Wednesday, 4th March, Barbados, Dulling heavily 24 degrees

Barbados conjures up a picture of sun, sand, seashells and bright colours. When I poked my head out on the promenade deck for an early morning photograph we were parked in a container port, with heavy cloud cover – and then it rained. Definitely not as advertised! The street art was good though!

When we went up for breakfast there were a number of chaps leaving the ship with their golf clubs! I can’t imagine where they have put them in the cabin let alone why you would want to trail clubs around the whole of South America in order to play a round of golf in every West Indian Island that has a golf course – and it would seem that many do! Horses for courses I guess. Very odd.

We took our time gathering ourselves and it was not raining when we left but looked a bit dark and the rain clouds looked ominous. This, of course, did not deter the intrepid Gregorys.

We walked under the trees along a walkway by the sea. Before reaching the town proper we came across the fish market where tuna was the order of the day. A number of the West Indian Islands are known for the provision of yellow tuna, a speciality I understand. I am not sure if that is what we found, it could well have been!

By the time we got to Bridgetown proper, it was pouring. Finding shelter was tricky – we had thought we would be able to find somewhere for a coffee, but the whole concept of coffee seemed somewhat alien. Beer you could get. Coffee you couldn’t.

We sheltered in a couple of door ways where fruit and vegetables were on offer, but nowhere where we could take shelter for long.

We were quite wet before we found some other Aurora castaways in a sort of courtyard laid back from the road, just after the bus station. The enterprising owner was waving to us to take shelter in her bar. A little bit apprehensively we went over. Keith asked for coffee and a rather dilapidated Nescafé satchel was found and at the back of the ‘fridge a Coke Zero was located. I was firmly told to sit while she made Keith’s coffee.

I sat as requested between two men at a table which indicated they had been at the beer, rum and ginger ale chaser for some time… it was not even 11.00 a.m!

And a very large lady in a leopard skin dress, fondly called Tiger. Keith was told his coffee would be brought over. Tiger moved between the tables. It continued to rain and there began the most bizarre conversation between Keith and the man to his left – about Blenheim Palace amongst other things!

The bottle of rum was showing distinct signs of leakage, shall we say, which I think oiled the conversation from the Barbados corner. However, what I found particularly intriguing was that neither the conversationalist or his chum nor a number of the others sitting in the bar had any front teeth. I know that in Madeira this phenomenon is put down to the amount of sugar they consume and we could only believe this case was the same for here – particularly as Keith had been pressed to sat how much sugar he wanted in his coffee. It was actually great fun to be part of the conversation. When it looked like the weather was clearing up, we made to take our leave, bidding fond farewell to our new found chums – only for the rain to come down in stair rods again. Ugh! By this time I had moved under a canopy where the other Aurora people had been sheltering, while Keith chatted to the proprietor of Bonnie’s Bar. (She was telling me about how it was now raining more during the dry season than the wet season. i asked her why she thought this was the case. She said, ‘Global warming. It’s climate change, isn’t it, darling”Ed)

The rain did eventually stop and we set out to continue our original plan to walk along the beach to find a good place to have lunch. First we had to find a way back to the beach.

This was not straight forward, because although there was a marina arrangement, much of the immediate area in front of the beach was cut off by high hoardings. It would seem they are still building the beach front!! And some fronts were still there but no behinds, if you see what I mean!

We thought this sign looked optimistic! The beach could not be far away.

And then we found it!

The sun eventually came out and we wandered along the sea shore. Every now and again we had to go inland because the sea was too close to walk along.

Despite the cloudy sky, on the beach there were rows and rows of sun beds and umbrellas under which sat a large number of scantily clad sun worshippers not wanting to miss a minute of the sun when in emerged. We wandered along very happily chatting and watching and gradually the sun came out fully and the temperature rose to 27 degrees. This was more like it although i was a bit concerned thar a couple of the life guard stations that we passed looked conspicuously empty!!

We walked Carlyle Bay and then Pebble Beach. By this time we were peckish and decided to turn back to the Lobster Alive Restaurant we had passed on the way for that lunch.

A couple of Aurora types were already there. We had a fabulous lunch. Very different to the one in St Vincent. First came my daily cocktail – a Margarita today.

We shared a lobster spring roll starter and then Keith moved on to the catch of the day, the Mahi Mahi fish, and I had a lobster penne pasta. Another great meal. The location was wonderful, the food great and there was entertainment too!

But in the end it was time to go. We meandered back along the beach as much as we could. Boats bobbed up and down on the water and the tide licked the hot sand as it raced up the beach and then ran out again. Every now and then we had to take evasive action so as not to get our feet wet.

Eventually we were back in the town and walking under the trees back to the dock and the cruise terminal. As we went to leave the terminal and walk along the causeway to the ship – the heavens opened again. Excuse me – but has someone somewhere not got the message that this is the dry season!! We sheltered for a bit in the Terminal building where there were any number of stalls itching to sell you something, but we maintained our high resistance and just sheltered there until the rain stopped.

We got back to the ship reasonably dry, having had yet another good day. This is the holiday that just goes on giving! However, after several days of new ports every day, I think we are looking forward to a day at sea on Friday. Tomorrow we get to St Lucia.