Aberdeen. She was also walking around Scotland, only the opposite way round.

After spending a few days together talking non-stop, they began to walk together and fell in love.

By halfway down the east coast of England, she became pregnant so they took three months off in spring last year, waiting for baby Magnus to arrive and grow a little, before they started again.

They then completed the south coast and started the south-west coast path when Condor Ferries gifted them a crossing to the Channel Islands so no island in the British Isles would be left unwalked.

‘A follower contacted Condor,’ explained Miss Barron.

‘And they offered us the ferry tickets to come out here, they have been incredibly helpful. We plan to do Herm, Sark and Alderney while we are here. After we have been around the Channel Islands we will be back to Lulworth Cove to start our journey around Devon, Cornwall, then the Scilly Isles and then around Wales, to finish in Swansea where it all started.’

At the end of their journey Chris will have walked more than 14,000 coastal miles.

The couple have so far raised almost £300,000 for SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity.

• Follow the family’s adventures in Guernsey and beyond, and donate to their appeal, through their facebook page www.facebook.com/chriswalksuk