If it's legal to go by air it's too weak!
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Fri 22 May 2009 14:23
On Thursday, we took an all-day island tour, run by Cutty. I can really recommend this to anybody who visits Grenada, the tour costs US$25 for the whole day (pick up 0900, drop-off 1700). Cutty is really knowledgeable about the island, the politics, history and flora & fauna (luvverly girls :) )
His forte is identifying edible fruits & nuts and demonstrating how they are picked and prepared (even I was interested, so he must be good!
The first stop on the tour was at a local waterfall (yes, Grenada has those as well, but not quite as exploited as , say, Dominica). As well as the waterfall, there was a plantation where they cultivated fruits/berries/trees that had been endangered by Hurricane Ivan. The only 'tourist trap' was a guy who leapt off a 50ft cliff, to raise money for a local charity (into the water,DOH!). None of our group volunteered to accompany him (except on the bongos).
After that bit of excitement, we went off to the old airstrip, where they organise drag races along the runway (this is where the bus drivers practice, I decided). I also 'found' the ideal replacement for the Aurigny Trislander fleet and will be claiming my reward shortly.
There was a short detour to get a better view of an inland lake where I found a restoration project for George in Guernsey ~ George periodically shows up at the Guernsey hospital to supervise shoving tubes/small cameras up people but his real job seems to be fishing, sailing and restoring old tractors (actually, I believe he may be a consultant but he manages to hide this well. Well, apart from the time he rang the hospital in Guernsey from a nightclub in the Azores to get the phone number of a local taxi firm, but I won't mention that in case he gets embarrased).
Now for the rum factory (no, surely not I hear you gasp!). This was the Rivers rum factory, who produce rum 'in the old way'. This appears to mean virtually no mechanisation apart from an original 1780's water wheel, all manual labour and a workforce that samples the produce as part of an on-going quality assessment procedure. This process on-goes for most of the working day, but everybody has a good time :). The thing about the rum is that (it's unique selling point, perhaps) is that it is so strong (minimum 75% alcohol by volume) that it can't be carried in an aircraft as it's classified as dangerous material, so can't be exported. They do, however, produce a 'namby pamby' version which is watered down to 69% ~ this is OK for carriage by aircraft. Fortunately, we had the tour/tasting after a very acceptable lunch!
The rest of the tour was a pleasant blur. I remember seeing some monkeys, a group of kindergarten kids and a perfect beach.
Spot the perfect beach!
Helen leaves tomorrow, after a 16 week stay, her first visit to the Caribbean. I hope she goes away with happy memories of the people she's met and doesn't consider catamarans/cat owners too outlandish!
Down to Trini in the coming week to organise anti-fouling (the boat, the boat - fools) and some projects for the Pacific crossing (i.e. spending really large sums of money that I don't have on things that I don't really need but will be nice to have).
