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!