Wednesday and we’re in St Lucia, however, we should be in Dominica. For some reason better known to the captain, we have changed locations. However, we arrived a little early this morning and by the time the FE association had mustered in the Saffron Dining room, we were berthed alongside with gangplanks down and ready to disembark. This was the last time that we have been early for the rest of the day.
Things started to go downhill from breakfast, when to poor steward had to announce that the grapefruit and orange segments were without the orange segments. The ship had run out of them!!! How mutiny was avoided is beyond me. I’m still not sure how our taste buds survived the shock of just grapefruit segments on their own. Hopefully, they will be able to replenish supplies here in St Lucia.
On to the geography – St Lucia is the second largest of the Windward Islands, which is not to be confused with the windward passages mentioned previously. With a population of some 160,000 and 30,000 of which live in Castries, the main town, it is one of the more populated islands that we have visited. Although independent since 1979, St Lucia remains a member of the British Commonwealth. Like many other islands, tourism has taken over from sugar production as the islands main source of income. However, bananas are still a strong export. That is, until hurricane Thomas hit about 4 weeks ago and wiped out the banana plantations. It will now be many months before St Lucia bananas will be in our supermarkets. The hurricane caused a lot of landsides which are still being cleared from the roads as we drove from Castries to Soufriere.
We took a taxi ride from the capital town of Castries taking in the coastal town of Marigot Bay, the fishing port of Canaries and on to Soufriere. Along the way, we went up and down the steep hills and valleys that are characteristic of this island. The roads are cut through lush vegetation and as you head towards Soufriere, through the edge of the tropical rain forest that covers part of the island. At Soufriere, there is a clear view of the twin Pitons that are synonymous with St Lucia. From Soufriere, we headed in to the volcano and foul smelling sulphur springs. Speaking of which, it’s the second time today that the stench of sulphur dioxide filled the taxi. The first time being when there was some lunatic holding a boa constrictor on the side of the road. For some god forsaken reason someone in the taxi wanted to take a picture of this lunatic with his snake, so the driver pulled over. As if it wasn’t enough for the man and his snake to appear at the minibus window, some raving idiot opened the window to get a better picture and wanted to touch the snake. For those that know me, you will understand why there was such a strong sulphur dioxide smell at this stage!!! Needles to say, there were no pictures from our cameras.
This is the most lush and fertile island that we have visited so far on this cruise, mainly due to the high rainfall that occurs between June and November. There is a profusion of rugged jungles, ferns and trees as you drive along. We saw lots of different birds along the way including humming birds.
The taxi ride took longer than estimated, so we were back on board a little later than anticipated and therefore we had to forfeit the silver service lunch and just get a snack at the poolside grill. We then headed for the top deck to capture the last couple of hours sunshine before it disappeared over the hillsides surrounding the port. We were scheduled to leave at 5.30 and as this is our last quayside departure, Union Jack flags we handed out ready to bid St Lucia a fond farewell. The music started and the flags waved, but the ship remained alongside. There were a number of other cruise ships berthed alongside us and it appears that they had priority over us for departure. As it is the final formal evening on board, we had to leave the sun deck and get to our cabin to get ready for the early dinner shift at 6.30. Tonight we had a superb dinner of Atlantic prawns for starter and Beef Wellington for main course. Deserts included Chocolate torte and orange souffle which were fantastic. An Australian Shiraz helped with the digestion and washed the cheese and biscuits down very nicely.
After dinner, we waddled along to the Havana Room to watch a Cher tribute act, followed by the same George Michael act that we saw the other evening. Cher was actually pretty good in that she not only looked like her, but even sounded like her. The shame was that the sound engineers simply think that loud is good. I think that the quality of the entertainment could be hugely improved if they sacked the sound engineers and replaced them with someone who knows what they’re doing.
Just one more island before we return to Barbados. Dominica – a new experience for both of us.
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