Most of the Islands we have visited have in the past been ruled by either the British, French or Spanish at some time in their history and this island is no exception. All islands visited on this cruise all drive on the left hand side of the road, most of the time when roads allow, and so this is or must be a throwback to the British rule. God Save the Queen.
A slow breakfast this morning as we have nothing planned until about 13.30 when we are doing a small tour of the town on a ‘petit train’ as they say in France. Anyway we left the ship as its started to rain which is important as this Island has rain every day of varying amount depending on the season. A couple of people were carrying towels which thought was a bit strange but later in the day it became obvious why.
As usual the traffic is quite busy with everybody hooting each other and so there is a cacophony of sound all the time and what with the noise of the petit train bumping over potholes and lurching left and right depending on the road surface and of course the seats were not padded, oh for a towel to sit on. After about ten minutes of the tour guide mentioning at least three times the number of rivers and lakes on the Island we arrived at the first stop which was a church with an odd shaped roof designed to avoid being knocked over by the hurricanes which have caused extensive damage in the past. We took a few photos, sorry no photos can be uploaded until we reach our destination .and have a fast internet connection. We spent about fifteen minutes there and then the next stop was beside the river where apparently families go at the weekend to swim and have BBQ's , not so sure i would do that looking at the state of the river . Its very obvious this is a very mountainous island compared to the others we have visited but a small population of under 80 thousand residents.
From there up the hill to the Botanical gardens where a detailed explanation of the trees and plants was made, the park was at a steep angle and the thought of standing for ten minutes and listening to this guy spouting on about the amount of rivers and lakes etc so Noel waited in the train and Jennifer took in the ten minute tour with a free drink, passion fruit I think, but not for Noel. He also mentioned that all medical is free on the island with the exception of major operations where you have to be transported to another island with the right medical support.
This island was also involved in the slave trade which now in UK the woke brigade are tearing down statues, burning books and changing street names whilst here on the island they are celebrating the fact they were impacted by the slave trade and have a large memorial and slave trade museum, but now closed due to Covid. At this point the rain started again and heavy this time and so we borrowed a towel from a fellow traveller to stop the rain getting us to wet as of course the petit train had open sides. We arrived bac at the ship around three pm and ordered a glass of iced tea before Noel doing some blogging and photo prep while Jennifer is starting on a hand stitched little bear for the the new-born in June this year.
In the evening we went to the lounge where there was a lady playing the piano of classical numbers, very relaxing, and after our drink we headed in to the Atlantide restaurant for our evening dinner. The staff have been really excellent on this ship regarding my dietary issues and have gone out of there way to make it safe for me which is most encouraging and more relaxing for me.
From dinner we returned to the cabin and started watching a British movie which started off ok and then slowly became a sort of horror film which Jennifer does not like and so we turned it off and looked at the news before turning in.
We have been very aware of the approaching storm and concerned about the safety of the caravan and awning and according to our caravan site neighbour everything was fine but at home it had ripped the cover of the garden table and chairs, blown a dustbin in to the garden and a few other things which our next door neighbour came in to sort out for us.
Anyway its an early departure from here today with the next stop being St Johns, Antigua and Barbuda., see you tomorrow.
