Round St Kitts with Neville and Eileen
Irie
Mon 28 Jan 2008 03:15
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Sunday 27th January
Well, believe it or not Liat excelled themselves on
Saturday evening, delivering Neville and Eileen into Robert Bradshaw airport
smack on time, and complete with luggage. We'd spent the best part of the
morning tracking down the various officials necessary to clear Irie into the
islands. It's not expensive, but involves firstly seeing customs, then
immigration and finally the port pilot. Unfortunately none of them were there
all at the same time, or in the right order, thus ensuring frustrating hanging
about. This done, we had a quick tour of Basseterre, and topped up a few
supplies before our visitors were delivered at 7.45. A very welcome drink and
light snack later, we all turned in, only to find that the soft night air was to
be pierced by the heavy rap and boom beat of a visiting rocker from Jamaica.
This went on till 7am, briefly interjected by the heavy roar of the early
morning ferry, and then several booming blasts to anounce the docking of Queen
Mary 2.
Today commenced with a short wander round the
sights of the town. It's full of churches, full in turn of happy, noisy
worshippers. There are plenty of green spaces with palms and flowers,
and several streets of pretty 'skirt and blouse' buildings - stone bottoms
with balconied wooden second stories adorned with gingerbread fretwork. We then
climb into Trevon Rodgers taxi for a selective trip of the island. First stop is
Brimstone Fort, an eighteenth century marvel of British military engineering.
It's a World Heritage Site atop a commanding volcanic plug, and with the
most wonderful views of St Kitts, Nevis and on to St Eustatia and
Saba. It changed hands a couple of times, was destroyed, then rebuilt into an
impregnable citadel known at the time as the 'Gibralter of the Caribbean'. The
fort then fell into disuse in the early nineteenth century, but has been
carefully restored. It's an iconic place and not to be missed on any tour
of the islands. Onwards then to Rawlins Plantation, an excellent venue for lunch
in an old Sugar plantation estate house, with a great Caribbean buffet and
stunning views to the sea and even distant St Martin. Trevon had vanished for
some unspecified appointment, leaving time after lunch for a couple of rounds of
very intensely competitive croquet in the beautiful tropical gardens.
The return trip took us down the rugged Atlantic coast before arriving back at
the boat in the early evening, in time to watch the huge liner blast 3
times once more, edge slowly away from the dock, turn through 180 degrees and
head into the evening gloom
The dominance of Brimstone, Neville and Eileen in
relaxed Caribbean mode
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