They always say keep your eye on your belongings when you are relaxing on the beach, but little did I realise that I was going to be the perpetrator rather than the victim of a mobile phone and t-shirt heist. After a day of sunbathing Meg, Ellie and her Partner Ben, had all drifted off to a beach bar and Mrs Riley had headed back to the apartment. Assuming even I couldn't mess this up, I was left in charge of the straightforward task of packing away the towels, kindles, sun cream etc in the beach bag. So as my thoughts turned to a nice cold beer or two from the fridge, everything that was left on or around our sun loungers just got scooped up and placed into the bag. As I set off back to our apartment I was confronted by a guy asking me about an iphone. Part of me was thinking bloody hell, these beach hawkers standards have improved, they used to just offer towels or sundresses. But no he was quite insistent that I had his iphone and for good measure his airpods and t-shirt. Looking back the confusion had started because assuming everyone had gone from our lounges the iPhone guy had left his t-shirt, airpods and phone on the end table while he played beach football and without any thought I'd mistakenly assumed Ben had left his phone etc. After reaching an understanding of what the problem was, I had a good rummage around in the bag and there it all was. We had a good laugh about it, well I did, I'm not sure he was fully convinced.
Getting around the island of Barbados is easy, we had debated hiring a car but to be honest it really wasn't necessary, the island is approx 21 miles long and 15 miles wide, so we managed to get around quite nicely with taxis and buses. Taxis appeared to be relatively more expensive for short journeys but more reasonable on longer ones. I assume there is a standard minimum fare, the cabs are not metered so it's difficult to know. But the real joy is using the buses of which there are three types, two private and one public transport, all charging the same $3.50 BBD wherever you are going. The maroon striped minivan and yellow reggae bus all arrive ahead of the scheduled blue public transport bus, it all feels a bit chaotic at first but they stop and ask where you are going and if that's where they are heading just hop on. The yellow reggae buses might not offer luxurious comfort but inbus entertainment more than makes up for it and is not to be missed.
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| Port St Charles |
We finished our Barbadian holiday in Speightstown which after Bridgetown is the second town of Barbados. In the 1600's Speightstown was the main port of Barbados, ships laden with sugar, tobacco and cotton offered lucrative trade with England via Bristol, hence the town's nickname of 'Little Bristol'. It was much quieter than the Dover Beach/St Lawrence Gap area but still with all the trappings of beautiful sandy beaches and clear blue seas. It is also home to the very popular and highly recommended Fish Pot restaurant The seafront location and amazing food means the restaurant gets booked up months in advance and there is never any guarantee of an ocean front table. I had managed to get a lunchtime reservation so I played the 'it's my wife's 60th birthday' angle to try and secure one of the prime table locations. Now the purpose of our Barbadian family holiday was indeed to celebrate Mrs Riley's 60th but her actual birthday is in December well before we left the UK. I'd tried the birthday rouse to no avail at other popular restaurants so I didn't have any expectations this time around. With hindsight it might have been sensible to mention to my wife I'd moved her birthday to January just in case. As we arrived at the restaurant and gave our names, no one was more surprised than me when the Maître d' greeted us with 'Happy Birthday Mrs Riley'. A look of puzzlement from my wife was followed by the start of some protestations mentioning December. This required a quick intervention from me to explain that her birthday was a couple of days ago and this was the first opportunity to reserve a table. I could almost sense a twitch of a raised eyebrow from the Maître d' as she led us to the deck for cocktails before seating us at an ocean front table for lunch. The food, service and views didn't disappoint.
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| Sunset From the Fish Pot |
There is something quite decadent about having such a beautiful meal with a lovely bottle of wine at lunchtime, admiring the uninterrupted views of white sand, palm trees and sailing boats in the distance cutting through the clear blue seas. After finishing our meal we opted to lay claim to a couple of the restaurant beach sun loungers, enjoying the remaining afternoon sun and of course a little doze. As the sun slowly lowered its way into the sea, I turned to my wife and wished her a 'happy January birthday', it was pretty much the perfect day.
As the holiday started to draw to a close my thoughts turned to what next? Well after retirement we have a somewhat cooler (in temperature) adventure planned to travel through Scandinavia in our new Motorhome. Our journey is planned to take us the full length of Norway to Nordkapp, which is the Northernmost point on continental Europe that can be accessed by road. At 71° North it is 5° North of the Arctic Circle. We then head back down through Finland before crossing through Sweden and Denmark. The only question mark is when we will be able to do the trip. We ordered our Motorhome in June 2021, with retirement in mind and the expectation that we would be able to drive off into the sunset (well I guess in Scandinavia it's more the land of the midnight sun than sunset, but you get the drift). Unfortunately as with all things, Covid has managed to play it's part and the delivery date has been pushed back multiple times due to manufacturing delays, so that we are now expecting delivery at some point in May. With the uncertainty around when the van will arrive we decided it's probably best to delay our Scandinavian adventure until later in the year, which will also allow us some time to become familiar with it before heading off on such a long expedition.
There is also talk of Meg, my youngest daughter travelling to Antarctica, now that quite appeals to me! Going beyond both the North and South Polar circles of latitude (or nether regions as I call them) and setting foot on the uninhabited continent feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity. So negotiations are taking place on cost and when we might do this, plus I'm hoping that sharing a twin room cabin with her dad is not such a bad thing. Still if negotiations stall the worse case scenario is that we might just need to head back to Barbados, assuming Mrs Riley is still happy to share with me! Watch this space!
Sapphire Beach - our first 10 days were spent in these Dover Beach apartments
We flew to Barbados with BA from Gatwick.
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