Oldies On Tour

Friday 17th January, 2025

I am pleased to report Christine is getting better following a good nights rest and a fun, relaxing evening at Papa Zouk’s last night.  Today is our last morning together and since being told earlier in the week about a beach bar that offered “Banana Coladas”, Sarah had expressed a “need” to visit this bar on “Darkwoid Beach”, about 30-minutes away.

This morning, and to set everyone up for the day, Christine cooked a “full English”, no mean feat due to the limitations of the cooking facilities in this cottage. One example is the toaster: a four slice toaster but only one side in two of the slots work, quite a logistical nightmare trying to make four slices of toast!!!  Whilst cooking breakfast Lee and Sarah packed so that no time was wasted and we could max out beach time this morning.

Clearing up after a first class breakfast we headed to Darkwood Beach, a pleasant, longish stretch of sand with two beach bars on it.   We managed to park at the edge of the sand and under a tree, so two steps and a hop we were in the water.   Whilst three of us were enjoying the not so gentle waves, Sarah went on a mission to find out which beach bar, if either!!, did the “Banana Coladas”.   Mission accomplished, the big one at the southern end.

After a struggle to get out and rescued by Lee, we headed off to the bar and ordered these “Banana Colada” cocktails.  At this point Christine had not decided what to have, the Pina version has coconut in, so that is a no-go-area so when they turned up, she had a sip and said “YES” to one; we were all amazed!!!

The consensus after drinking them was disappointment, so Sarah and I ordered two “Pina Coladas” but guess what, Christine enjoyed them and had another; can you believe that???

By now time was marching on so headed back so Sarah and Lee could finish packing, shower and change before heading to the airport.   This, as always has been a good, fun week but fortunately not as hectic as the week we had together four years ago; I hope they weren’t disappointed.

When we returned back to base there, sitting on our veranda table was a brand spanking new toaster, wow we were amazed,  we didn’t think she was going to replace the old one on the basis her’s at home is also broken!!!

The final trip to the airport had a sting in the tail, fortuitously we had extra time and it was necessary, every road was blocked with traffic, couldn’t believe it, still we arrived well within their time constraints.   

After our good byes we headed back for a quiet night, no alcohol tonight or until Martin arrives tomorrow

Thursday 16th January 2025

What an awful night.  Poor Christine’s bones are really painful, those buggies have an awful lot to answer for and she has now stated quite categorically and finally,  “never, never again” will she do an off-roading tour!!!   If the bones weren’t enough, it bucketed it down all night and as these buildings only have a thin timber roof, we heard every drop fall!!!  

Being their last day, we couldn’t ask them to hang around so Christine elected to stay back and rest whilst we headed off to Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour.    The rain was still chucking it down, the good news, it is warm rain😂😂 but the forecast didn’t look good  for much of the day.   Anyway we set off. English harbour is the other end of the island and once we had cleared St John’s, the roads looked remarkably dry; strange!!  And the nearer we got to Nelson’s Dockyard, the clearer the sky became, the rain had stopped😎😎

We split up, they carried on looking around, I found a coffee place and got chatting to a yacht skipper who had sailed over from Europe a couple of years ago and now lives on his boat for about 6-months cruising between the islands at will; this conversation together with the days sailing we did and naturally the blue sea and warm weather got me thinking; oh how I would like to get back into this way of life again.  We have wonderful memories of Anam Cara, would we be able to make new memories if we got another boat I ask???  Anyway, dreaming over (for now) they joined me for a snack and of course Lee’s taste buds were tickled by this sailor and his “lot”.   

Time to head back but first I took them to Falmouth Harbour to see the results of the fire, then onto Pigeon beach for a quick paddle before getting back for showers etc., prior to our visit to Papa Zouk’s for a lobster dinner.

Time for an aperitif before heading to down-town, St. John’s.   Parking never seems to be a problem here, locals just stop and leave their car where they fancy and I am now settled into their driving ways, “big balls and go” seems to be the right way here!!!

As expected the place was heaving, so glad we booked, had we not done so, Lee and Sarah would have missed out again.  This is one of those places that is all about the food and the atmosphere, not the surroundings, after all it is only a “tin shack” on a very small, out of the way, unlit side street.  This time we had a table to ourselves, normally you just sit on a long bench along with other diners, as if you were at school but the floor is gravel!!!

The four of us had lobster in the various formats and they were magnificent, even their wine was very good but no choice!!!   Tonight we were treated by Lee and Sarah; this very kind of them, thank you both very much.

Eventually we left but not before making another booking for next week.g

What was left of the evening gave us time for a night-cap or two, and a chat about our week together before heading to bed; the latest night we’ve had all week!!!!!

Wednesday 15th January 2025

We awoke to another glorious morning but no rush, nothing specific on today so carried out some domestic chores before heading out.

Today we headed for Galleon Beach, a small bay opposite the entrance to English Harbour where there is a tour that heads out from here, around the headland to the pillars of Hercules where there is a wreck.  With this snorkelling tour you get an underwater scooter to pull you along so though it’s a fair way, not too much effort is required.

Arriving in Galleon Bay and parked, we quickly found the “A  board” with a ‘phone number and rang it.   Today Lee and Sarah were going and booked the 1400hr tour so with a couple of hours to spare, we headed to the beach restaurant for an early lunch, but as we hadn’t booked, we were “told”, we had to be away from our table at 1400hrs as it was booked at that time, no problem with that as the snorkelling tour started around that time.

We ordered some drinks and waited, and waited, they also chivied us up to order our food!!!   Anyway apart from diabolically slow service, we enjoyed a very pleasant lunch accompanied by a couple of bottles of Chardonnay.  The real joke was, due to their slow service we only just finished by 1400hrs!!!!!

Lee and Sarah headed off to join their tour whilst we headed a few meters and straight into the sea.  This beach being in the mouth of English Harbour, though nice sand there was a fair amount of seaweed and shingle, still we managed!!!

We all met up again around 1600hrs.  They thoroughly enjoyed their tour of the rocks and wrecks and of course with the scooters pulling them along, minimal effort was required.

Heading back home via a supermarket where the four of us headed in different directions with a task to get two or three items where hopefully this would speed things up and we would all get to the checkout together; it worked, team effort.  Back at the ranch, Christine conjured up an excellent Pasta dish followed by the “Key-lime-pie” we bought, yum yum.

We were going to teach our guests to play cribbage but everybody was shattered so we just sat around chatting and drinking: Christine even commented how good it was to see me drinking again, blimey  that’s a first!!!

Tomorrow is Lee and Sarah’s last full day, see what they want to do, however we do have a table booked at “Papa Zouk’s”, the fish restaurant they missed out on four years ago

Tuesday 14th January 2025

Sailing today so an early start, unfortunately this morning is hot again which is good, but zero wind, not ideal for a days sail; let’s hope there is a good breeze at sea.

After breakfast we headed off to Jolly Harbour, earlier than we needed because we were unsure where we boarded our yacht.  I had one place in mind from four years ago and Christine had a different idea so we decided to head to the booking agents office and find out.   The girl here recognised Christine immediately and shouted at me to park opposite, unfortunately this was where Christine has told me👹👹!!!!   We then headed along the broad walk to the collection pontoon.   As we were early we had to hang about a little, but then a rather large catamaran arrived and that was that, there was no room for our charter to dock so a call was made to our skipper for the tender to be sent to collect us.  The dock we were on was for the height of a normal boat, not low enough for a dingy, so our getting on was a little undignified to say the least!!!    Anyway we were on our way and met up with our 51ft Benateau in the harbour channel and clambered aboard.   We met our skipper Charlotte, and Devon our deck hand and then headed out into the clear blue Caribbean water, but no wind😩😩

In a sail boat, running on engine “doesn’t cut the mustard”, noisy and no fun but as we rounded the first point, “hooray” there was a modicum of wind so out went the jib and the  engine was cut; we were sailing, albeit about one knot, but sailing none the less, peace at last!!!  Now was the time for refreshments as we headed to Carlisle Bay accompanied with slices of fresh fruit, this is going to be good.

Arriving in Carlisle bay right opposite the famous hotel, we dropped the anchor, broke out the masks, snorkels and fins and straight into the clear blue water.   Though the water was clear there wasn’t much marine life to look at.   The skipper then broke out the “Lily Pad”, a mat made out of plastic and foam about 3-meters long and 1-meter wide attached to the boat with a lanyard.   I was the first on it but to my surprise everyone joined me; this pad was buoyant enough to support the weight of the four of us.   Laughing and joking whilst lying on the Lily Pad, soaking up the sun with water lapping over us, we got the call; “lunch is ready”.   After a bit of a scramble we were all off the pad and back on board looking forward to the bar-b-q.

I have to say the food was not as good as the food we had on our last charter 4-years ago, the bar-b-q’d chicken was dry and tough though the sauce it was cooked in was excellent.  There was no salad only coleslaw and a plate of mixed beans accompanied with  cold corn-on-the-cob, mine still had ice on it!!!   Desert was fresh fruit, though we had to ask for it!!!   The offer of booze was very good but a limited range bar.  On the whole I was very disappointed, still overall we had a good time, both Charlotte and Devon were chatty and good hosts.

After lunch there was plenty of time for more swimming and sunbathing before heading back to Jolly Harbour.

The trip back was better as we found some wind but some of the Skippers manoeuvres were questionable, especially when going about; the jib went in all directions and we did a 360 turn; still all was well with the sunbathers on the bowes.

Upon arrival, fortunately the Charter boat pontoon was empty so we docked and had a far more genteel  disembarkation. We settled up, said our goodbyes and headed to the bar overlooking the marina, not that we needed another drink!!!

As it started to get dusk and the issues with driving in the dark,we headed back to base but stopped en-route at the local KFC for a bucket of chicken, we were peckish!!!   Car safely parked in the drive and we “dived” into the bucket, oh yes we also had a mountain of fries and some “hot” (this time) corn-on-the-cobs; anybody would have thought we hadn’t eaten for a week!!

Full and satisfied we cleared up and relaxed but not for long, doing nothing has tired us out so another early night was called for

Monday 13th January 2025

Buggies today, so after a brief breakfast we headed to our local beach for an early dip, and as today is shaping up to be hot, swimming was a good option.

We had to be adjacent to Jolly harbour for 1330hrs so back at the “ranch” we had an early lunch or was it a late breakfast; bacon and eggs!!!!

Arriving a little earlier than planned, less traffic perhaps??  Still we had time to sort ourselves out; we planned to take towels etc., as we visit a beach only to be told in no uncertain way, now loose objects and the beach visit isn’t long enough to have a swim🥵. Eventually another two couples arrived and then we were issued with crash hats and had a safety talk including who is responsible for certain damage to tyre sidewalks, damaged frame etc., hey, these are off road buggies built especially for these trips surely all damage should be down to the business: have I got that wrong???

Once we had had all the briefings we were asked if we wanted to buy any face masks or goggles at un-realistic prices, we declined.   Lee mounted a couple of “Go Pro” cameras on our two buggies and now we are ready to go.   We had the guide leading the convoy followed by Lee then us and the Americans behind and a rear-gunner (employee) bringing up the rear.  After a few minutes we realised we should have bought some goggles and a face mask!!

These buggies were quick and the tracks we went along were really bumpy neither of us had time to take in much scenery, I was 100% concentrating on driving and Christine was hanging on for dear life as our bones were being jarred and our eyeballs jumped around in our sockets, not to mention the dust we inhaled!!!   Up hill and down dale we following these tracks, and on one section we drove down  a 45-degree wear wall, very disconcerting as the approach looked as if we were dropping down a cliff!!!    Eventually after passing numerous undernourished cows, tethered separately trying to survive on minimal parched grass we eventually arrived at the beach for a drink stop.   When we took our helmets off we all had a dirt line across our foreheads; dirt below the helmet, clean under the helmet, even my glasses were covered so seeing was becoming difficult: we all regretted not getting some goggles at the start!!!   The first half of this tour took over a hour and this break was very welcome, these buggies are not comfortable to sit in anyway but add in all the rocks, pot holes , ditches and steep hills, our bones ached and our legs were set in the bent position; as I said a very welcome break.

The second part was much shorter but still as “lively” as we wound our way back to the starting point.   We really enjoyed the experience and on balance preferred this years experience to the one we did four years ago.   

Now it was a question of finding the nearest beach to “clean off” and “cool off” so after consulting google earth, headed to Ffryes  Beach, about 1-mile or 5-minutes away!!  Hardly had we parked the car before we headed straight into the see, lovely, lovely, lovely.

Once clean and cooled it was “drinky-poo”, time so headed back into Jolly Harbour, found a bar overlooking the marina and thinking of tomorrow when we have chartered a boat for the day whilst laughing and chatting about our experiences in the buggies.

With dusk falling we headed off, first to the supermarket, then home.  Driving here after dark is the worse of all nightmares, now driving during the day doesn’t seem so bad!!!

Stocked up with wine and food we enjoyed a quiet night in but even so, we were knackered and had an early night!!!

Sunday 12th January 2025

The four of us enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before heading out to Half Moon Bay.   Sarah has memories that the “shack” behind the beach produced a particularly nice Pina Colada and this has been on her mind for some time so naturally we have to do it!!

We arrived in time to secure a couple of sun beds before getting into the sea to cool off.  Today is particularly hot with hardly a cloud to be seen and being a long beach wrapping around this cove, and out of the way, it was not busy.

After our some time in the water, a stroll along the beach to dry off, or burn!!, we headed into the shack to buy some Pina Coladas and took them back to the beach.

Shirley heights tonight so we booked a taxi to pick us up at 1530hrs meaning we needed an early snack lunch from the “shack”.   We were on a tight time schedule but unfortunately the locals and in particular the staff in the shack had their own time Agenda and everything was painfully slow, trying to chivy them up just didn’t work, even when it came to paying our bill we had to wait!!!!   Still we left in time in the end, and had another quick dip before heading back.   We calculated we just had enough time for the   45 minute drive, 4-showers and be waiting for our taxi at 1530; our concern was if the taxi driver was on time, knowing their general approach to timekeeping.

All good, our taxi driver “Junior” was waiting for us, and as a bonus it was a brand new taxi, just out of the showroom though he was sending straight back in as it had a terrible squeak on the side sliding door.   Taxis around here are small people carriers that can carry 10 passengers, many of them look like wrecks; I wonder how long this one will look like new!!!

Arriving at Shirley heights is always the same, taxis and their drivers milling around whilst all the people head inside, but first one has to pay an entrance fee then get a wrist band as the receipt.    

As soon as you enter there is the first bar so we armed ourselves with Rum Punches except Christine, she had a ginger beer, not a normal one of course here in Antigua, no they’re own concoction.  Ginger root is put into a blender with some water,sugar and a squeeze of lime, then all blended together and served on ice, very refreshing but boy it nearly knocks your socks as it is such a strong taste of ginger.   Eventually we put a straight rum into it to soften the taste!!!

It was good to be back at our old haunt, overlooking Falmouth and English Harbours, listening to the local steel band, watching the sun go down, enjoying the local refreshments and having a bar-b-q.   Unfortunately I had a funny turn; certainly not too much rum and felt very odd, still the evening finishes after dark so headed back to meet “Junior” for the drive back.

En route I asked Junior to pull over, which he did very quickly but unfortunately being very dark, as I stepped out of the taxi there was quite a big drop into a hole and I fell straight down into a muddy puddle.   What an unfortunate place to stop, and even worse everybody was falling about in hoots of laughter.   Lee jumped out and Junior came round to help me get back up and into the taxi but unfortunately in the process Lee very nearly went flying!!   Whatever it was I wanted to stop for had long been forgotten as we set off again, covered in mud.

Safely delivered with Junior apologising over and over again for stopping in such a muddy place, we went inside where the full extent of the mud bath I had was revealed; strip and straight into the shower and my clothes into the washing machine.   My shoes I will deal with tomorrow when we go to the beach.

I then went for an early night whilst the rest chuckled and discussed my situation