It's about 35 degrees here today - we have had a couple of days of overcast weather and today it was lovely to wake up to bright blue skies and brilliant sunshine again, so on the basis of that we decided to go cycling.  We bought fold-up bikes last September in the UK and they have travelled from Gibraltar to here, and only been used once!  We have always managed to think up an, admittedly poor, excuse for not using them but were determined today.  There is a loop road which goes all the way around the island and is about 26 miles long.  The good old guide book said it was easily done in a morning or afternoon, but if you wanted to relax and take your time you could still finish the trip in less than a day.  

We left the dock at about 10am, and having looked at the map decided to go anti-clockwise.  The road goes all the way round the north of the island but cuts across the south about 3/4 of the way down. As the island was once largely concerned with the growing and processing of sugar,there are still several old plantation houses along the way which are worth stopping and looking at.  These have now mostly been turned in boutique hotels.  They have restaurants open to non-residents at night which were all given good write ups, so we thought we might treat ourselves to a nice dinner out.  

The road immediately out of town was quite flat and we thought that it wasn't going to be so bad - how wrong were we???  After about ten minutes were were sweating like mad and trying desperately to drag ourselves up what was to be the first of many very steep hills.  Although when we bought the bikes we got the upgraded gear system, that still only gave us 6 gears, and with wheels about 16inches in diameter, the hills were, to say the least, challenging.  We stopped at The Hermitage, the first of the plantation houses and realised that although we had been cycling for nearly 2 hours, we had only done about 4 miles - gutted!!  This was going to be a very long day.  After we were fortified by some delicious homemade lemonade we set off again - determined not to give up.  Again more hills, this time we stopped at Golden Rocks, another sugar plantation for more lemonade.  By now it was about 1pm and we had done about a third of the trip.  Good news though - the rest was downhill, very steeply downhill - at some points you felt as though you were going to topple over the handle bars so you had to lean back, and we also had to use the brakes just about all the way down to keep the speed down to a relatively safe level.  There are goats popping out of the hedges all the way round, and pot holes the size of small cars in places which you really don't want to hit at great speed.   We passed gorgeous beaches and the Atlantic Ocean was beautifully calm, the day was so clear we could see all the way to Antigua and Barbuda to the south east and Redonda and Montserrat to the South.

Once were going downhill, there was no stopping us and in another hour we were more than 3/4 of the way round and we took a break for lunch at a beach bar overlooking The Narrows, the channel between Nevis and St Kitts, with a great view of the south of St KItts.

The last bit of the trip although largely flat or downhill was very hard.  The lunch stop had been long enough for the saddle soreness to start with a vengeance and it was tough getting back on the bikes, especially as we had gone off down a dirt track full of potholes to find the bar - saddle sore bums and bumpy roads don't go well together!!  Eventually we made it back to town, utterly exhausted but with a definite feeling of achievement and satisfaction that we had made it all the way round!  That said, I was so tired when I got back to the boat that I fell asleep on deck at 6.30pm and only woke up long enough to shower and go to bed!! 

  The church were Nelson got married.

 An action shot - one handed as well!!

  Resting with a much needed lemonade at Golden Rocks

 Planters house at The Hermitage, built in 1640, this is the oldest wooden house in the Caribbean

 Remains of the sugar mill at Golden Rocks Estate