Oldies On Tour

Saturday 8th January 2025

Up early this morning as we have to Pack and Christine wants to wash the sheets and give the cottage a quick clean through.   We have been told we can stay as long as we want, but today is a big-day in the 6-Nations; “Le Crunch”, England V France at Twickenham and we’ve arranged to watch it at Cloggys Bar after which point, we have to “hot-foot it” to the airport.

Our intention is to head to  Cloggy’s in holiday “gear” and change into U.K. gear at the airport so finished packing with this in mind.

We had a brief breakfast early, then cleared everything, washed sheets and cleaned etc., and then enjoyed Baked beans on a toasted roll; everything now completely gone: result.

We left for the last time after returning the keys and saying our good-byes in time to “hopefully” get good seats for the game.

Arriving at Cloggy’s with 30-minutes to spare, Christine went in and did her normal muscling in, and there we were, right in front of the TV, purrrrfect.   Just got to hope the result will also be purrrrfect🤞🤞   Nicely installed with a bucket of beers to hand, and a table booked for after the match, we were ready and waiting as the bar filled up, mostly with England supporters all hoping for a miracle.

From kick-off to the final whistle we were on the edge of our seats, the lead changed several times, it was so exciting we didn’t have time to drink all the beers in the bucket!!! I’d like to think the English played well but the truth is, the French weren’t at their best on the day, and add in the joker, a wet slippery ball all added to the excitement.  When the clock went red at 80-minutes, France we’re leading by 6-points but they didn’t have possession, and England by sharp passing, last minute determination scored a try; 5-points, so it was all on the conversion.  Earlier in the match Marcus Smith missed two kicks, so this time Finn Smith stepped up,  all eyes were fixed on him, the stadium and our bar fell silent, the pressure on Finn was palpable and everybody held their breath as the kicked ball slowly flew through the air until it went between the posts, then the cheering all started both in the stadium and Cloggy’s.  The final result England 26 : 25 France.  We won the game by just the one point but it was the win, Borthwick needed this win to head-off the calls for his resignation.

Following the euphoria we went to our table and ordered lunch, unfortunately our last meal on the island couldn’t be a long affair, we had a plane to catch.

We arrived at the airport and parked in the short term carpark as agreed with the rental company, then headed to the restrooms to change before checking in.  The procedures went well and we were through and waited.  Our flight was due to leave at 7.10 pm but the incoming flight was late so we boarded around 7.30pm.   All loaded then we hear there is a “technical Fault” relating to the fuel system and take-off won’t happen ‘till it’s fixed so, we all had sit and wait.    The stewardess’ brought nibbles and water out but we were beginning to think we were going to be taken off and sent to a hotel!!!  Anyway after sitting on the ‘plane for three hours we got the good news, it was fixed and we were off.

As good as any overnight can be, we arrived at Heathrow, not as planned around 6.00am but nearer 10.00am.   We were fine as we walked off the airplane and given a “claim” form, but those passengers with an onward flight, not with Virgin were in a spot of bother!!!

We collected our car from the long term parking, hit the M4-M5 and arrived safely back at Hope Farm early afternoon. 

The 5-weeks we were in Antigua were great, relaxing whilst soaking up the heat and sunshine and having visitors for two of them, but on our own, enjoyed doing nothing.  Where next????????

Friday, 7 February 2025

A sad morning as it’s our last full day, still we’ve had 5-weeks on this beautiful Island with all its quirks and strange customers, bad roads and all; I love it🤠🤠, anyway we have to make the most of it.

After a “scanty” breakfast, we filled our last two rolls with the last of the chicken, put our last two beers in the cooler and headed back to Pigeon Beach, though it is my favourite I think Christine also likes it a lot!!, it is very handy.  Parking is easy with car on the edge of the beach, useful round, albeit rather high tables with good cover, and golden sands running into the clear blue sea with a front-drop of yachts at anchor and a backdrop of lush vegetation growing up a mountain.

We arrived in time for an early lunch, we were hungry as breakfast was earlier than usual, then straight into the sea. Here we stayed, bobbing about, swimming a bit but just enjoying our last few moments in the warm sea.   Eventually we had had enough and headed back home.

Tonight we have a table booked at Papa Zouk, this seems to have become the place to go on everybody’s last night, so why not us??   We had a couple of hours to kill so Christine did all the washing she could find and we also packed our cases, well as much as we could and finished off Silent Witness.

Arriving at the appointed hour at Papa Zouk’s, we were put on a table with some locals who unfortunately were so wrapped up in their own issues, we didn’t get to chat to them, never mind, we were very happy and as usual had a superb evening.

Back for the last night, no alcohol, no nibbles, nothing, all gone; what good planning!!!!

Thursday 6th February 2025

After an early night yesterday, we awoke refreshed to another beautiful day, blue skies and minimal wind, just how it should be.   My my we are going to miss all this when we get back in the wee hours of Sunday morning, in-spite of what’s been said we do love it here, however other parts of the world beckon.   One thing we have done whilst here is to finalise our trip to South Africa later this year; something to look forward to!!

After the usual cereal we headed off to Half Moon Bay as we want our last look and experience another lunch at the shack, known as “ The Beach Bum Bar, “naughty” food but “tasty”, full of salt no doubt.

Naturally as we are about to leave, we’ve “sort-of” got the hang of the various routes we take for the different beaches and bays, don’t have to rely on “Sat Nav” which seems to always find the most obscure route known to man; narrow back streets, big open drains, and the most un-believable holes in the road; far to big to be called “pot-holes”: all part of the charm of Antigua.

We planned to arrive at the “shack” early, as we know from experience their service is not their “strong-point”, and we did.   We were sitting at our table by 1230pm and ordered; glad the tables are fairly empty so we could choose the one we want and hopefully, early enough to be at the head of the kitchen queue.

The shack slowly filled up, a very popular place this; so glad we were here early.   After a couple of Caribs our food arrived, well our two main courses, no sign of the spicy chicken wings we ordered as a starter, never mind we started, I was all for refusing them but Christine wanted them and of course, halfway through they arrived!!!  I was soooo glad I hadn’t sent them back, they were delicious, and the sauce was un-believably good, pity we hadn’t had them on an earlier visit.

Now for the beach; having paid the bill we were out for 1.30pm, only an hour, must be a record, and it paid to get in early. 

We spoilt ourselves with a couple of loungers and sat watching the “big” (well for a Caribbean island) waves crashing on the shoreline, and more importantly watching folk of a “certain” age trying to get in and being “bowled” over in the process; head or heart hmmmm, we went with our head and just enjoyed the entertainment.

We were really enjoying ourselves doing something alien to us, “nothing” and didn’t leave ‘till around 5.00pm.

Back home we had our last “thing” out of the freezer, a Pizza which we thoroughly enjoyed before “banishing” ourselves into the fumigated bedroom with the air-con switched on to 16-degrees; Christine was “determined” to escape “them” tonight, our penultimate night here in this cottage🥵🥵🥵

Wednesday 5 February 2025

With the 4-hour time difference we woke up to PMQ’s, sad I know but have had a bit of a stressful night, we ad some heavy rain and not least, another power cut so my breathing machine automatically stopped and I woke up immediately!!!   We do have something to look forward to today, we have booked a table at “Dawne’s Soleil Cafe” one of the places recommended to us by Noreen Philips, the “Couturier”, the lady in the “big red hat” we met in Papas Zouk’s on our last visit.  

As the freezer is now relatively empty we can go out so had booked a table for 1300hrs, and as it was only a stone’s throw away, didn’t have to allow a lot of time to get there, 7-minutes to be precise.   We read a number of the “Trip Advisor” feed-backs and we were certainly looking forward to heading to Dawn ‘s for our lunch today.  If it is as good as it sounds, we will kick ourselves for not having been there before!!!

Today is another beautiful day, sun shining, blue skies and a mild wind so opened up the car to reduce the heat build-up inside, about 10-minutes before departure.   This “cafe’ is set back from the north coast, an area we’ve not explored much in the past, but it certainly appeared more affluent with brick built homes with “manicured” gardens, many with stunning views across the Caribbean Sea.

Dawne’s Soleil Cafe, along with a number of cottages and other small outlets, is in a gated enclosure cut out of a “jungle” area, rather pretty.  The entrance to Dawne’s was hard to find as the stairs up to it were hidden by trees etc., still we got there in the end and was offered a choice of tables, both inside or outside under a big tarpaulin, we chose the latter and given a few moments to settle before being asked if we’d like a drink.  Two of her Rum Punches please to get us in the mood for their speciality, “local” food.   The drinks arrived but my goodness how many ice cubes can one cram into a glass!!!   I then asked for another one without ice whilst Christine went fishing to remove the ice!!!   The next one came out with the owner who explained that her Rum Punches are strong as she uses 95% proof rum and the ice softens it.   I explained I’d lived in Poland and drank Spiritus 100% proof, she laughed and they kept coming, no ice!!!   At this point the menu arrived, written on a blackboard positioned on a easel; definitely different!!!

Following a lot of explaining by our waitress, we ordered spicy deep fried chicken wings to start, then Christine went for a steamed “Chub” fish, I went for the grilled “Salmon”, both with rice, sweet potato salad and roast vegetables.   We were quite surprised these fish were on the menus as neither come from the Caribbean!!   Anyway, both meals were delicious, not a scrap left behind.   

The desert board also looked appetising and after some pondering, decision made.  Christine ordered the “local” bread and butter pudding loaded with all sorts of local fruits etc., and covered with a chocolate sauce.  I couldn’t make my mind up, I fancied rum cake, but was disappointed with the one I had at Papa Zouk’s, I also fancied her “drunken” raisin.  The owner explained; “her” rum cake was made by “her”, and not a “bought-in” one, so I went for the rum cake and she also added the drunken raisins on the side!!!  Accompanying our meal was a stream of rum punches; “😎😎”.  The other strange drink they had on the drinks board was “Soleil Sangria” and the couple on the table next to us was drinking, and recommended I should try one; I did, and certainly not as powerful as the rum punches but a nice twist on a Spanish Sangria, containing rum of course!!!   The pity is, we hadn’t found this place before as I have no doubt our guests would have enjoyed it as well.

We decided to go to a local beach but we were “rather” late leaving and the nearest was difficult to get onto so gave it a miss and drove home after a very nice, but “naughty” lunch.

Back at the cottage we couldn’t quite bring ourselves round for more rum and certainly not Hungary so had a few hands at crib, then two episodes of Silent Witness then bed.  The reason we watch Silent Witness is simple; the local tv isn’t very exciting and when sitting outside Christine attracts all the mozzies in the vicinity and gets bitten to shreds.  After Christine has “fumigated” the bedroom, we sit on the bed and with the air-con full blast, this gives her some respite!!

Tomorrow we are heading back to half-moon beach for a change!!😂😂

Tuesday 4th February 2025

Heading towards our last few days, and knowing we have quite a busy schedule once back in the U.K., we are making the most of doing nothing; today was no exception!!!

We eventually “dragged” ourselves out of the house around 1100hrs but decided to go to the bank and get some cash out,   One of the biggest changes we have come across is the currency.  Over the many years we have been coming here, “Eastern Caribbean Dollars” is the currency except for a 1/2 mile radius of the cruise ship terminal, (I wonder why!!) but now every bar, restaurant, beach shack, taxi, Shirley heights and tour operator talks in $US, so today the trip to the bank is to get more $US.  The sad thing is that this adds cost, as everything is calculated back to ECD’s!!!   After a extraordinarily long time in the bank, I think the amount of form filling and paperwork was even greater than Spain, we headed to Morris Bay.

This long but fairly steep sandy bay has more cows wandering around than people; a very quiet beach that neither of us recall visiting before.   Due to the visit to the bank it was a late “lunch-time”,  so grabbed another bright yellow picnic table and enjoyed our “chicken roll”

overlooking the sea.   Once eaten, we just sat there in the sun enjoying the view and doing nothing.   We did watch a couple enter the sea and noticed a very steep bank just off the shore line where the people just dropped about a metre, then after their swim they struggled to get out!!   This did nothing to entice us in so wandered along the beach both ways, then back to the yellow picnic table for a last “contemplation” of everything, then home via the supermarket.

After dinner we played 3-very “close” games of crib followed by another two episodes of Silent Witness; we really enjoyed our day.

Sunday 2nd February 2025No rush today and after a nice lay-in I popped to the local supermarket for some bits before breakfast, and it became obvious neither of us showed any inclination to venture out today; so let’s stay-in.   Today we talked about our respective bucket lists and what to do, and where to visit in the future; no conclusions, just work in progress;  watch this space!!

Strangely the day flew past in-spite of doing nothing, well nearly nothing as Christine also caught up with the ironing and I wrote up some logs!!!   The bottom line is we have decided we are “Antigua’d out”, though we are still enjoying this break, after all we have been coming here, on-and-off since 2006.

This evening we decided to start to watch the latest serries of Silent Witness on the iPad, we did the first two episodes.   

Monday 3rd February 2025

Today we are definitely going to the beach and after debating the merits of various beaches, decided to head to Carlisle bay. We have fond memories of this beach, especially with Douglas back in 2006 and more recently with Jersey Jane in 2020.

With time running out and our five weeks is drawing to an end, we still have quite a lot of food left in the freezer that has to be eaten.  Today we made a couple of chicken rolls for our lunch, we can buy the beer out!!!

We arrived at the beach just before midday and to our surprise there is now a beach-bar, the “South Beach Restaurant” that offers a complete service, including “toilets” and a “sort” of a shower, very useful.   We headed straight in for a couple of beers and get the “low-down” on this place.   Apparently it is very new, only been opened for 4-months and apart from the bar, offers a variety of hot, mainly local dishes.   We were offered Goat curry, Jerk Chicken and Bean Curry to name just a few; another time, just the beers for now.  They also rented out the beach loungers with fixed wooden sun-shades but they wanted $30US , so we declined explaining we were not going to be here that long, anyway after much banter, confusing the server, she eventually told us to take two and she’d talk to her boss about a lower rate later.   We took that and left!!

Enjoying our chicken rolls on the sun-loungers, under the large sun-shade looking out to the bay was as good as it gets and if we get away without paying for these facilities, even better.   Whilst this was going on, there was a “bunch” of Americans next to us, probably from a cruise ship and the two men went off snorkelling.   I thought they were wasting their time as overnight we had big winds and a lot of rain so the sea was going to be “murky” and not long after going in, they were coming out.   “How was it” I asked, “rubbish” came back followed by “can’t see a dam thing”; no surprise and Christine put hers gear away.

The one good thing about this beach is the lack of a shelf as you walk into the sea but today we had some rather large waves, so it was a question of timing as they came in threes, followed be a quiet period then they re-appeared; strange🤫🤫.  We stayed in for some time but there was some cloud about causing a chill wind so had to keep under until we eventually had enough.  Now the timing was essential to get out un-scathed by the three “nasty” waves which we both did, effortlessly in the end.   We now dried off under the sun on our free (so far) loungers.

Time for a beer so headed back to the bar hopefully without getting caught to pay for the beach equipment, I even saw the same lady as before but this time had to pay a man in charge of the till, “the boss” perhaps???   Back to Christine, had we got away with it??,fingers crossed as this is now our challenge.

We stayed around for a another hour or so before departing, but what to do with my empty bottle.   I couldn’t just leave it but was worried if I took into the bar I’d be asked for $30!!  I noticed at this end of the building a big blue bin but next to that a table full of empty bottles; problem solved.

Back in the car having conquered our challenge, off we went.  Our run back took is back along the “Rivera” route but we stopped for a few moments to cast our eyes over “Morris Bay”, thinking this will be tomorrow’s destination.

A pleasant drive back in the late afternoon sun “and” we passed a few areas where roadworks were happening, at last there’re attacking some of the dreadful pot-holes.

Christine had raided the freezer and produced an excellent risotto,I wonder why we go out???   No crib tonight as we are attacking Silent Witness again.