I woke around 6.30 and leapt out of bed to watch us come into the port of Kingstown, St Vincent (you all know it from pointless). It’s a much craggier Island than the other two.
St Vincent in the morning
In my research I had found that some people felt a bit unsafe in this port, so me being a wuss we had decided to book another excursion. We have been steadily working our way through the onboard spend we got for being a suite customer so it’s almost like these excursions etc are free. We chose 4x4 adventure! We could have gone at 9am or 1pm. No brainer eh? We hotfooted it up to the Epicurean again for another suite dweller breakfast. Just for a change Ian had an Arnold Bennett omlette (it has kippers in for anyone not acquainted with the man) and I had the fattest French toast ever.
Fat French toast
Arnold Bennett
We then had a wander through the crows nest where Ian found a telescope. We visit the library every day as well to look for Kathy’s books. There has been no sign of them since we left them, which I take as being a good thing.
Telescope in the crows nest
We had a bit of a pootle round the open decks too,
Up top
Before going back to the suite to watch the speed boats taking people to the Grenadines, and see the frigate birds circling overhead. We had an early buffet lunch, then disembarked to find our tour.
On dry land
Turns out it was not 4x4 as we know it. The buses were just open sided trucks seating four couples each. We were in with a policeman and his wife from Oldham. An older, very dry, gentleman and his wife, Bradford, who reminded me so much of Our Allen, and an older scouse couple. We had a good laugh at getting three out of four on groomer bingo! The police couple had walked into town and said even they didn’t feel very safe, although they had visited the police station to introduce themselves and were made very welcome.
Our driver, Captain Gus, an ex ferry pilot, soon arrived. We never found out why he was ex. Then our guide, Beverley. She sat in the back with us and gave us a thorough overview of St Vincent and the Grenadines, in particular the many plants.
Sounds boring but she was really interesting. Captain Gus proved to be a good cattle truck driver. The roads on St Vincent are narrow, steep, and full of potholes, and no quarter is given or taken. He drove us all around the only road on the south of the island, before we came to Brighton Beach. Here we all disembarked, there were about five tucks, and sat under the trees on the sand. We were given rum punch and an hour to swim or just relax. Of course we went for the swim. The water was warmer than both Curacao and Bonaire, and the sea choppier. We had a wonderful swim in a stunning setting.
Idyllic Brighton Beach
Back on ‘The Bus’
And back to the boat
Afterwards it was time to return to the ship. On the way Ian and the policeman’s wife had a long chat about ACL injuries, and we found out that he had got his Man Cave from one of Ian’s clients. Small world
We were back at the ship just before All Aboard at 5.30. Look at us living dangerously! We had a snack of the fruit that Sagar brings us every day, and watched the sun set as we sailed away.
Sun setting in St Vincent
And moon rising over Kingstown
I took a whirlpool bath and was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open for dinner. We had a cocktail beforehand again, cosmopolitan, very nice. Dinner was pretty good again, then we had a nightcap before retiring, I couldn’t even stay awake for the ‘illusionist’ in the theatre. By 10pm I was abed and asleep. I blame the rum punch at Brighton Beach.
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