This morning, we were visited by the green monkeys. They were literally in the tree by the balcony.

The little sparrow came to visit too.

After a coffee, I went to the swimming pool to make the last of the sunshine.

When I got back, everyone else was up and we were all packing.

The apartment we stayed in was beautiful and it was sad to leave.

We left our suitcases in the office before heading off for one final lunch at the Fishpot.

I had red snapper and tropical creme brulee, both were delicious.

Unfortunately, it was then time to head to the airport. My suitcase was overweight, so I had to do some repacking before I could check in. At the airport I bought some more rum.

The flight was delayed by around 30 minutes, and we left just as the sun was setting.

I took some photos of the sun as we took off.

We ate, slept and watched a movie on the flight. I probably only really slept for an hour.

As we arrived back into London, the sun was rising.

We all made it to our homes safely.

We were up fairly early as we had a taxi booked for 10:30am to take us to St Nicholas Abbey. It was only a short 10 minute drive away.

The taxi driver dropped us at the entrance and we went for a short walk. The first thing we saw were the massive mahogany trees. They are over 250 years old.

We had a train ride booked, so we perused the gift shop whilst we waited for the train.

The train is an old steam locomotive.

The train was called Winston, and a lovely lady provided a commentary as we rode through the 400-acre plantation.

At the start of the train ride we passed a huge lake. This lake supplies the water for the plantation.

We passed some very tall palm trees. Apparently, these very tall trees signal that there is a plantation nearby.

We passed the original entrance to the train track, where the cane was bought from the fields to be transported by the train.

We also saw a quarry, which was where the stone used to build the house came from.

The track was quite steep in places. In the old days, if the train couldn’t get up the track, all those in third class had to get out and push it. They were generally rewarded with rum for doing so.

At the end of the track, we came to Cherry Tree Hill, and the views from here were stunning.

The path up to the hill used to be lined with cherry trees, but they have been replaced with mahogany trees now, which were planted in the 18th century. Cherry Tree Hill is an ancient natural paasagewau connecting the east and west coasts of the island.

The locomotive was uncoupled from the train and turned on an old turning point before going to the other end of the train to be reattached. At this point we all got a chance to blow the whistle.

The St Nicholas Abbey Heritage railway was only completed in 2018 and is 1.5km long.

From Cherry Tree Hill, we headed back down the track to the station. At one point, the driver had to get off and manually change the point, so the train went down the right path of track.

Winston was originally built for light industrial shunting on the internal rail network in Antwerp, Belgium. It was relocated to Barbados in 2020.

People used to literally ‘catch the train’ in Barbados. They would wait at the side of the track and jump onto the train.

At the station we saw the little station cat.

Some guests departed here, but we stayed on the train, which took us down to the Great House.

The Great House is one of three remaining Jacobean mansions in the Western Hemisphere. It was built in 1658 and is one of the oldest surviving plantations. The plantation itself is over 400 acres.

The house has 7 bedrooms, four on the first floor and 3 on the second floor. Two of the bedrooms have fireplaces, but they have never been lit.

The first room we came to was the drawing room. Here, they have an amazing french chandelier from the 1800s,made out of shells and coral.

They also have taxidermy of some birds. Some of these birds are now believed to be extinct.

In the study we saw the ‘Gentleman’s Chair’. In 1936, this was considered the ultimate in relaxation as it has adjustable tables, book holder, reading lamp, backrest and footrest. It can also be wheeledfrim one room to another. This particular chair was made in England in the 1830s.

Looking through the window, you could see the herb garden, which is set out in a traditional English pattern. It contains an assortment of peppers used to make the plantations own pepper jelly.

The internal bathrooms were added in 1939. Prior to that, you had to use the outhouses that were fitted with a four seat privy, each seat having a different sized hole.

Electricity came in 1920, and the wiring is still visible as it is on the outside rather than inset into the walks.

In the courtyard, there is a Sandbox Tree, which is over 400 years old. This is an evergreen that is indigenous to the Caribbean, and it has tiny thorns all over its bark – it has the nickname of ‘monkey no-climb’.

In the courtyard there were also guinea fowl and other birds. Animals were generally kept behind the house so that any bad smells were blown away from, and not towards, the house.

On the short walk down to the distillery, we passed a Soursop tree. The fruit of the tree is said to taste like a combination of strawberry and apple with sour citrus notes and has a banana like texture.

Our next stop was the distillery, which has been specially designed to enable the handcrafted of rum on a small scale.

The big pot is called ‘Annabelle’ and is a traditional pot still as well as a rectifying column.

The rum comes out of the distillery at 92% (184 proof), which is then diluted to 60% or 40% for ageing in barrels. They use old Bourbon oak barrels from Kentucky for ageing the rum. These barrels are only used once for Bourbon before being shipped to the Abbey. The darker the rum, the longer it has been left in the barrel, and the smoother it is. The white rum, which is only used for mixing, is not barrelled at all.

We then moved on to the syrup plant, which basically converts raw cane juice into a very sweet syrup, which is around 70% sugar. The large steel tank holds 1,900 litres of syrup which enables rum to be produced throughout the year.

The distillery makes around 40-45 barrels of rum a year. The rum is not blended, and each barrel will produce around 300 bottles of rum, depending on how long it has been aged for.

At the start of the process is the steam mill, which crushes around 350 tonnes of came between January to June (the annual crop season time).

There were a few bats flying around in the roof of the steam mill and syrup plant.

The original steam mill was installed in 1890 and increased production by 10-15% over the original windmill. But the plantation stopped production in 1947 due to lack of viability. In 2006, the plantation started grinding cane again and producing rum. It is the only rum on the island made from cane syrup, and the sugar cane has to be cut by hand rather than by machine. All of the sugar cane on the plantation is used for the production of rum as it is no longer viable to produce sugar itself.

The history of the ownership of the Abbey is also interesting, with lots of cousins marrying each other etc. When slavery was abolished, the owners gave the firmer slaves a piece of land, which is how small villages have grown.

On the way to taste some rum, we passed the cotton plants and also some macaws.

And them it was time to taste some rum. Simon Worral, the son of the current owner, talked us through the rum and liquers, he was a funny guy. We tasted a 5 year old rum,an amaretto liquer, and a coffee liquer. I ended up buying the coffee liquer.

After a quick detour to the cafe to grab some lunch, we headed home by taxi.

We ate our lunch on the balcony before heading to the pool for some sunbathing.

We had some pre-drinks on the balcony before getting a taxi into Speightstown.

On the way out, we saw the huge toad again.

The sun was starting to set as we came into Speightstown, so we asked the taxi driver to stop so we could take some photos.

We had booked a table at Local and Co as it had been recommended to us. It didn’t disappoint. The location was perfect and the food was delicious.

I had an amazing rum sour, and catch of the day with breadfruit chips.

I also made a new feline friend.

We headed to Little Bristol Bar after dinner and had a few dances to the band that were playing.

Our plan was to continue the night at Just Chilling, but it was dead when we got there. So we decided to get a taxi home and we stopped off at Sip and Lick on the way.

We chattec to some of the locals and had a few dances before heading home

One of the local gentleman escorted us back to the apartment.

I was up early again, so I made some pancakes for everyone. After we had all had breakfast, we headed down to Pier One. It was another beautiful morning.

There were actually quite a few people at the pier, but we managed to find four sunbeds together.

After a bit of sunbathing, I got into the water and did some snorkelling.

We decided it was time for a cocktail or two before lunch.

And obviously, some posey photos, too.

It was soon time for lunch. I had a delicious steak sandwich with blue cheese.

After lunch we did some more swimming and sunbathing and Karen and Mags each got some birthday cake.

Late afternoon, we headed home, although none of us really wanted to go.

As we left, the sun was starting to go down, so of course, we took some photos.

We also took some pictures with the locals who we had been chatting to over the last couple of weeks.

After a quick shower, we headed back out to our favourite place for dinner – Joan’s. We sat and chatted with the local guys.

We had quite a few rum and cokes, and we had a few dances too. It was sad saying goodbye as we knew we wouldn’t be seeing everyone again.

It was quite cloudy when I woke up, but we decided a nice relaxing beach day was in order.

It was actually really nice lying on the sunbeds with a breeze and clouds.

We just went to the beach opposite us for some swimming and sunbathing.

At lunchtime, we came back up to the apartment and made ourselves a cheese omelette. Our bird friends joined us, too.

The tree opposite our apartment is a breadfruit tree. Breadfruit was discovered by the Europeans in the late 1500s. It is a starchy fruit, and when it is roasted, it resembles bread in both texture and aroma.

After lunch, we headed back to the beach with our wine.

The water was quite rough, and the waves were crashing on the rocks. I went swimming, and you could feel the current pulling you back out.

We were all playing with the slo-motion mode on our cameras.

As the sun began to set, we took some more photos as the light was so good.

We also took some nice photos as the sun went down.

We had a reservation at the Fishpot restaurant, which is part of the hotel complex we are staying at. So I decided to go back to the apartment and have a shower – we can only shower 1 at a time as it affects the water pressure. Karen, Mags and Faye stayed to have a cocktail, but it took ages for them to be served, so they gave up.

We all decided to go glam for the night and spent some time getting ourselves ready.

The fishpot restaurant is part of a 17th-century converted fort that sits directly on the beach. It is quite an informal restaurant and the food is delicious. I had crab to start with, followed by seafood broil.

Throughout the evening, we were entertained by a gentleman playing lots of well-known tunes on his guitar.

We had told the manager that we were celebrating Karen and Mags 60th birthdays, so they bought over a little dessert and sang happy birthday.

After dinner, it was back to the balcony for a little nightcap before bed.

I was up early and fed the birds some bread. Apart from the sparrows and blackbirds, there was another type of bird that was in the tree by the balcony, but I don’t know what it was.

I had my leftover fish and chips for breakfast, warmed up in the oven, and it was delicious.

Around midday, we caught the Reggae bus into Speightstown.

Faye was our tour guide, and the first place we visited was St Peters Church. This is an Anglican Church and is one of the oldest churches in Barbados.

The church was first built as a wooden structure in 1629 but gradually rotted away. In 1665, a more permanent structure was built. The church was one of only 3 churches that survived the hurricane in 1780, but the 1831 hurricane did destroy it. But in 1837, a new church was built out of stone. However, on April 21st 1980, the church was largely destroyed by fire, with most of the damage being to the interior of the building. But once again, it was refurbished.

The large bell that was previously part of the clock tower couldn’t be returned to its former location, so it sits outside the church as a reminder of life’s affinity to change.

We wandered down the main street in Speightstown, stopping off to explore the many shops and boutiques.

Speightstown is the namesake of the 1639 parliamentarian William Speights. Once known as ‘Little Bristol’, this town used to be the centre of commercial trade between the town of Bristol in England and the island of Barbados.

In 1654, the town was captured by the invading forces of Oliver Cromwell, who had come to control the royalist supporters of King Charles I.

We walked past Arlington House. This is an interactive museum about some of the history of the island, but we didn’t fancy looking around it all. The house itself was home to a wealthy merchant and was built in the 18th century. It was the first public health centre in Barbados.

Our next stop was the Speightstown mural. This mural is 80ft long by 20ft wide. It paints a picture of the history and natural beauty of Barbados and includes scenes of Harrisons cave and the raiding of the Barbados flag on independence Day, as well green monkeys. The bridge represents travel through thousands of years of history.

Speightstown used to be a whaling centre from 1886 until the early 20th century. The town is still a busy fishing port.

We stopped in Archers Hall, which is now a beautiful design shop, and I bought a glass turtle to take home.

We then wandered down to Town Square and stopped by a beautiful jewellery shop -Tiyi by design. Tiyi herself was there, and we talked to her about her jewellery and how she created it. Mags bought herself a gorgeous necklace.

After all the walking around, we decided it was time for a drink, so we stopped at one eleven east for a cocktail – rum sour.

It was a really nice spot and I made a new friend – Charlie.

As it was getting towards late afternoon, and we had all had successful purchases, we thought it would be a good idea to go to the Little Bristol Bar for food, and to get a table before it got too busy.

We had chicken and potato rotis with various sides, including the famous macaroni pie.

Initially, we sat down on the benches closest to the sea, but the waitress told us that the waves were quite high and we were likely to get wet, so we sat on a table a bit further back, and we were glad we did.

We watched the sunset, which was another gorgeous sunset.

The light from the sunset was really good for taking pictures.

The band started playing around 6pm, and they were brilliant. They played a mixture of reggae music and tunes that everybody knew.

The bar was really busy, mainly with tourists, but it was a great atmosphere and everyone was up dancing.

The band finishes around 830pm and by 10pm everything had quietened down so we decided to head home. Greg kindly gave us a lift as he was going home before heading out again for a night in Holetown.

We had a nightcap on the balcony before going to bed.

After a coffee and a slice of toast, we headed down to the reception area. Here, we were picked up by a taxi that drove us to Port Ferdinando. To be honest, we could’ve walked there but the transport was all arranged as part of the trip.

At the port, we met our captain for the day, Dougie, as well as the other people on our trip. Once we were all there we walked down to the ‘Cool Runnings’ catamaran.

Dougie gave us all a safety briefing before we left the port and introduced us to the crew; Kevin, Jayden and the chef. As we left, the bridge opened up – a bit like tower bridge in London but a lot smaller.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and there was a lovely breeze whilst the boat was moving. We made ourselves comfortable at the front of the boat.

It wasn’t long before they came round with some drinks, so we started drinking quite early on in the day!

Our first stop was a shipwreck off the west coast of the island. The shipwrecks are part of a marine park, and they purposely sink the ships to encourage coral growth and an underwater ecosystem. There are six shipwrecks to explore in the marine park, and we saw one of the smaller ones – the Bajan Queen, which was sunk in 2002.

Over 200 ships have been wrecked off the coast of Barbados since 1666. The majority of ships are wrecked during hurricanes or other storms. In 1694 a hurricane sunk 26 merchant ships in Carlisle Bay.

The most common fish swimming around the wrecked was the sergeant major and the Bermuda chub.

After around 20 minutes in the water, we headed back to the boat to dry off. We passed the famous Sandy Lane Hotel and some play contraption in the middle of the sea.

We were only on the boat for around 10 minutes before our next snorkelling stop – turtles.

We saw quite a few turtles swimming quite close to the boat. The turtles we saw were green turtles, but other turtles live around the coast of Barbados too.

We also saw some batwing fish. This is their local name, but I can’t remember what their proper name is. We also saw a Tarpon

Obviously we took some photos of ourselves too.

When we got back on the boat, we were showered down to remove the salt water.

After the turtles stop, we sailed up the coast for a while before stopping for lunch. The lunch was delicious.

I went back in the water to do some more exploring. I saw loads more fish swimming over the reefs.

I think most of them were types of parrot fish, although there were some that I hadn’t seen before. I was also lucky enough to see a spotted morray eel.

Whilst I was out snorkelling, the ladies had a bit of a photo shoot.

When I got back on board, it was time for dessert, which was also delicious.

We soon arrived back at the port. The trip was so good. The captain and the rest of the crew were lovely and kept the drinks topped up!

Back at our apartment, we had a swim in the pool.

At sunset, we went down to the beach. There was loads of seaweed on the beach, which is very unusual for the Caribbean beaches. But apparently, the wind is blowing in a different direction to normal.

In the evening we headed to our favourite place, Joan’s, for what we thought would be a light dinner. It was way too much food, and we ended up bringing half of it home!

Whilst we were sitting at Joan’s, one of the local buses stopped outside, and a gentleman in uniform came in, used the toilet, and ordered a shot of rum, which he took back on the bus. The uniform was that of the police guard band.

On the steps just putside the apartment, we saw a massive frog/toad.

I woke up and returned our car to reception so it could be collected by the car rental company.

We were all up fairly early, so after some coffee and a freshen up, we headed to Pier One in Port St Charles.

I did a bit of snorkelling, and I saw lots of fish and a sting ray. He had buried himself in the sand so you could only really see the top of him.

We just relaxed on the decking by the sea.

As we hadn’t eaten breakfast, we booked brunch for 1130am in the outdoor restaurant.

The food was amazing. I had blackened barracuda, followed by amaretto ice cream. On the table near us was an older lady. We got chatting to her, and she said she was 91 and had lived in Barbados now for 25 years. She apparently comes to the restaurant every day for lunch.

After lunch we visited the little gift shop, Whispers. Here we met Deliah, who owns the shop. She is a real character and a lovely person. We all ended up buying something.

We then laid down again in the sun.

After a while it started to get a bit cloudy, so we headed to the pool for a drink.

As we ordering our second cocktail, Deliah came to join us at the bar.

We moved over to the other side of the decking to catch the last of the afternoon sun.

As we were sunbathing, we saw some frigates flying above us.

Late afternoon we headed back to the apartment and watched the sunset from the balcony.

After some cheese on toast, it was time to head out again. We stopped at ‘Sip and Lick’ as they had two amazing singers, we thought it was music playing until we saw them. They had great voices, and their harmonies were spot on.

We had a little boogie on the sand, which was actually really hard to dance on! I also saw a sting ray in the water right close to us.

Once the singers had finished, we headed over the road to Joan’s as the steel drummer was playing again.

We met up with some of our friends from previous visits to Joan’s.

And then it was time to head home and go to bed.

As we couldn’t see Animal Flower Cave yesterday, we headed there this morning.

From the cliff tops above the cave, you can look out to North Point. This is the most northerly part of the island and is where the Atlsntic and Caribbean oceans meet.

At some parts of the year, you can see humpback whales here, but they had left a couple of weeks ago.

The cave was discovered in 1780 by two English explorers. The 27 steps going down to the cave were built in 1912 and are really steep.

The cave is made from erosion of the coral rock. It is 6ft above the high water mark but was formed at sea level. Barbados is riding at 1 inch every 1000 years.

The walls of the cave are full of interesting formations that have been coloured green and brown by oxidation of copper and iron.

The floor of the cave is estimated to be around 400,000 to 5000,000 years old.

There are several openings in the cave where you can look out to sea and get amazing views.

The guide told us they often fish from the openings, and in 2019, they caught a huge tiger shark and had to use a whole chicken as bait.

When the seas are rough, the water comes in the openings and can even go all the way up to the top of the steps. The guide showed us a large boulder that had been pushed to the back of the cave by the force of the waves.

The cave gets its name from the sea anemones found in the pools of the cave. When the anemone opens up, it looks like a tiny flower.

The floor of the cave was obviously very uneven and wet, and one poor lady fell over a couple of times.

One of the larger pools of the cave you could go swimming in. I didn’t have my bikini with me so I went in my underwear instead.

The water was crystal clear and actually warmer than I thought it would be. It was shallow in places but did go down to around 9ft. You could swim out to the ledge and look out.

After exploring the cave, we headed back out and did a little bit of shopping in the gift shop.

We also walked around the clifftop to take in the views.

From Animal Flower Cave, we decided to head to the south of the island and visit St Lawrence Gap. This is a 1.5km stretch of bars, shops, and restaurants and has some lovely beaches.

It was lunchtime, so we stopped at Mimosas for lunch.

The food was delicious, and the girls all had a cocktail (I was driving so stated on the juice).

Outside we took some photos on the chairs as the colours were really good.

We wandered around the shops and bought a few souvenirs, and then headed to the beach.

All of the sun loungers were full as most of them belonged to the big hotels along the beachfront.

So we found a bar and had a delicious banana colada (virgin for me).

One of the most common birds we see in Barbados is the blackbird. It squawks really loudly and has yellow eyes. I think it is sometimes called the brewers blackbird.

There are also a lot of chickens roaming the streets.

From St Lawrence Gap, we headed back home,making a short stop for some salad items, bread, and petrol.

In the evening, we stayed in and made a delicious salad. It was an early night for us all.

We had hired a car for two days, so we made sure we were all up and ready for 9am. We had a slice of toast before leaving, and the birds came for the crumbs.

Mags and I were designated drivers, so we had to have a permit each to drive in Barbados, which lasts for 2 months.

Luckily, the car was automatic, and they drive on the same side of the road as in the UK.

We set off, with Mags driving, to Harrisons cave, which was about a 30 minute drive. The roads here have a lot of potholes, and some of them are quite narrow.

Inside the waiting area, they had a lovely mural and lots of rum.

Our tour guide was Ashan, he was really lovely and friendly from the start.

At the beginning of the tour, we watched a couple of videos. One was all about the island of Barbados and the other one about Harrisons cave.

Barbados was initially inhabited by Native Americans. It was discovered by the Portuguese who named it Los Barbados, but they didn’t stay as they didn’t see the potential of the island. Los Barbados is loosely translated as ‘bearded men’, and this came from the beard fig trees that were on the island.

The English came to the island in 1625 and began to colonise the islandas they saw the opportunity for agriculture. They originally had tobacco and cotton plantations. During the 1630s, sugar cane was introduced into the agriculture. The Dutch supplied the slaves and machinery for the sugar cane plantations.

Barbados became known for its production of sugar cane, but then several disasters hit. There was a locust plague in 1663, a huge fire in Bridgetown and a major hurricane in 1667, and also a drought in 1668. By 1720 Barbados was no longer a dominant force in the sugar cane industry.

Slavery was abolished in 1834 and Barbados gained full independence in 1966 and a Barbadian monarchy was established. The Barbadian monarchy was abolished in November 2021 when Barbados became a Republic within the Commonwealth.

After the videos, we went down in an elevator to the cave entrance. We were all given hard hats to wear as the tour is via a tram that goes through the cave. We were lucky and got front seats.

As we started to go in the cave, we went through the Boyce tunnel. This is a man made tunnel named after Noel Boyce, who broke ground to open the caves’ natural passage ways.

The first area we came to is known as the village, as all the stalagmites look like people gathering together.

The cave system is around 2.3km long, and the inside temperature is about 27 degrees celsius. You also get quite a lot of water drips.

The next stop was the Great Hall. This is a large cavern measuring 15m high.

We also passed via the altar.

The cave system provides naturally filtered water for the whole of the island and are situated at 210m above sea level.

The cave was mentioned in the 18th century, but it wasn’t until 1970 that Ole Soreson, a speleologist, made a survey and mapped the cave.

Although Barbados is an island, it is not made from volcanic rock. It is formed from sandstone rock and coral that has been pushed out of the sea by ancient volcanic action.

We continued on our tram tour and the next stop was Explorers entrance. This is where the first explorers entered the cave system, and you can see the steps in the distance. The pool below is up to 9ft deep in places.

We then passed an area known as ‘the flow’. This is an area where the water is continuously running down the wall rather than dripping.

There is also a place called the Chapel but we didn’t get a good picture of it. Apparently, a lot of couples propse at this point of the tour.

We stopped at the mirror pool, which was really beautiful.

You could see the water coursing along in streams along the cave floor.

We then came to an area called the waterfall, and we got out of the tram to take some photos.

The limestone rock in Barbados is very porous and fractured and contains many cracks and fisures that allow the water through. The water dissolves the rock as it flows through it and forms stream caves.

We were now coming to the end of the tour. It was a great tour, and Ashan was so energetic and made it very personal as he grew up in the area.

Following the cave tour we had a short walk around the gardens. We saw some banana trees. Once the trees have fruited they are cut down as each tree only produces one set of fruit.

We also saw a trumpet tree. These trees grow really quickly, several feet per year. The leaves can be made into a tea that is good for hypertension and diabetes and asthma.

The area above and around Harrisons cave is a protected area, and you are not allowed to build on it. The soil above the underground system is only a foot deep in some places.

We had a bit of lunch at the caves – just some veggie samosas and sweet potato chips.

After Harrisons cave, it was my turn to drive, and we headed east to Bathsheba.

Bathsheba is home to a small fishing community but is also popular for surfers and its rock formations.

We walked over to the soup bowl which is the famous beach for surfers. We watched a couple of surfers for a while.

We then walked along the coast to the famous mushroom rock. These rocks are coral rocks that have broken away from the coral reef and are then continuously undercut and eroded by the waves.

We had a little wander around the very small town.

From Bathsheba, we decided to head north to Animal Flower Cave. Unfortunately when we got there we found out it was closed on a Monday. So we decided to head to Holetown to do some supermarket shopping at Massies. The food was so expensive but we bought some bits for a salad.

When we got back to the apartment, we had a drink on the balcony as the sun went down.

Mags kindly made a delicious tuna mayo salad.

Today, we had planned to spend the day at Pier One in Port St Charles.

We set off mid-morning and walked from ours to Port St Charles as it’s only a 10 minute walk.

The sand and sea looked gorgeous, just like a picture postcard.

We wandered down the pier, but unfortunately, when we got there, they said they were fully booked. A lovely lady showed us around the area, and we booked it for Wednesday instead.

We decided we would find a spot on the local beach as we had all our beach stuff with us.

I did some snorkelling around the rocks. There were quite a log of fish, dome I don’t think I’ve seen before. I was going to film them but my go-pro froze again.

I definitely saw a few varieties of parrot and angel fish as well as blue tang, sergeant major, wrasse, sand tilefish, and possibly others too.

We had a lovely time in the water and sunbathing.

There were quite a few local families on the beach and a few chickens as well.

Early afternoon, we made our way into Six Mens for some lunch, back at Joan’s Snackette. They don’t normally serve food on a Sunday, but she offered to make us some burgers. They were absolutely delicious.

On the way back to the apartment, I made a new friend.

We had showers and got ready to go out as we were heading into Holetown for a karaoke night. We had been told to get there for 6pm as it got really busy. We stood at the bus stop, and the manager from the restaurant opposite suggested we walk to another bus stop down the road as more buses went past the one. It was just a short walk, and as we waited at this second bus stop, a guy offered to give us a lift into Speightstown as we had more chance of getting a bus from there on a Sunday. The guy’s name was Ryan, and he worked for the Ministry of Agriculture.

Just as we walked up to the bus terminal in Speightstown, our bus was pulling out. We quickly jumped on it and headed into Holetown.

In Holetown, we had a wander through the town. As it was a Sunday, all the shops were shut, but it was nice to see what was around. It was also a full moon.

We walked down to the beach and sat at one of the bars, Surfside, for a drink as the sun went down.

Karen and Mags had a delicious cocktail.

There didn’t seem to be much going on, so we headed back into town for something to eat. A lot of places were booked up, but there was an Indian restaurant, Sitar, that had a table. They actually had a private room for us.

The food was very tasty. After dinner, we walked back down 2nd street, and things had started to get busier. People were on the street, milling around and drinking, and some people were singing. One of the guys from the local bars near us, Dan,was also there, and he came and said hello. He is a bit of a character and can be quite intense.

But by now we were full and tired so we got a taxi back home.

Our taxi driver, Steven, was very chatty, and he gave us all a big hug when we got out.

As we sat on the balcony, drinking a cup of tea, it poured down – we were so glad we were indoors and not stood on the street in Holetown.