Wednesday 20 Jan 2016
Tobago - London - Bristol
We started boarding the aircraft shortly before six and the at that stage it was still being refuelled. There were probably only about 60 passengers on this flight. The flight from Tobago to St Lucia only took 40 minutes and we quickly taxied in to the terminal. We had to stay on the aircraft whilst it was re-catered and a new crew joined the flight. After that, the new passengers were boarded which about filled the aircraft.
We sat around for quite a whilst before the Captain informed us that there were a few minor technical problems and that we would be leaving shortly. Although it would be a late departure, we would still arrive ahead of time in London. We eventually got airborne at around 2100 local. I quickly out my watch forward to reflect UK time.
Once airborne, dinner was served and everyone settled down. Initially, I just couldn't get comfortable, but after a quick walk to the toilets and back I read for 15 minutes and fell asleep. Lynn only managed to cat-nap, but the next thing I knew was the cabin lights on full and the cabin crew serving breakfast right next to me!
We made landfall in UK at Lands End and from my window seat, with skies clear, I had a wonderful view of the south coast from about Dawlish all the way to along to Brighton. Chesil Bank and Portland Bill were easily spotted whilst Lulworth Cove, Kimmeridge, Chapmans Pool and Swanage passespd below us, I could even see Shell Bay and Sandbanks. We must have flown across the bay at
Bournemouth as the next thing I saw was the Needles on the Isle of Wight. As you can probably tell,
I like watching the scenery from above!
Back at Gatwick, the temperature on landing was apparently -6C. A bit of a shock after leaving Tobago at 27C! Immigration, as usual, was a bit slow, but at least the automatic passport readers were working. By the time we got to the baggage carousel, our bags were just arriving and we were quickly through customs. I'd phoned the 'meet-and-greet' company while we were collecting our bags and by the time we exited the South Terminal, our car was just being driven up! Great service, highly recommended and only a few pounds more expensive than the long-term car parking charge.
We headed up the M23 to the M25 and left that for the M3. Due me not taking the tight turn off for Bracknell, we went a little further south than I intended! Back on the route suggested by our sat nav we drove via Bracknell to the M4. By now coffee was on my agenda, so we made a brief stop at the services at Reading before arriving at Bristol around 1230.
Overall, we've enjoyed our holiday in the southern Caribbean but probably wouldn't go back to Tobago. Not because there was anything wrong with the island, but because there are too many other places to go!
The end of another holiday blog!
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Time to move on
Tuesday 19 Jan 2016
Tobago - Castara to London Gatwick
Today, we have to return to UK. We've enjoyed our time here, but are ready to return. We aren't looking forward to the cold weather though. Here, the temperature hasn't changed much day or night around 25-28C.
We had a slow start as we have arranged to leave the apartment after lunch. We did quite a lot of packing first thing and then headed for Little Bay for the last time. The water was even calmer today and the visibility underwater improved,must not fantastic. We both had a swim and after drying off, headed up the steep hill one last time.
Lunch consisted of all the food we had left in the fridge in the form of salad. We still left some milk and a couple of bottles of beer!
At 1430, we ferried the bags back down the footpath, swept the apartment out and said farewell to our hosts. The main road back diwn to Scarborough seemed especially busy, but we made it without incident. After refuelling the car, we drove to the car rental office, where after a cursory external check, they drove us back to the airport terminal. Fingers crossed, the minor scrape on the underside of the bumper went unnoticed amongst the other scratches and scrapes.
Check in couldn't have been simpler and we quickly made it to security. Apart from a minor issue of water bottles in someone's rucksack, all went smoothly. The departure lounge here is tiny and eventually the bar opened, so we had a last Stag beer each. We also had to get rid of some TT dollars in duty free.
Our flight is due to leave at 1815, but the cabin staff have only just got on the aircraft now at 1735. Will we leave on time, who knows! We will fly to St Lucia to collect more passengers before heading back to Gatwick where we are due to land at 0845 tomorrow morning.
Tobago - Castara to London Gatwick
Today, we have to return to UK. We've enjoyed our time here, but are ready to return. We aren't looking forward to the cold weather though. Here, the temperature hasn't changed much day or night around 25-28C.
We had a slow start as we have arranged to leave the apartment after lunch. We did quite a lot of packing first thing and then headed for Little Bay for the last time. The water was even calmer today and the visibility underwater improved,must not fantastic. We both had a swim and after drying off, headed up the steep hill one last time.
Lunch consisted of all the food we had left in the fridge in the form of salad. We still left some milk and a couple of bottles of beer!
At 1430, we ferried the bags back down the footpath, swept the apartment out and said farewell to our hosts. The main road back diwn to Scarborough seemed especially busy, but we made it without incident. After refuelling the car, we drove to the car rental office, where after a cursory external check, they drove us back to the airport terminal. Fingers crossed, the minor scrape on the underside of the bumper went unnoticed amongst the other scratches and scrapes.
Check in couldn't have been simpler and we quickly made it to security. Apart from a minor issue of water bottles in someone's rucksack, all went smoothly. The departure lounge here is tiny and eventually the bar opened, so we had a last Stag beer each. We also had to get rid of some TT dollars in duty free.
Our flight is due to leave at 1815, but the cabin staff have only just got on the aircraft now at 1735. Will we leave on time, who knows! We will fly to St Lucia to collect more passengers before heading back to Gatwick where we are due to land at 0845 tomorrow morning.
Birds, Beach and Rum
Monday 18 Jan 2016
Tobago - Castara
Our last full day in Tobago started slowly, after all, we are on holiday! Having sorted ourselves out, we got in the car and stopped briefly at the gift shop in the hope they might have some stamps. They didn't, but we found out the nearest Post Office was at Mason Hall in the middle of the island, so we set off there.
We found the Post Office but there was nowhere to park ages the road was narrow. As tried to reverse to turn one of the rear wheels dropped into a pothole and I rolled back into a concrete barrier. After a bit of effort, I was able to pull forward to a horrible scraping noise. On examination, the rear bumper has a small scrape mark on it. Tomorrow, I shall be finding a muddy puddle or two to drive through!
We did get some stamps though!
After this escapade, we headed on down to Arnos Grove to visit the Arnos Vale Adventure Park and Farm. This proved to be a house on a hill surrounded by garden. The owners feed the birds here and although we didn't see any birds we hadn't already seen, it was cool and we were again surrounded by hummingbirds.
From here, we headed back to Castara as we fancied a swim. The sea, though still a little bumpy, was far calmer today. We both got in the water for a swim, but snorkelling was still not really possible. It is at least a good way to cool down. Lynn managed to climb up the stairs to take the short cut back to the apartment.
At around six, we headed back to Castara Retreats for dinner, cocktails first of course. I can report that passion fruit Mojito was really good. Once again the food was good, Lynn had the kofka as a starter whikst I had gazpacho. For mains, Lynn had grilled Mahe Mahe whilst I had fish cakes. A great location with good food. I finished the evening with a coffee and a fine rum, Angostura 1823. It was very smooth and finished off the meal really well.
The only bad thing was the Internet was not working, so I'm sitting in the departure lounge at the airport writing this!
Tobago - Castara
Our last full day in Tobago started slowly, after all, we are on holiday! Having sorted ourselves out, we got in the car and stopped briefly at the gift shop in the hope they might have some stamps. They didn't, but we found out the nearest Post Office was at Mason Hall in the middle of the island, so we set off there.
We found the Post Office but there was nowhere to park ages the road was narrow. As tried to reverse to turn one of the rear wheels dropped into a pothole and I rolled back into a concrete barrier. After a bit of effort, I was able to pull forward to a horrible scraping noise. On examination, the rear bumper has a small scrape mark on it. Tomorrow, I shall be finding a muddy puddle or two to drive through!
We did get some stamps though!
After this escapade, we headed on down to Arnos Grove to visit the Arnos Vale Adventure Park and Farm. This proved to be a house on a hill surrounded by garden. The owners feed the birds here and although we didn't see any birds we hadn't already seen, it was cool and we were again surrounded by hummingbirds.
From here, we headed back to Castara as we fancied a swim. The sea, though still a little bumpy, was far calmer today. We both got in the water for a swim, but snorkelling was still not really possible. It is at least a good way to cool down. Lynn managed to climb up the stairs to take the short cut back to the apartment.
At around six, we headed back to Castara Retreats for dinner, cocktails first of course. I can report that passion fruit Mojito was really good. Once again the food was good, Lynn had the kofka as a starter whikst I had gazpacho. For mains, Lynn had grilled Mahe Mahe whilst I had fish cakes. A great location with good food. I finished the evening with a coffee and a fine rum, Angostura 1823. It was very smooth and finished off the meal really well.
The only bad thing was the Internet was not working, so I'm sitting in the departure lounge at the airport writing this!
Sunday, 17 January 2016
Breakfast, cash-flow and Scarborough - Twice!
Sunday 17 Jan 2016
Tobago - Castara
Well, I got up this morning, made a cup of tea, and sat on the balcony eating a banana and anticipating a slow start to Sunday when I was reminded that I'd apparently agreed to go out for breakfast! Cue quick shower and get dressed and hurriedly collect what we'd need for the day! Swimming trunks and towel. Check. Beach shoes. Check. Camera. Check, Suntan cream and insect repellent. Check. Cash, not much!
Down at Chellans, we found a table on their small, open-air dining area and sat down. The smells coming from the kitchen were mouth-watering. A cup of coffee arrived pretty quickly and a fruit juice for Lynn and not long afterwards, our order was taken. The menu was simple, coconut bake or toast with two side orders including scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese. We both chose scrambled eggs and bacon.
By the time our breakfast arrived, two musicians had turned up with acoustic guitars and we're playing in the background, amazingly not reggae! Our two slices of toast came with a pile of bacon, American style, scrambled eggs, tomato, cucumber and a slice of watermelon. Butter and pineapple marmalade arrived too. How good was that? Very, is the simple answer and the bill $100 TT for the two of us, just over £10.
As alluded to earlier, we'd emptied our purses, pockets and piggy bank and realised we could use some more cash. Very few local businesses accept credit/debit cards. With that in mind and having already found the ATM in the village wouldn't give us anything, we headed for Scarborough, about 25km away on the southern, windward coast. As the speed limit is 50kph and the roads are narrow, windy and hilly it is about 30-40 minutes away.
Once at the one bank we know takes our card I was rather surprised to find it wouldn't give us cash either. Whilst pondering this dilemma in the car park, Lynn suddenly realised it was because we hadn't actually moved money onto our travel card - duh!
Ho-hum, back in the car and drive to Castara so we could get to a computer and load the card. It's an interesting drive at least! Fortunately, the Internet was working and we did our online banking and had a drink of water, then it was back to Scarborough for the second time in a day. We can say we know the road quite well now. The owners of our apartment told us the bank that own the ATM in the village has stopped accepting foreign cards.
After returning to Castara, we had a lazy hour before we headed down to Little Bay for a swim. The sea is slowly calming down and after I bravely flung myself into the ocean to check the wave action and entry and exit points free of stones washed up by the storm, Lynn finally made it for a swim. I say swim, but was more like a bounce around in the waves. It was rather refreshing.
We've spoken to our new neighbour's today. They are both Polish but live in Austin, Texas! Luckily, they aren't freaked out by bats as we have flocks of them on the feeder as usual.
Tobago - Castara
Well, I got up this morning, made a cup of tea, and sat on the balcony eating a banana and anticipating a slow start to Sunday when I was reminded that I'd apparently agreed to go out for breakfast! Cue quick shower and get dressed and hurriedly collect what we'd need for the day! Swimming trunks and towel. Check. Beach shoes. Check. Camera. Check, Suntan cream and insect repellent. Check. Cash, not much!
Down at Chellans, we found a table on their small, open-air dining area and sat down. The smells coming from the kitchen were mouth-watering. A cup of coffee arrived pretty quickly and a fruit juice for Lynn and not long afterwards, our order was taken. The menu was simple, coconut bake or toast with two side orders including scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese. We both chose scrambled eggs and bacon.
By the time our breakfast arrived, two musicians had turned up with acoustic guitars and we're playing in the background, amazingly not reggae! Our two slices of toast came with a pile of bacon, American style, scrambled eggs, tomato, cucumber and a slice of watermelon. Butter and pineapple marmalade arrived too. How good was that? Very, is the simple answer and the bill $100 TT for the two of us, just over £10.
As alluded to earlier, we'd emptied our purses, pockets and piggy bank and realised we could use some more cash. Very few local businesses accept credit/debit cards. With that in mind and having already found the ATM in the village wouldn't give us anything, we headed for Scarborough, about 25km away on the southern, windward coast. As the speed limit is 50kph and the roads are narrow, windy and hilly it is about 30-40 minutes away.
Once at the one bank we know takes our card I was rather surprised to find it wouldn't give us cash either. Whilst pondering this dilemma in the car park, Lynn suddenly realised it was because we hadn't actually moved money onto our travel card - duh!
Ho-hum, back in the car and drive to Castara so we could get to a computer and load the card. It's an interesting drive at least! Fortunately, the Internet was working and we did our online banking and had a drink of water, then it was back to Scarborough for the second time in a day. We can say we know the road quite well now. The owners of our apartment told us the bank that own the ATM in the village has stopped accepting foreign cards.
After returning to Castara, we had a lazy hour before we headed down to Little Bay for a swim. The sea is slowly calming down and after I bravely flung myself into the ocean to check the wave action and entry and exit points free of stones washed up by the storm, Lynn finally made it for a swim. I say swim, but was more like a bounce around in the waves. It was rather refreshing.
We've spoken to our new neighbour's today. They are both Polish but live in Austin, Texas! Luckily, they aren't freaked out by bats as we have flocks of them on the feeder as usual.
Saturday, 16 January 2016
Diving diving and Hummingbirds
Saturday 16 Nan 2016
Tobago - Castara
I didn't say in the blog yesterday, but the owners of the apartments arrived from UK late yesterday evening. Today, the two Danish girls leave and new guest will arrive sometime after midnight! It's all change here.
We didn't rush up, but we're on the road by 0930. We drove the now familiar route over the mountain to Roxborough and Speyside directly to the Blue Waters Inn. Lynn settled down in the lounge whilst I headed for the dive centre.
Today there were 4 divers including me. Niko, the Finn, Ian, a Brit and an American I never did learn the name of! The boat took us out to the western end of Little Tobago Island. We jumped into about 4 metres of water and onto a rocky bottom before heading down the slope to 18 metres. There was lots of coral and tropical fish and the visibility was good. It was a drift dive, it started of gently, but rapidly picked up pace, there was no need to fin. We saw several large eels, both Conger and Moray, rare, for Tobago, Sand Eels, nudibranchs and a large Lionfish. Like the other day a large turtle appeared at the end of the dive. For me, it was another 55 minutes of astonishing pleasure. Thanks Lynn for the Christmas present.
Once back at the dive centre with all the kit washed, I joined Lynn for lunch in the hotel. I had calamari! After we'd had lunch we managed to find the Hummingbird Gallery. Nothing to do with art, it is a lady who feeds hummingbirds. If I say there were hundreds of hummingbirds in her garden it would be no exaggeration. Not only that, they were often less than a metre away. There are six species of hummingbird present in Tobago, five out of the six were to be seen here. We spent some time taking photos and talking to the owner who is very knowledgable about the birds.
After that, it was the low-level route back to Castara. We attempted a swim, but the swell is still significant. We managed to get in enough to cool down. Back at the apartment we had a longer chat with one if the owners before settling down to relax ip here whilst listening to fairly loud music floating up, no that's too tame a description, pumping up from the village! We filled the bat feeders earlier, do we are inundated with bats fluttering around the balcony.
Tobago - Castara
I didn't say in the blog yesterday, but the owners of the apartments arrived from UK late yesterday evening. Today, the two Danish girls leave and new guest will arrive sometime after midnight! It's all change here.
We didn't rush up, but we're on the road by 0930. We drove the now familiar route over the mountain to Roxborough and Speyside directly to the Blue Waters Inn. Lynn settled down in the lounge whilst I headed for the dive centre.
Today there were 4 divers including me. Niko, the Finn, Ian, a Brit and an American I never did learn the name of! The boat took us out to the western end of Little Tobago Island. We jumped into about 4 metres of water and onto a rocky bottom before heading down the slope to 18 metres. There was lots of coral and tropical fish and the visibility was good. It was a drift dive, it started of gently, but rapidly picked up pace, there was no need to fin. We saw several large eels, both Conger and Moray, rare, for Tobago, Sand Eels, nudibranchs and a large Lionfish. Like the other day a large turtle appeared at the end of the dive. For me, it was another 55 minutes of astonishing pleasure. Thanks Lynn for the Christmas present.
Once back at the dive centre with all the kit washed, I joined Lynn for lunch in the hotel. I had calamari! After we'd had lunch we managed to find the Hummingbird Gallery. Nothing to do with art, it is a lady who feeds hummingbirds. If I say there were hundreds of hummingbirds in her garden it would be no exaggeration. Not only that, they were often less than a metre away. There are six species of hummingbird present in Tobago, five out of the six were to be seen here. We spent some time taking photos and talking to the owner who is very knowledgable about the birds.
After that, it was the low-level route back to Castara. We attempted a swim, but the swell is still significant. We managed to get in enough to cool down. Back at the apartment we had a longer chat with one if the owners before settling down to relax ip here whilst listening to fairly loud music floating up, no that's too tame a description, pumping up from the village! We filled the bat feeders earlier, do we are inundated with bats fluttering around the balcony.
Exploring the western most reaches
Friday 15 Jan 2016
Tobago - Castara
We woke up to sunny skies and a feeling that the sea had calmed down somewhat. We had breakfast and headed out to explore fairly early.
Just for a change, we headed west along the northern coast initially back to Moriah. From here, we headed towards Arnos Vale where we'd heard there was a bird sanctuary. We drove around some very small roads getting nowhere, quite literally sometimes when we found roads fizzling out into unsurfaced tracks. We stopped and asked people who said to just follow the road to Plymouth!
After a while, we checked again and found that it was actually beyond Plymouth, almost back in Buccoo. Finally, we found it and drove up the rough track to a small car park where we found a family of Americans taking family photos. They seemed to have rather a lot of children. We were quite pleased when they left as they were rather noisy!
The sanctuary is an abandoned estate bequeathed by its ex owner to be a refuge for wildlife. Apart from a 'visit or centre' where the birds are fed daily at 0800 and 1600, everything has largely been left for nature to take over. We wandered along a couple of semi-overgrown trails. We were the only people there. We saw several birds, but we were a bit late in the day.
We decided to have a look at the western most part if the island and followed the road back through Buccoo and Canaan to the airport. We turned off near the airport for Crown point and Pigeon point. The first is full of big hotels and commerce and the second was blocked by another development. I'm glad we aren't staying here.
Our remaining missions were to get a snack lunch, buy some fruit and go to the supermarket. The first of these led us from fast to fine dining. We stopped to fill the car up ( 35p per litre) and rather sadly noticed a drive through Wendy's. I'm ashamed to say we did the unthinkable and ended up with a take out meal sitting on the low cliff overlooking Buccoo Bay. I suppose it can be excused as we knew we were going to eat in more style later.
We visited the same fruit and veg stall that we'd been to previously and stocked and the to the supermarket before heading back to Castara where we relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon.
At six, we drove to the far side of Castara and climbed up the steep drive to Castara Retreats, a rather nice set of apartments with a restaurant. We were just in time to see the sun setting over the sea. The restaurant is built high on the side of the bay the view superb. It called for cocktails! A lime refresher for Lynn and a caipirinha for me. We'd booked a table overlooking the bay and chose starters and mains from the menu, for me, kofka to start and jerk chicken whilst Lynn had an antipasto salad to start and jerk fish. The kitchen adjoins the dining area and we were asked by the chef how spicy we wanted our dinner. Wow, it was really good, without doubt the best food we'd eaten on island. They had a small, mainly Italian, wine list, but we had a beer each. We also succumbed to the desert menu, chocolate torte for Lynn and home-made chocolate ice cream for me. We turned down the fine rum to finish it off. Highly recommended, a little prices, but well worth it. We recommended it to ourselves and booked to go back on Monday!
Tobago - Castara
We woke up to sunny skies and a feeling that the sea had calmed down somewhat. We had breakfast and headed out to explore fairly early.
Just for a change, we headed west along the northern coast initially back to Moriah. From here, we headed towards Arnos Vale where we'd heard there was a bird sanctuary. We drove around some very small roads getting nowhere, quite literally sometimes when we found roads fizzling out into unsurfaced tracks. We stopped and asked people who said to just follow the road to Plymouth!
After a while, we checked again and found that it was actually beyond Plymouth, almost back in Buccoo. Finally, we found it and drove up the rough track to a small car park where we found a family of Americans taking family photos. They seemed to have rather a lot of children. We were quite pleased when they left as they were rather noisy!
The sanctuary is an abandoned estate bequeathed by its ex owner to be a refuge for wildlife. Apart from a 'visit or centre' where the birds are fed daily at 0800 and 1600, everything has largely been left for nature to take over. We wandered along a couple of semi-overgrown trails. We were the only people there. We saw several birds, but we were a bit late in the day.
We decided to have a look at the western most part if the island and followed the road back through Buccoo and Canaan to the airport. We turned off near the airport for Crown point and Pigeon point. The first is full of big hotels and commerce and the second was blocked by another development. I'm glad we aren't staying here.
Our remaining missions were to get a snack lunch, buy some fruit and go to the supermarket. The first of these led us from fast to fine dining. We stopped to fill the car up ( 35p per litre) and rather sadly noticed a drive through Wendy's. I'm ashamed to say we did the unthinkable and ended up with a take out meal sitting on the low cliff overlooking Buccoo Bay. I suppose it can be excused as we knew we were going to eat in more style later.
We visited the same fruit and veg stall that we'd been to previously and stocked and the to the supermarket before heading back to Castara where we relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon.
At six, we drove to the far side of Castara and climbed up the steep drive to Castara Retreats, a rather nice set of apartments with a restaurant. We were just in time to see the sun setting over the sea. The restaurant is built high on the side of the bay the view superb. It called for cocktails! A lime refresher for Lynn and a caipirinha for me. We'd booked a table overlooking the bay and chose starters and mains from the menu, for me, kofka to start and jerk chicken whilst Lynn had an antipasto salad to start and jerk fish. The kitchen adjoins the dining area and we were asked by the chef how spicy we wanted our dinner. Wow, it was really good, without doubt the best food we'd eaten on island. They had a small, mainly Italian, wine list, but we had a beer each. We also succumbed to the desert menu, chocolate torte for Lynn and home-made chocolate ice cream for me. We turned down the fine rum to finish it off. Highly recommended, a little prices, but well worth it. We recommended it to ourselves and booked to go back on Monday!
Thursday, 14 January 2016
Diving
Thursday 14 Jan 2016
Tobago - Castara
Up early in the hope the Internet might let me update the blog! I opened the door and found it was grey and drizzly. No matter, it is still 25C, so I make a cup of tea and set to work. Get on Internet, write blog, save blog, no chance, publish blog, no chance! Oh well at least the view is good!
I can hear the waves still crashing on the beach, there will be no swimming or snorkelling on this side of the island today.
After breakfast we head back on the now familiar road over the mountains to Roxborough. Turning east we continue on to Speyside and the Blue Waters Inn. After getting through security, we headed down the very rutted drive and park in the hotel car park. We wandered in to the hotel and found a place in the lounge for Lynn to sit and get a drink and then I headed for the dive centre.
I'd already filled in most of the paperwork but had a couple of questions. Those resolved we came to the thorny issue that the last time I'd dived was in the Seychelles 6 years ago! Where did those years go? I suppose we've been to places that I either couldn't dive (Galapagos) or didn't want to or couldn't dive (Alaska, USA road trip). The dive master told me I needed a skills check before we went diving. I happily agreed, and went for a dive in the hotel swimming pool. I had to demonstrate DV and mask clearing and simulate out of air, buddy breathing and a controlled lift. I guess it is like riding a bike, I managed it tombs satisfaction.
Off we went in the dive boat to find a relatively sheltered dive site. The water was certainly rougher today. Under some cliffs and close to waves breaking onto rocks, we jumped off the stern of the boat and dropped into 20+ metres of water. The visibility wasn't fantastic, but was in excess of 15 metres. The dive was a drift dive along the coastal wall. The fish life was everything you wish of tropical diving and I saw too many species to mention. The coral was good too, the fan and gorgon were particularly spectacular. Of note was a huge Moray Eel, many huge lobsters, baby squid and right on cue at the end of the dive a larger turtle.
After almost an hour at 18 metres, we came up and decompressed at 3 metres before clambering back on the boat and heading back to the hotel. I can say that I rediscovered my love of diving again today. Why ever did I stop? Look out wish list!
Back on shore, I joined Lynn for lunch in the hotel. We were amazed that the prices were almost the same as those outside the hotel. Service was good too. In fact things were so good, I booked to five again on Saturday.
Following this, we headed back to Castara. We had to go the coastal route as the route over the mountains is too high following the dive. Diving and then climbing to altitude are a recipe for decompression sickness aka 'the bends'. The coastal road still climbs, but nowhere near 650 metres of the mountain road.
Back in Castara, we relaxed and had another attempt to update the blog - failed. I popped out and booked to have dinner at Castara a Retreat an upmarket dining spot owned by Brits and featured in the Telegraph Travel pages, doancha know! Look it up on line, it looks really good!
We strolled back into the village and visited D'Almond again. It is a low key place but the food is good. Tonight we both had the coconut shrimps in garlic sauce with wedges! It was delicious and has the added effect that any self respecting Vampire will leave us in peace.
Footnote: Suddenly at 2140, the Internet suddenly burst into life andcenabked me to not only write this, but hopefully publish it too.
Tobago - Castara
Up early in the hope the Internet might let me update the blog! I opened the door and found it was grey and drizzly. No matter, it is still 25C, so I make a cup of tea and set to work. Get on Internet, write blog, save blog, no chance, publish blog, no chance! Oh well at least the view is good!
I can hear the waves still crashing on the beach, there will be no swimming or snorkelling on this side of the island today.
After breakfast we head back on the now familiar road over the mountains to Roxborough. Turning east we continue on to Speyside and the Blue Waters Inn. After getting through security, we headed down the very rutted drive and park in the hotel car park. We wandered in to the hotel and found a place in the lounge for Lynn to sit and get a drink and then I headed for the dive centre.
I'd already filled in most of the paperwork but had a couple of questions. Those resolved we came to the thorny issue that the last time I'd dived was in the Seychelles 6 years ago! Where did those years go? I suppose we've been to places that I either couldn't dive (Galapagos) or didn't want to or couldn't dive (Alaska, USA road trip). The dive master told me I needed a skills check before we went diving. I happily agreed, and went for a dive in the hotel swimming pool. I had to demonstrate DV and mask clearing and simulate out of air, buddy breathing and a controlled lift. I guess it is like riding a bike, I managed it tombs satisfaction.
Off we went in the dive boat to find a relatively sheltered dive site. The water was certainly rougher today. Under some cliffs and close to waves breaking onto rocks, we jumped off the stern of the boat and dropped into 20+ metres of water. The visibility wasn't fantastic, but was in excess of 15 metres. The dive was a drift dive along the coastal wall. The fish life was everything you wish of tropical diving and I saw too many species to mention. The coral was good too, the fan and gorgon were particularly spectacular. Of note was a huge Moray Eel, many huge lobsters, baby squid and right on cue at the end of the dive a larger turtle.
After almost an hour at 18 metres, we came up and decompressed at 3 metres before clambering back on the boat and heading back to the hotel. I can say that I rediscovered my love of diving again today. Why ever did I stop? Look out wish list!
Back on shore, I joined Lynn for lunch in the hotel. We were amazed that the prices were almost the same as those outside the hotel. Service was good too. In fact things were so good, I booked to five again on Saturday.
Following this, we headed back to Castara. We had to go the coastal route as the route over the mountains is too high following the dive. Diving and then climbing to altitude are a recipe for decompression sickness aka 'the bends'. The coastal road still climbs, but nowhere near 650 metres of the mountain road.
Back in Castara, we relaxed and had another attempt to update the blog - failed. I popped out and booked to have dinner at Castara a Retreat an upmarket dining spot owned by Brits and featured in the Telegraph Travel pages, doancha know! Look it up on line, it looks really good!
We strolled back into the village and visited D'Almond again. It is a low key place but the food is good. Tonight we both had the coconut shrimps in garlic sauce with wedges! It was delicious and has the added effect that any self respecting Vampire will leave us in peace.
Footnote: Suddenly at 2140, the Internet suddenly burst into life andcenabked me to not only write this, but hopefully publish it too.
Swimming
Wednesday 13 Jan 2016
Tobago - Castara
Today we were up and out really early. The sea was still pounding this side of the island. Our aim this morning was to get up in the mountains early enough to see more birdlife. We left Castara and got as far as the turn off for Englishmans Bay and realised there had been a road accident on a bend. Several cars were parked up assisting and an ambulance was in attendance. No sign of Police at all! It appeared to be a head-on accident. There are no diversions easily available around this part of Tobago
After a whilst, one of the vehicles was manhandled out of the way so the ambulance could get through and head in the direction of Scarborough. This also released the small queue of traffic either side of the incident. I hope no one was seriously injured. The speed limit on the island is 30mph maximum, but some people don't take much notice it seems.
Having escaped, we continued to the turn-off at Bloody Bay and headed up into the mountains. The road was very quiet and we stopped on a bend for a while and watched birds. We didn't see anything we hadn't already seen, but the birds are so colourful so it is a pleasure to watch them. We carried on up,to the visitors centre at the summit and Lynn saw a Jacamar and Chachalacas whist I saw lots of Parrots.
Further down the road we managed to pull in again and spent a while enjoying looking in the jungle fir more birds. A car came down and parked in front of us and a man got out to talk to us about birds. He was friendly but it was probably a sales pitch. He moved his car we wanted to leave! He did point
out a very small Woodpecker to us.
We continued on down to the southern coast at Roxborough. Here we turned west and followed the coast for a few miles, but it was fairly uninspiring so turned back east! It was heading toward lunchtime so we decided to return to Jemma's in Speyside.
Once again we had a really meal, chicken and fries for Lynn and a vegetarian dish for me, both delicious. It is a great place to sit looking over the bay.
We had already decided that we would try the beach at Kings Bay a few miles west of Speyside. Like yesterday, the beach was practically deserted. Four Americans were just leaving and we had the beach almost to ourselves. The lifeguards were dozing in one of the gazebos by the water, although later, they must have felt like a snack as they were trying to prod a coconut off a tree with a long bamboo pole. They failed!
We sat on the beach for a while to let lunch go down, the waves very gently washing up the sand. It's
a real contrast to the northern coast. The north is the Leeward coast on the Caribbean side whilst the south, facing the Atlantic is known as the Windward side.
The sea was warm when we got in and had a flat sandy bottom and only shelved gently. Ideal for swimming. After a swim, we lay and read for a while long to dry off.
At around 4-o-clock, we left the beach, a few more people had turned up including a local family equipped for fishing, but it never got remotely busy. We headed back to Roxborough and took the road back across the mountains stopped briefly for but mire bird spotting.
The road had been cleared of the accident so it didn't take long to get back to Castara. Here, we popped into the store to find something to go with salad and ended up with a tin of corned beef! We really know how to dine in style!
Tobago - Castara
Today we were up and out really early. The sea was still pounding this side of the island. Our aim this morning was to get up in the mountains early enough to see more birdlife. We left Castara and got as far as the turn off for Englishmans Bay and realised there had been a road accident on a bend. Several cars were parked up assisting and an ambulance was in attendance. No sign of Police at all! It appeared to be a head-on accident. There are no diversions easily available around this part of Tobago
After a whilst, one of the vehicles was manhandled out of the way so the ambulance could get through and head in the direction of Scarborough. This also released the small queue of traffic either side of the incident. I hope no one was seriously injured. The speed limit on the island is 30mph maximum, but some people don't take much notice it seems.
Having escaped, we continued to the turn-off at Bloody Bay and headed up into the mountains. The road was very quiet and we stopped on a bend for a while and watched birds. We didn't see anything we hadn't already seen, but the birds are so colourful so it is a pleasure to watch them. We carried on up,to the visitors centre at the summit and Lynn saw a Jacamar and Chachalacas whist I saw lots of Parrots.
Further down the road we managed to pull in again and spent a while enjoying looking in the jungle fir more birds. A car came down and parked in front of us and a man got out to talk to us about birds. He was friendly but it was probably a sales pitch. He moved his car we wanted to leave! He did point
out a very small Woodpecker to us.
We continued on down to the southern coast at Roxborough. Here we turned west and followed the coast for a few miles, but it was fairly uninspiring so turned back east! It was heading toward lunchtime so we decided to return to Jemma's in Speyside.
Once again we had a really meal, chicken and fries for Lynn and a vegetarian dish for me, both delicious. It is a great place to sit looking over the bay.
We had already decided that we would try the beach at Kings Bay a few miles west of Speyside. Like yesterday, the beach was practically deserted. Four Americans were just leaving and we had the beach almost to ourselves. The lifeguards were dozing in one of the gazebos by the water, although later, they must have felt like a snack as they were trying to prod a coconut off a tree with a long bamboo pole. They failed!
We sat on the beach for a while to let lunch go down, the waves very gently washing up the sand. It's
a real contrast to the northern coast. The north is the Leeward coast on the Caribbean side whilst the south, facing the Atlantic is known as the Windward side.
The sea was warm when we got in and had a flat sandy bottom and only shelved gently. Ideal for swimming. After a swim, we lay and read for a while long to dry off.
At around 4-o-clock, we left the beach, a few more people had turned up including a local family equipped for fishing, but it never got remotely busy. We headed back to Roxborough and took the road back across the mountains stopped briefly for but mire bird spotting.
The road had been cleared of the accident so it didn't take long to get back to Castara. Here, we popped into the store to find something to go with salad and ended up with a tin of corned beef! We really know how to dine in style!
Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Eastern Tobago
Tuesday 12 Jan 2016
Tobago - Castara
(Due to technical problems I couldn't write this on Tuesday)
We were awake again quite early, we could hear the waves crashing on the beach and knew we wouldn't get to swim again on this side of the island. As a result we decided to explore the eastern end of Tobago.
We drove from here, past Englishmans Bay, pausing long enough to look at the waves sweeping up the sand and on to Parlatuvier. From here, for us, it was all new territory. From Parlatuvier, the road climbs up over another headland and into the community of Bloody Bay. Here the road splits, one road follows the northern coast whilst the other climbs over the central spine of mountains. We took the mountain road.
The road quickly gains altitude and we briefly stopped not far up the hill and got the binoculars out. There were a few birds flitting around but the best was a Rufous-tailed Jacamar. It is very brightly coloured and is like a bee-eater, if you've ever seen one! From here we carried on up to the summit where there is a visitors centre serving the Wildlife Refuge. It is the worlds oldest sanctuary set up in the 18th century. When we arrived, the visitors centre was deserted except for one member of staff, very peaceful it was too. Then small tour parties started to arrive. A party of Italians drove us nuts! They were very noisy and clearly most of them had no interest in being there. We did see a couple of Lapwings though.
We continues down the southern side of the mountains through thick rain forest. We caught odd
glimpses of birds, mainly Kingbirds and Spectacled Thrushes. We stopped a couple of times, but there a few places to pull off the road.
Eventually, we arrived at the road junction in Roxborough where joined the main road running along the southern side of Tobago. The sea was noticably calmer on this side of the island. From here the road climbed over a headland and then back down to Delaford, a small fishing community. As we left The village, we briefly looked at the beach at Kings Bay. It was beautiful, with changing facilities and lifeguards on duty. The only thing missing were people on the beach, it was deserted!
After another large headland we came over the brow of a hill and looked down into Spayside, a huge bay with several large islands in it. The hill is really steep all the way down to the coast here. As it was lunchtime, we stopped for lunch at Jemma's. This beachside restaurant is built around a huge tree and has clearly developed from a small building into a number of deck built around the tree. It was already fairly busy, but we got a table overlooking the bay. It also looked down on a tough bench
where a man was preparing a fresh tuna for the kitchen. The local dogs were happy as they got the scraps!
Our fish and fries was just the right size and fish couldn't have been fresher. They don't serve alcohol, but the fruit juice was very refreshing. After lunch, we drove to the Blue Waters Hotel to check out the dive centre. The hotel is built in an old plantation estate and to get to it you drive through the old stone buildings and past a huge waterwheel. Having fixed up some diving for Thursday we continued our exploration.
The next village beyond Speyside is Charlotteville. This the most easterly village on Tobago. It is certainly a busy place with lots of small shops, a small hospital and a thriving fishing community. We didn't stop long but started heading west down the northern coast.
The road, which had never been in very good condition, got worse, narrower, big pot holes and some
subsidence too. Just outside Charlotteville, we drove through Cambletown before climbing up into the forest again. Hermitage was the next small village before we dropped down into Parlatuvier again. As we were almost back home we stopped at Paradise Point at the oddly named Glasgow Bar. The view from the roof bar down into the bay and looking down the coast is fabulous, the breeze was cooling and the beer ice-cold. From here, it didn't take long to return to Castara where we retired to our balcony again to watch the sunset.
Tobago - Castara
(Due to technical problems I couldn't write this on Tuesday)
We were awake again quite early, we could hear the waves crashing on the beach and knew we wouldn't get to swim again on this side of the island. As a result we decided to explore the eastern end of Tobago.
We drove from here, past Englishmans Bay, pausing long enough to look at the waves sweeping up the sand and on to Parlatuvier. From here, for us, it was all new territory. From Parlatuvier, the road climbs up over another headland and into the community of Bloody Bay. Here the road splits, one road follows the northern coast whilst the other climbs over the central spine of mountains. We took the mountain road.
The road quickly gains altitude and we briefly stopped not far up the hill and got the binoculars out. There were a few birds flitting around but the best was a Rufous-tailed Jacamar. It is very brightly coloured and is like a bee-eater, if you've ever seen one! From here we carried on up to the summit where there is a visitors centre serving the Wildlife Refuge. It is the worlds oldest sanctuary set up in the 18th century. When we arrived, the visitors centre was deserted except for one member of staff, very peaceful it was too. Then small tour parties started to arrive. A party of Italians drove us nuts! They were very noisy and clearly most of them had no interest in being there. We did see a couple of Lapwings though.
We continues down the southern side of the mountains through thick rain forest. We caught odd
glimpses of birds, mainly Kingbirds and Spectacled Thrushes. We stopped a couple of times, but there a few places to pull off the road.
Eventually, we arrived at the road junction in Roxborough where joined the main road running along the southern side of Tobago. The sea was noticably calmer on this side of the island. From here the road climbed over a headland and then back down to Delaford, a small fishing community. As we left The village, we briefly looked at the beach at Kings Bay. It was beautiful, with changing facilities and lifeguards on duty. The only thing missing were people on the beach, it was deserted!
After another large headland we came over the brow of a hill and looked down into Spayside, a huge bay with several large islands in it. The hill is really steep all the way down to the coast here. As it was lunchtime, we stopped for lunch at Jemma's. This beachside restaurant is built around a huge tree and has clearly developed from a small building into a number of deck built around the tree. It was already fairly busy, but we got a table overlooking the bay. It also looked down on a tough bench
where a man was preparing a fresh tuna for the kitchen. The local dogs were happy as they got the scraps!
Our fish and fries was just the right size and fish couldn't have been fresher. They don't serve alcohol, but the fruit juice was very refreshing. After lunch, we drove to the Blue Waters Hotel to check out the dive centre. The hotel is built in an old plantation estate and to get to it you drive through the old stone buildings and past a huge waterwheel. Having fixed up some diving for Thursday we continued our exploration.
The next village beyond Speyside is Charlotteville. This the most easterly village on Tobago. It is certainly a busy place with lots of small shops, a small hospital and a thriving fishing community. We didn't stop long but started heading west down the northern coast.
The road, which had never been in very good condition, got worse, narrower, big pot holes and some
subsidence too. Just outside Charlotteville, we drove through Cambletown before climbing up into the forest again. Hermitage was the next small village before we dropped down into Parlatuvier again. As we were almost back home we stopped at Paradise Point at the oddly named Glasgow Bar. The view from the roof bar down into the bay and looking down the coast is fabulous, the breeze was cooling and the beer ice-cold. From here, it didn't take long to return to Castara where we retired to our balcony again to watch the sunset.
Monday, 11 January 2016
Englishman's Bay
Monday 11 Jan 2016
Tobago - Castara
The bird-watching starts early here! Out on the balcony not long after seven this morning. The usual suspects were already flitting around. Whilst the Mot Mot is perhaps the most spectacular, the Antshrike comes a close second. The male is speckled black and white all over whikst the female is almost russet coloured, both have a crest on their heads.
Following a leisurely breakfast, we grabbed the snorkelling gear, a cool box and swimming towels and headed to the car. We drove about three kilometres to the turn off for Englishman's bay, a rather muddy bumpy dirt track heading through the trees. At the small car park at the end of the track is Eula's as small beach restaurant, a souvenir shop (actually a shack constructed oh corrugated iron) and a man selling ice-cream from the back of his car.
The beach, just beyond the car park is beautiful and shaded by palm trees. We were surprised to discover how much swell there was pushing waves well up the beach. The beach clearly shelved rapidly down into the water. We walked along the beach almost to the end on the left-hand side where a small stream empties into the sea. Even here in the sheltered corner the swell up,the beach was significant.
After watching the waves for a while, we gave up and settled down to relax and read. For much of the morning, we were the only people on the beach. Later, the sea seemed to calm down a little and I ventured out in snorkelling gear. Sadly, the underwater visibility was poor, so I gave up after about10 minutes. There were a few other people swimming, but getting out of the water was difficult due an undertow as the waves went out.
We stayed on the beach for a while longer and at around 1330, we packed up and took all our kit back to the car. We visited Eula's the other day for a beer, but chose to eat there today. It's a simple formula. Read the menu from the chalk board, tell the chef, grab a beer from the giant cool box and head upstairs to the dining area which, though roofed, is open to the elements. We both had sautéed shrimps, which I'd have called prawns. Lynn had hers with rice and salad whikst I had mine with roti, curried potatoes and lentils. Roti is a very thin flatbread or pancake made from flour and ground lentils. It is ideal for mopping up the sauce after you finish eating. Another delicious meal in a fpgreat location for little more than £7 per head.
After dinner, we returned to Castara and bought some more salad items and then returned to our eyrie overlooking the village. We have new neighbour's in the apartment next to ours, two girl who I think are Dutch. We have spoken to them but not established exactly what nationality they are.
We had a lazy afternoon, only venturing out for an ice-cream fix and a resupply of Stag beer. Later, after sunset, we had a light supper of Salad with either sardines or corned beef. We know how to live it up here in Tobago.
We added another bird to our sightings,Brown Boobies, no smirking please, these boobies are expert at fishing, diving into the water from a great height. Just for the record, topless is frowned upon here. In bars, shops and restaurants there are big signs saying 'No Barebacking'! This to discourage men from entering without a shirt on. It's also illegal to drive without a shirt on here. Who say I don't provide useful tourist information!
Tobago - Castara
The bird-watching starts early here! Out on the balcony not long after seven this morning. The usual suspects were already flitting around. Whilst the Mot Mot is perhaps the most spectacular, the Antshrike comes a close second. The male is speckled black and white all over whikst the female is almost russet coloured, both have a crest on their heads.
Following a leisurely breakfast, we grabbed the snorkelling gear, a cool box and swimming towels and headed to the car. We drove about three kilometres to the turn off for Englishman's bay, a rather muddy bumpy dirt track heading through the trees. At the small car park at the end of the track is Eula's as small beach restaurant, a souvenir shop (actually a shack constructed oh corrugated iron) and a man selling ice-cream from the back of his car.
The beach, just beyond the car park is beautiful and shaded by palm trees. We were surprised to discover how much swell there was pushing waves well up the beach. The beach clearly shelved rapidly down into the water. We walked along the beach almost to the end on the left-hand side where a small stream empties into the sea. Even here in the sheltered corner the swell up,the beach was significant.
After watching the waves for a while, we gave up and settled down to relax and read. For much of the morning, we were the only people on the beach. Later, the sea seemed to calm down a little and I ventured out in snorkelling gear. Sadly, the underwater visibility was poor, so I gave up after about10 minutes. There were a few other people swimming, but getting out of the water was difficult due an undertow as the waves went out.
We stayed on the beach for a while longer and at around 1330, we packed up and took all our kit back to the car. We visited Eula's the other day for a beer, but chose to eat there today. It's a simple formula. Read the menu from the chalk board, tell the chef, grab a beer from the giant cool box and head upstairs to the dining area which, though roofed, is open to the elements. We both had sautéed shrimps, which I'd have called prawns. Lynn had hers with rice and salad whikst I had mine with roti, curried potatoes and lentils. Roti is a very thin flatbread or pancake made from flour and ground lentils. It is ideal for mopping up the sauce after you finish eating. Another delicious meal in a fpgreat location for little more than £7 per head.
After dinner, we returned to Castara and bought some more salad items and then returned to our eyrie overlooking the village. We have new neighbour's in the apartment next to ours, two girl who I think are Dutch. We have spoken to them but not established exactly what nationality they are.
We had a lazy afternoon, only venturing out for an ice-cream fix and a resupply of Stag beer. Later, after sunset, we had a light supper of Salad with either sardines or corned beef. We know how to live it up here in Tobago.
We added another bird to our sightings,Brown Boobies, no smirking please, these boobies are expert at fishing, diving into the water from a great height. Just for the record, topless is frowned upon here. In bars, shops and restaurants there are big signs saying 'No Barebacking'! This to discourage men from entering without a shirt on. It's also illegal to drive without a shirt on here. Who say I don't provide useful tourist information!
Sunday, 10 January 2016
Sunday Snorkelling
Sunday 10 Jan 2016
Tobago - Castara
It's Sunday, a day of rest I believe. Maybe resting is the thing to do, especially on holiday. Some might say that as I am retired, every day is a holiday. Food for thought.
We sat and watched the day get itself started, enjoying the relative coolness of the morning. We filled a bird feeder up with bits from breakfast, banana, pineapple and apple and watched as the feeding frenzy commenced. Inches from my head we had Palm Tanagers, Blue Gray Tanagers, Bananaquits, Spectacled Thrush, Mot Mot and a large pigeon all vying for the same place to feed. Very entertaining. We also refilled the bat-feeder just in case any hummingbird should grace us with its presence.
A family of Chachalapas, sort of pheasant sized bird, flew into one of the banana trees in the garden and started feeding at around the time I went to collect our freshly-baked pumpkin loaf that we had ordered from Hazel at the fruit stand. The bread was almost too hot to carry home, oh, and it was delicious!
After a sharp tropical shower we headed down to Little Bay and went snorkelling. The sea was calmer today so we were both able to look at the underwater life. The highlight for me were the two huge rays that I found lying on the sand. Nose to tail, they were about two metres long. They are a magnificent sight.
Later after a bit if lounging around, we went to Alibabas beach cafe and got some drinks, we also ordered homemade pizza. The food took quite a long time to turn up and were a bit doughy.
The walk back up the hill was made harder with a large amount of pizza dough weighing down our stomachs!
Since then, well we've done Sunday things! In other words nothing apart from read, crush some candy and swear loudly at the online scrabble.
The bats have been and emptied the feeder in three hours. Just a thought, there are, apparently, 66 species of bats on Tobago one of which is the Vampire Bat. I'm slightly concerned about meeting a grey lugubrious gentleman wearing a black satin cape one night in the village. Mind you, he might be sporting dreadlocks and offering rum punch here!
Tobago - Castara
It's Sunday, a day of rest I believe. Maybe resting is the thing to do, especially on holiday. Some might say that as I am retired, every day is a holiday. Food for thought.
We sat and watched the day get itself started, enjoying the relative coolness of the morning. We filled a bird feeder up with bits from breakfast, banana, pineapple and apple and watched as the feeding frenzy commenced. Inches from my head we had Palm Tanagers, Blue Gray Tanagers, Bananaquits, Spectacled Thrush, Mot Mot and a large pigeon all vying for the same place to feed. Very entertaining. We also refilled the bat-feeder just in case any hummingbird should grace us with its presence.
A family of Chachalapas, sort of pheasant sized bird, flew into one of the banana trees in the garden and started feeding at around the time I went to collect our freshly-baked pumpkin loaf that we had ordered from Hazel at the fruit stand. The bread was almost too hot to carry home, oh, and it was delicious!
After a sharp tropical shower we headed down to Little Bay and went snorkelling. The sea was calmer today so we were both able to look at the underwater life. The highlight for me were the two huge rays that I found lying on the sand. Nose to tail, they were about two metres long. They are a magnificent sight.
Later after a bit if lounging around, we went to Alibabas beach cafe and got some drinks, we also ordered homemade pizza. The food took quite a long time to turn up and were a bit doughy.
The walk back up the hill was made harder with a large amount of pizza dough weighing down our stomachs!
Since then, well we've done Sunday things! In other words nothing apart from read, crush some candy and swear loudly at the online scrabble.
The bats have been and emptied the feeder in three hours. Just a thought, there are, apparently, 66 species of bats on Tobago one of which is the Vampire Bat. I'm slightly concerned about meeting a grey lugubrious gentleman wearing a black satin cape one night in the village. Mind you, he might be sporting dreadlocks and offering rum punch here!
Saturday, 9 January 2016
A Slow Day in Castara
Saturday 09 Jan 2016
Tobago - Castara
The title says it all really! Our neighbour's upstairs were up very early this morning, we think they drove to the airport to meet friends as they reappeared later in the day with another couple in tow.
As a result of their early start and wooden floors/ceilings, I was awake long before seven and sitting out here on the balcony watching birds by 0650! It was light but the sun hadn't risen. I'm on holiday. I should say, however, that I was in bed by ten with the light out last night.
Overnight, the bats had completely emptied the hummingbird feeder, which, incidentally is now renamed the bat feeder. This is on account that the bats use it at night and the hummingbirds don't use it in daytime. On the other hand, the Spectaculed Thrush was jealously guarding the remains of a watermelon and failing to notice the bananaquit that were nipping in for a quick bite. The Thrush was certainly seeing off the Blue Grey Tanagers, the Palm Tanagers and anything else that appeared. Then a Mot Mot flew in and a bit of a stand off occurred which the Mot Mot won. The Mot Mot is a beautiful bird. It has an iridescent blue head and a long tail that looks a bit like a tennis racquet.
We ate breakfast sitting outside and generally lazed around for a couple of hours. I then thought that I really ought to explore the local area. First, I walked slightly uphill to the turn-off to Depot Rd and then walked diwn a very steep hill to Little or Beautiful Bay. The bay is only about 200 metres wide with a pretty sandy beach flanked by low rocky cliffs either side. From here, I walked back up,the hill and briefly checked out a fruit and vegetable shop before heading down the main road into the
village.
Here, I turned down the short road leading to Big Bay. This bay is several hundred metres wide and is home to the local fishing industry. Not only do they fish from boats, but also use seine nets from the shore. Whilst I was there, they were hauling in the net on the beach. Having checked out the restaurants down by the beach, I went to the small food store and bought bread and milk.
Clearly exhausted, I was forced to stop for a coffee at Cheno's on the main road. Suitably fortified, I headed back up,the hill to the fruit and veg shop I looked at earlier. Here I bought a pineapple and lettuce and butter.
Back at the apartment, I made a salmon salad for lunch. After a whilst, and after several showers, we
set off for Little Bay again. I was concerned that Lynn might have problems with the steep slope. I
needn't have worried we made it in one piece. The sea had got a little more lively than the mill pond
I'd seen earlier and after one false start when it started to rain again, we made it to the water. It was a
little hairy getting in, but I did managed to go snorkelling. The underwater visibility wasn't fantastic, but there were lots of tropical fish and coral to see.
As we got out it rained yet again! So we sat in the cafe, which was closed, until it stopped. Then we faced the hill! I would guess it is somewhere between 1:3 and 1:4, so rather steep. We both made it to the top encouraged by the idea that we'd get a reward I'd an ice cream at the top!
D'Pink sells icecream. Homemade ice cream. Ice cream made from coconut milk in several flavours. Enough said I think. Trust me, ginger and coconut and soursap and coconut go diwn extremely well.
We stopped briefly to pick up a couple of things I'd forgotten from the shop then came back to the
apartment and did some washing. It now looks like a Chinese laundry out the apartments.
At around 7, we walked back into the village, I hope you'll note all the exercise we've been getting, to get some dinner. Tonight we dined at D'Almond a small open air beachside eatery. After sharing some mango sauce chicken wings, I had grilled Kingfish whilst Lynn had chicken. Both came with fresh veg and salad and were delicious. From here there was only one option and that was to head back here.
Back on the balcony, the washing is drying and the bats have nearly emptied the bat feeder so I guess it is time for bed. What an exciting life we lead!
Tobago - Castara
The title says it all really! Our neighbour's upstairs were up very early this morning, we think they drove to the airport to meet friends as they reappeared later in the day with another couple in tow.
As a result of their early start and wooden floors/ceilings, I was awake long before seven and sitting out here on the balcony watching birds by 0650! It was light but the sun hadn't risen. I'm on holiday. I should say, however, that I was in bed by ten with the light out last night.
Overnight, the bats had completely emptied the hummingbird feeder, which, incidentally is now renamed the bat feeder. This is on account that the bats use it at night and the hummingbirds don't use it in daytime. On the other hand, the Spectaculed Thrush was jealously guarding the remains of a watermelon and failing to notice the bananaquit that were nipping in for a quick bite. The Thrush was certainly seeing off the Blue Grey Tanagers, the Palm Tanagers and anything else that appeared. Then a Mot Mot flew in and a bit of a stand off occurred which the Mot Mot won. The Mot Mot is a beautiful bird. It has an iridescent blue head and a long tail that looks a bit like a tennis racquet.
We ate breakfast sitting outside and generally lazed around for a couple of hours. I then thought that I really ought to explore the local area. First, I walked slightly uphill to the turn-off to Depot Rd and then walked diwn a very steep hill to Little or Beautiful Bay. The bay is only about 200 metres wide with a pretty sandy beach flanked by low rocky cliffs either side. From here, I walked back up,the hill and briefly checked out a fruit and vegetable shop before heading down the main road into the
village.
Here, I turned down the short road leading to Big Bay. This bay is several hundred metres wide and is home to the local fishing industry. Not only do they fish from boats, but also use seine nets from the shore. Whilst I was there, they were hauling in the net on the beach. Having checked out the restaurants down by the beach, I went to the small food store and bought bread and milk.
Clearly exhausted, I was forced to stop for a coffee at Cheno's on the main road. Suitably fortified, I headed back up,the hill to the fruit and veg shop I looked at earlier. Here I bought a pineapple and lettuce and butter.
Back at the apartment, I made a salmon salad for lunch. After a whilst, and after several showers, we
set off for Little Bay again. I was concerned that Lynn might have problems with the steep slope. I
needn't have worried we made it in one piece. The sea had got a little more lively than the mill pond
I'd seen earlier and after one false start when it started to rain again, we made it to the water. It was a
little hairy getting in, but I did managed to go snorkelling. The underwater visibility wasn't fantastic, but there were lots of tropical fish and coral to see.
As we got out it rained yet again! So we sat in the cafe, which was closed, until it stopped. Then we faced the hill! I would guess it is somewhere between 1:3 and 1:4, so rather steep. We both made it to the top encouraged by the idea that we'd get a reward I'd an ice cream at the top!
D'Pink sells icecream. Homemade ice cream. Ice cream made from coconut milk in several flavours. Enough said I think. Trust me, ginger and coconut and soursap and coconut go diwn extremely well.
We stopped briefly to pick up a couple of things I'd forgotten from the shop then came back to the
apartment and did some washing. It now looks like a Chinese laundry out the apartments.
At around 7, we walked back into the village, I hope you'll note all the exercise we've been getting, to get some dinner. Tonight we dined at D'Almond a small open air beachside eatery. After sharing some mango sauce chicken wings, I had grilled Kingfish whilst Lynn had chicken. Both came with fresh veg and salad and were delicious. From here there was only one option and that was to head back here.
Back on the balcony, the washing is drying and the bats have nearly emptied the bat feeder so I guess it is time for bed. What an exciting life we lead!
Friday, 8 January 2016
We move up the coast
Friday 08 Jan 2016
Tobago Buccoo-Castara
Today is moving day, we leave our small apartment in Buccoo and switch to another apartment about 20km up the coast. We had originally wanted to stay for two weeks in Castara, but could only get 10 days in the property that we wanted.
After breakfast we repacked our bags and tidied up the apartment. It has been nice here, but we didn't really have anywhere to sit outside. By 1100, we had packed the car and said our goodbyes to our hostess. I discovered earlier in the morning that a pair of mockingbirds were nesting in the bush outside our apartment. On closer examination, I could see there were at least two chicks in the nest.
We headed east up the north coast on roads we'd travelled on Wednesday as far as Moriah. He we turned left heading for Castara. The roads on the northern side of the island are narrow and are very twisty. They also climb up through the mountainous rainforest so there are some spectacular hills. The views down to the coast are spectacular. We stopped off at a viewpoint high in the hills and took a few photos looking down to Castara. We also saw some yellow-winged parrots.
We headed on down to Castara and identified the entrance to our new home and then continued further north to find somewhere to eat our sandwiches. Englishmans Bay was pretty but we continued a bit further north and found a spot overlooking the coast. After lunch, we returned to Englishmans Bay and stopped for a beer at Eulas on the beach.
We decided that we'd return to Castara to get some cash from the ATM. Things went downhill from here! The cash machine refused point blank to give us any money and we realised that the only other machine we'd seen and used successfully was back down near Buccoo. As you can guess, we were thrilled by the idea of driving back there, but that's what we did, this time negotiating Scarbirough without any mishaps.
Back at the bank, we stocked up on cash and also refuelled the car. Petrol costs about 35p a litre. From here, we retraced our route all the way back to Castara. By now it was time to move in. The only access to the apartment is up a set of stairs that climbs above the road.
There was no sign of Doris who was supposed to be meeting us, but fortunately a Canadian family was in the process of moving out from the next door apartment and they suggested that we try the door to our apartment. It was open, so we moved in. Doris still hasn't appeared!
The view from here is spectacular, we can see way down the coast and can hear the waves on the beach. The bird life is prolific too, but more about that tomorrow. We walked into the village for dinner and had grilled spiced tuna with salad, vegetables and lentils, simple but tasty.
Now, I'm sitting on the balcony and can hear reggae from one of the bars below us mixed in with the sounds of the sea. Earlier, I found a hummingbird feeder and filled it with sugar water to attract hummingbirds in the morning. Within seconds of hanging it up, the feeder was besieged by bats, they are queueing up to feed from it! I hope they are eating any stray mosquitoes at the same time.
This apartment has no a/c, it has louvred doors and floor standing fans and a mosquito net around the bed. Hopefully, we will be lulled to sleep by the sound of the sea.
Tobago Buccoo-Castara
Today is moving day, we leave our small apartment in Buccoo and switch to another apartment about 20km up the coast. We had originally wanted to stay for two weeks in Castara, but could only get 10 days in the property that we wanted.
After breakfast we repacked our bags and tidied up the apartment. It has been nice here, but we didn't really have anywhere to sit outside. By 1100, we had packed the car and said our goodbyes to our hostess. I discovered earlier in the morning that a pair of mockingbirds were nesting in the bush outside our apartment. On closer examination, I could see there were at least two chicks in the nest.
We headed east up the north coast on roads we'd travelled on Wednesday as far as Moriah. He we turned left heading for Castara. The roads on the northern side of the island are narrow and are very twisty. They also climb up through the mountainous rainforest so there are some spectacular hills. The views down to the coast are spectacular. We stopped off at a viewpoint high in the hills and took a few photos looking down to Castara. We also saw some yellow-winged parrots.
We headed on down to Castara and identified the entrance to our new home and then continued further north to find somewhere to eat our sandwiches. Englishmans Bay was pretty but we continued a bit further north and found a spot overlooking the coast. After lunch, we returned to Englishmans Bay and stopped for a beer at Eulas on the beach.
We decided that we'd return to Castara to get some cash from the ATM. Things went downhill from here! The cash machine refused point blank to give us any money and we realised that the only other machine we'd seen and used successfully was back down near Buccoo. As you can guess, we were thrilled by the idea of driving back there, but that's what we did, this time negotiating Scarbirough without any mishaps.
Back at the bank, we stocked up on cash and also refuelled the car. Petrol costs about 35p a litre. From here, we retraced our route all the way back to Castara. By now it was time to move in. The only access to the apartment is up a set of stairs that climbs above the road.
There was no sign of Doris who was supposed to be meeting us, but fortunately a Canadian family was in the process of moving out from the next door apartment and they suggested that we try the door to our apartment. It was open, so we moved in. Doris still hasn't appeared!
The view from here is spectacular, we can see way down the coast and can hear the waves on the beach. The bird life is prolific too, but more about that tomorrow. We walked into the village for dinner and had grilled spiced tuna with salad, vegetables and lentils, simple but tasty.
Now, I'm sitting on the balcony and can hear reggae from one of the bars below us mixed in with the sounds of the sea. Earlier, I found a hummingbird feeder and filled it with sugar water to attract hummingbirds in the morning. Within seconds of hanging it up, the feeder was besieged by bats, they are queueing up to feed from it! I hope they are eating any stray mosquitoes at the same time.
This apartment has no a/c, it has louvred doors and floor standing fans and a mosquito net around the bed. Hopefully, we will be lulled to sleep by the sound of the sea.
Thursday, 7 January 2016
Is this really winter?
Thursday 07 January 2016
Tobago - Buccoo
After another good nights sleep, we woke to an overcast sky this morning. Despite our best efforts, we are still using the a/c at night, at 25C overnight with no fan or breeze, it is impossible to sleep well.
Our mission today was to obtain some US dollars! Legally! We have already paid half of the rent on the apartment we are moving to tomorrow, but owe the balance in US dollars. Unsurprisingly, the ATM spits out TT (Trinidad and Tobago) dollars. We did bring some US dollars with us, but not enough for the outstanding rent.
On our previous excursions, we'd seen a bank on the road near Scarborough. We decided it was the obvious place to buy dollars. The bank was a very smart building ( so that's where the money goes) on a roundabout with very conspicuous security guards outside. We went in and stood in the queue for the cashiers. When our turn came, the cashier politely explained that as we didn't have an account we couldn't buy any currency. After explaining why we needed the dollars, she called over her supervisor, Wendy. She was very sympathetic and said if we provided proof of why we needed the dollars, she would ask her manager if they could help us.
We drove back to the apartment and collected a paper copy of the email exchanges between Lynn and the apartment owner and the drove back to the bank. The bank was, by now, even busier, but somehow I caught the eye of Wendy and she mouthed that she'd be with us shortly. Sure enough, 10 minutes later, Wendy was at the counter. After a phone call to her manager and photocopying the emails and my passport, we quickly removed a couple of thousand TT dollars from the ATM and handed them over in exchange for US dollars. Result! I guess Wendy will never read this blog, but I'd like to thank her for her help. It would have been easy to be a 'jobsworth' but she wasn't and bent over backwards to help us.
By the time we got back to the apartment it was nearly lunchtime so I walked back to the mini-market and bought some bread rolls for lunch. We sat in the apartment and ate a leisurely lunch.
The one thing missing from this blog is any mention of sea, sand, waving palms, sun-tan cream and
swimming, I'm about to rectify that! We threw all our beach paraphernalia into the back of the car after a suitable rest after lunch (did your Mum explain it was dangerous to go swimming straight after lunch as a child?) and headed for Grange beach, not far from the apartment.
We parked directly by the beach, scrambled down to the sand, walked 20 metres and plonked ourselves down. The beach was practically deserted apart from one or two locals. The sea was pleasantly warm, but someone complained that it wasn't as warm as the Maldives! The sea was beautifully clear with small waves breaking onto the beach. There were palm trees to provide shade.
After swimming for about half an hour, we settled down to dry off on the beach towels thoughtfully provided by the apartment owner. I spent my time watching Brown Pelicans throwing themselves into the water to catch fish. Overhead were Magnificent Frigatebirds who are expert at catching fish by stealing them from other birds who have gone to the trouble of diving and chasing fish. Unluckily for them, Pelicans have an advantage. They are as big as the Frigatebirds and secondly after splashing down to catch fish, keep the fish and gallons of water in their huge throat pouches.
The fish were clearly plentiful, several schools of small silver fry kept leaping out of the water. On the one hand, this provided an escape from whatever larger fish was hunting them underwater, on the other, it clearly marked to the birds their whereabouts. Who'd be a small fish?
All this lying on the beach was thirsty work so we drove to Mount Irvine beach for a beer. Whilst drinking the beers we were accosted by a gentleman who explained he was the doctor and proceeded to smother us in fresh Aloe Vera. Needless to say, despite the refreshing scrub down it was a beach scam and we left the beach TT$100 the lighter.
Back at the apartment, we relaxed and had dinner. One other result today was an email I got from our satellite broadband company agreeing that we had been loyal customers and offering us an upgrade of service effectively for free. Now that is a bargain!
Tobago - Buccoo
After another good nights sleep, we woke to an overcast sky this morning. Despite our best efforts, we are still using the a/c at night, at 25C overnight with no fan or breeze, it is impossible to sleep well.
Our mission today was to obtain some US dollars! Legally! We have already paid half of the rent on the apartment we are moving to tomorrow, but owe the balance in US dollars. Unsurprisingly, the ATM spits out TT (Trinidad and Tobago) dollars. We did bring some US dollars with us, but not enough for the outstanding rent.
On our previous excursions, we'd seen a bank on the road near Scarborough. We decided it was the obvious place to buy dollars. The bank was a very smart building ( so that's where the money goes) on a roundabout with very conspicuous security guards outside. We went in and stood in the queue for the cashiers. When our turn came, the cashier politely explained that as we didn't have an account we couldn't buy any currency. After explaining why we needed the dollars, she called over her supervisor, Wendy. She was very sympathetic and said if we provided proof of why we needed the dollars, she would ask her manager if they could help us.
We drove back to the apartment and collected a paper copy of the email exchanges between Lynn and the apartment owner and the drove back to the bank. The bank was, by now, even busier, but somehow I caught the eye of Wendy and she mouthed that she'd be with us shortly. Sure enough, 10 minutes later, Wendy was at the counter. After a phone call to her manager and photocopying the emails and my passport, we quickly removed a couple of thousand TT dollars from the ATM and handed them over in exchange for US dollars. Result! I guess Wendy will never read this blog, but I'd like to thank her for her help. It would have been easy to be a 'jobsworth' but she wasn't and bent over backwards to help us.
By the time we got back to the apartment it was nearly lunchtime so I walked back to the mini-market and bought some bread rolls for lunch. We sat in the apartment and ate a leisurely lunch.
The one thing missing from this blog is any mention of sea, sand, waving palms, sun-tan cream and
swimming, I'm about to rectify that! We threw all our beach paraphernalia into the back of the car after a suitable rest after lunch (did your Mum explain it was dangerous to go swimming straight after lunch as a child?) and headed for Grange beach, not far from the apartment.
We parked directly by the beach, scrambled down to the sand, walked 20 metres and plonked ourselves down. The beach was practically deserted apart from one or two locals. The sea was pleasantly warm, but someone complained that it wasn't as warm as the Maldives! The sea was beautifully clear with small waves breaking onto the beach. There were palm trees to provide shade.
After swimming for about half an hour, we settled down to dry off on the beach towels thoughtfully provided by the apartment owner. I spent my time watching Brown Pelicans throwing themselves into the water to catch fish. Overhead were Magnificent Frigatebirds who are expert at catching fish by stealing them from other birds who have gone to the trouble of diving and chasing fish. Unluckily for them, Pelicans have an advantage. They are as big as the Frigatebirds and secondly after splashing down to catch fish, keep the fish and gallons of water in their huge throat pouches.
The fish were clearly plentiful, several schools of small silver fry kept leaping out of the water. On the one hand, this provided an escape from whatever larger fish was hunting them underwater, on the other, it clearly marked to the birds their whereabouts. Who'd be a small fish?
All this lying on the beach was thirsty work so we drove to Mount Irvine beach for a beer. Whilst drinking the beers we were accosted by a gentleman who explained he was the doctor and proceeded to smother us in fresh Aloe Vera. Needless to say, despite the refreshing scrub down it was a beach scam and we left the beach TT$100 the lighter.
Back at the apartment, we relaxed and had dinner. One other result today was an email I got from our satellite broadband company agreeing that we had been loyal customers and offering us an upgrade of service effectively for free. Now that is a bargain!
Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Chilling out
Wednesday 06 January 2016
Tobago - Buccoo
Today we have mainly been relaxing after our journey yesterday. Sadly, some of it has been spent cussing the iPad as it keeps altering my blogs and then prevents me from editing them. I had almost finished today's offering when it did some unspeakable things and I was forced to delete the whole blog!
After a slow start and breakfast we set off to find a supermarket and ATM. These we found by following Auchenskeoch Rd to Carnbee. Here we found a Penny Market and a bank machine. We found all sorts of interesting food in the shop, items you'd never find in UK, but little or no fruit or veg.
We'd read about a fruit stand back near the airport, do we headed there. The one we'd read about was closed, but we found another almost opposite it on Milford Rd. There were quite a few fruits and vegetables that we couldn't identify, but did buy some fruit that looked like Clementines but were green. Later, we found they tasted exactly like Clementines!
As we had chilled and frozen food, we returned to the apartment at Buccoo.
After a lazy lunch, we decided to go out and explore the area. We firstly drove back into the village to the beach. We could see if you walked south down the beach, you could choose your own spot to relax and swim. From here,new headed along the main road that skirts Mount Irvine Golf Course, to Mount Irvine bay, this has a nice beach too. Sadly, it started raining and we didn't fancy sitting on the beach in the rain!
We carried on to Grafton and Stonehaven, both of which have nice beaches. From here we carried on
to Plymouth where we briefly stopped at a Fort James, a British gun battery from the 18th century. As we were leaving, an older man tried to wave us down and as we tried to avoid him he walked in front of the car so we had to stop. I wound the window down a little way to speak to him and he grasped my hand and wouldn't let go as he explained he needed some money. Eventually, I managed to pull my hand away and had to close the window before he grabbed me again. A somewhat unnerving experience
On leaving Plymouth, we headed generally north and east following the Arnos Vale road. This road winds around the hills through Arnos Vale and Golden Vale to Moriah where it joins the main east
coast road. The road was very windy, hilly and narrow with enormous potholes in places, but it was interesting passing through the small communities. Many people keep goats and you find them tethered all over the place. We also came across tethered cows too.
We returned on the main road that goes through Scarborough. It was quite a busy road especially
around Scarborough where there was lots of traffic. At one junction, someone turned across the road right in front of me. Although I jammed the brakes on, the car skidded on the wet road. Somehow, I managed to swerve around the back of him and miss him. Luckily, there was nothing coming the other way.
Back at Buccoo, we went back to relaxing. I was watching the Blue-Grey Tanagers, Bananaquits and Grackles around the gardens surrounding us.
We had chilli for dinner tonight, a bit of a meat overload, but very tasty.
As a footnote, my blogs might not have many, if any photos as it seems to mess up the blog. I stand corrected about our rental car, it is a Nissan Tiida Latio. I know, I've never heard of one either!
Tobago - Buccoo
Today we have mainly been relaxing after our journey yesterday. Sadly, some of it has been spent cussing the iPad as it keeps altering my blogs and then prevents me from editing them. I had almost finished today's offering when it did some unspeakable things and I was forced to delete the whole blog!
After a slow start and breakfast we set off to find a supermarket and ATM. These we found by following Auchenskeoch Rd to Carnbee. Here we found a Penny Market and a bank machine. We found all sorts of interesting food in the shop, items you'd never find in UK, but little or no fruit or veg.
We'd read about a fruit stand back near the airport, do we headed there. The one we'd read about was closed, but we found another almost opposite it on Milford Rd. There were quite a few fruits and vegetables that we couldn't identify, but did buy some fruit that looked like Clementines but were green. Later, we found they tasted exactly like Clementines!
As we had chilled and frozen food, we returned to the apartment at Buccoo.
After a lazy lunch, we decided to go out and explore the area. We firstly drove back into the village to the beach. We could see if you walked south down the beach, you could choose your own spot to relax and swim. From here,new headed along the main road that skirts Mount Irvine Golf Course, to Mount Irvine bay, this has a nice beach too. Sadly, it started raining and we didn't fancy sitting on the beach in the rain!
We carried on to Grafton and Stonehaven, both of which have nice beaches. From here we carried on
to Plymouth where we briefly stopped at a Fort James, a British gun battery from the 18th century. As we were leaving, an older man tried to wave us down and as we tried to avoid him he walked in front of the car so we had to stop. I wound the window down a little way to speak to him and he grasped my hand and wouldn't let go as he explained he needed some money. Eventually, I managed to pull my hand away and had to close the window before he grabbed me again. A somewhat unnerving experience
On leaving Plymouth, we headed generally north and east following the Arnos Vale road. This road winds around the hills through Arnos Vale and Golden Vale to Moriah where it joins the main east
coast road. The road was very windy, hilly and narrow with enormous potholes in places, but it was interesting passing through the small communities. Many people keep goats and you find them tethered all over the place. We also came across tethered cows too.
We returned on the main road that goes through Scarborough. It was quite a busy road especially
around Scarborough where there was lots of traffic. At one junction, someone turned across the road right in front of me. Although I jammed the brakes on, the car skidded on the wet road. Somehow, I managed to swerve around the back of him and miss him. Luckily, there was nothing coming the other way.
Back at Buccoo, we went back to relaxing. I was watching the Blue-Grey Tanagers, Bananaquits and Grackles around the gardens surrounding us.
We had chilli for dinner tonight, a bit of a meat overload, but very tasty.
As a footnote, my blogs might not have many, if any photos as it seems to mess up the blog. I stand corrected about our rental car, it is a Nissan Tiida Latio. I know, I've never heard of one either!
Apologies
06 Jan 2016
Tobago
I had a lot of trouble posting yesterday's experiences, finger trouble mainly! I meant to say that the problem with our flight at St Luia had been rectified, I'm not entirely sure that was an appropriate explanation.
Furthermore, iPad corrected my efforts for the place we are staying, it is Buccoo, not Bucco! A small error, but needed to be put right. I can also see that the format has been extensively juggled. For whatever reason, I cannot edit the text of that post.
Now, I'll return to chilling!
Tobago
I had a lot of trouble posting yesterday's experiences, finger trouble mainly! I meant to say that the problem with our flight at St Luia had been rectified, I'm not entirely sure that was an appropriate explanation.
Furthermore, iPad corrected my efforts for the place we are staying, it is Buccoo, not Bucco! A small error, but needed to be put right. I can also see that the format has been extensively juggled. For whatever reason, I cannot edit the text of that post.
Now, I'll return to chilling!
Heading for the sun
Tuesday 05 Jan 2016
London Gatwick to Tobago
The alarm woke us shortly after 5-o-clock and, after showering and packing, we checked out of the Holiday Inn at 0545.
It was a very short journey to the South Terminal at Gatwick and we drove straight to the passenger drop-off point where the meet-and-greet car company representative met us at the curb. After a handing over the car keys and unloading our luggage we were quickly in a lift up to the departures area.
As we'd already checked in on line, the bag drop process was painless, made more so by the lack of any queues. Unusually, our had baggage was weighed at the counter.
Security was also extremely quiet and we proceeded to the departure area very quickly. As we hadn't eaten, we decided on a 'proper breakfast' at the airport and very tasty it was too! I can't remember the last time I had bacon and egg for
breakfast!
breakfast!
We bought two copies of the Daily Telegraph, not because we wanted 'his' and 'her's' copies, but because they came with a free litre bottle of water. Cost of newspaper with free water £1.40, cost of bottle of water £1.89. The only glitch was that I had to make two seperate purchases!
Time passed quite quickly and at 0800, our departure gate was posted on the board and we wandered along to gate 15. Here, we were checked into the departure lounge and immediately onto the aircraft, an Airbus A330-300 . We had
window and aisle seats in row 61. We pushed back at 0900 and were airborne by
0910. Our flight was due to take 8 hours and 40 minutes to St Lucia. As I write
this, we have no idea how long we wil be on the ground there before we make the
short hop to Tobago.
window and aisle seats in row 61. We pushed back at 0900 and were airborne by
0910. Our flight was due to take 8 hours and 40 minutes to St Lucia. As I write
this, we have no idea how long we wil be on the ground there before we make the
short hop to Tobago.
The flight route from Gatwick took us due west passing to the south of Winchester, north of Bournemouth, across Dorset and Devon before heading out into the Atlantic from the north Cornish coast. Although it was cloudy, it was possible to see the ground most of the way. Now, there is seven and a half hours
of ocean views to look forward to!
of ocean views to look forward to!
The seat is quite narrow, but on a positive note, my knees don't touch the seat in
front! On board, there was a bottle of water, a pair of headphones, a pillow and a
blanket on the seat. In flight entertainment appears to be fairly comprehensive with movies and TV programmes to watch and games to play. There is also my
favourite, geek that I am, the flight map! Not long after take-off, we were given a menu for the flight and a landing card for Tobago. A short while after that, we were offered a choice of free drinks and a bag of pretzels. Then hot towels appeared, all very civilised.
front! On board, there was a bottle of water, a pair of headphones, a pillow and a
blanket on the seat. In flight entertainment appears to be fairly comprehensive with movies and TV programmes to watch and games to play. There is also my
favourite, geek that I am, the flight map! Not long after take-off, we were given a menu for the flight and a landing card for Tobago. A short while after that, we were offered a choice of free drinks and a bag of pretzels. Then hot towels appeared, all very civilised.
Lunch was served after about two hours with a bean salad to start followed by a
choice of chicken breast with mustard mash, meatballs with spaghetti or paneer. I managed meatballs without any disasters! Pudding was a salt caramel and chocolate ganache with cheese and crackers to finish. This was washed down by a can of Tiger beer!
choice of chicken breast with mustard mash, meatballs with spaghetti or paneer. I managed meatballs without any disasters! Pudding was a salt caramel and chocolate ganache with cheese and crackers to finish. This was washed down by a can of Tiger beer!
After 8 hours and 40 minutes, we landed in a slightly overcast St Lucia. It seems we shall be here for about an hour. Despite the cloud, it is 30C.
Well, we thought we'd be on the ground for just an hour, but it seems that a passenger has disembarked here in St Lucia that should have continuing on to Tobago! The crew have counted and recounted the passengers on the aircraft several times as have security staff from St Lucia, but we are still missing one passenger. The aircraft cannot continue until that person has been identified and their baggage removed from the aircraft. As I write, everyone on the aircraft has had to produce their passport to be checked against the passenger list by ground staff. We've been here for neatly 90 minutes already.
Finally, after nearly two hours we are on our way again. There was no explanation
given except to say the problem had been 'resolvedWe barely got the top of the climb out from St Lucia before we started our descent. Our route takes us due south to Tobago.
given except to say the problem had been 'resolvedWe barely got the top of the climb out from St Lucia before we started our descent. Our route takes us due south to Tobago.
After a 25 minute flight we landed in Tobago, the temperature is 30C. As the aircraft was already more than half empty, it didn't take too long to disembark. There are no ramps here so steps are wheeled up to the aircraft for passengers. Inside the terminal, we queued for immigration for a while and by the time we'd done that, the bags were just arriving on the carousel. There was another slightly chaotic queue for customs and then into the frenzy of taxi-drivers, tour guides and a variety of hawkers that frequently fill the arrivals areas of holiday destination airports.
Having declined all offers, with some difficulty, we found out where the Sixt car rental depot was and set out for it with our baggage trolley. We didn't get far before it was explained to us that we couldn't take the trolley that far! Far turned out to be about 200 metres and the Sixt car rental depot a bright orange building situated in the garden of a house next to the cargo terminal.
Having collected our car, a Nissan Terio, something I've never heard of, we set off for our apartment. I stopped back at the airport for a tourist road map before we left the area. After finding our way out of the airport we managed to find our way on to Milford Rd, the main east/west road across the south of the island. Turning left onto Shirvan Rd we headed for Bucco, a village on the northern side of the island about 15 minutes drive away.
It was a bit of a struggle to find the Tranqil apartments, but I finally recognised it from photos I'd seen. Our host, quickly sorted us out and showed us around before we headed to the local mini-market for essential supplies. One thing missing from the store was any fresh fruit!
Next stop was dinner right on the beach at Bucco. The Deck is quite a classy restaurant serving a mixture of local and international dishes. We opted for Caeser salad for Lynn and curried crab and mini dumplings for me as starters and a goat curry for Lynn and a shrimp curry for me. The goat curry had quite a few bones in it whilst the shrimp curry had a lot of large prawns in it, bargain. This wasn't a cheap restaurant, but as it was the first night and we were tired from travelling, we decided it was ideal. After the recent weather in UK, it was very nice to sit outside and hear the waves gently running up the beach just below us.
And so to bed, a/c on tonight so we sleep well!
The Journey Begins
Monday 04 Jan 2016
Bristol to Gatwick
As all nearly all long journeys do, an airport will feature in the first day. Today is no exception and we have to drive from Bristol to London, Gatwick this morning. The route-finder is suggesting it will take less than 3 hours, but between Bristol and Gatwick we have to negotiate the M32, M4, M25 and M23. As always, traffic could be heavy, but today there is the added complication of localised flooding.
Clearly, we had luck with us as we had a clear run up to M25, stopping briefly at Reading Services for a snack and drink. Further around the M25, it had clearly been raining very hard and the spray made visibility very poor. Nonetheless, we arrived at the Holiday Inn on Povey Cross Road less than three hours after leaving Bristol.
Despite the close proximity to London Gatwick airport, it is quiet in the hotel. Holiday Inn might not be the most exciting of hotel chains, but you know exactly what you are going to get on arrival. Generally good service and comfortable clean rooms. This hotel provides exactly that.
After settling in and sorting out our belongings, we left the hotel and drove to Bolney to see friends. After supper and a natter, we were back at the hotel just after ten-o-clock.
Bristol to Gatwick
As all nearly all long journeys do, an airport will feature in the first day. Today is no exception and we have to drive from Bristol to London, Gatwick this morning. The route-finder is suggesting it will take less than 3 hours, but between Bristol and Gatwick we have to negotiate the M32, M4, M25 and M23. As always, traffic could be heavy, but today there is the added complication of localised flooding.
Clearly, we had luck with us as we had a clear run up to M25, stopping briefly at Reading Services for a snack and drink. Further around the M25, it had clearly been raining very hard and the spray made visibility very poor. Nonetheless, we arrived at the Holiday Inn on Povey Cross Road less than three hours after leaving Bristol.
Despite the close proximity to London Gatwick airport, it is quiet in the hotel. Holiday Inn might not be the most exciting of hotel chains, but you know exactly what you are going to get on arrival. Generally good service and comfortable clean rooms. This hotel provides exactly that.
After settling in and sorting out our belongings, we left the hotel and drove to Bolney to see friends. After supper and a natter, we were back at the hotel just after ten-o-clock.
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