Cruise - St. Kitts #5.....

It took Captain Charlie three attempts to dock at Basseterre Harbour, St. Kitts, not because he's not very good but because the weather was atrocious! Yep, you've guessed, it was raining! We had booked a trip leaving at 9 a.m. but because we didn't actually dock until 10 a.m. we were booked onto the later one, after lunch.

We had breakfast and spent the morning reading in our cabin, except for when we nipped to the onboard shop to buy raincoats. Up to now it had rained almost every day so we thought it might be prudent to have raincoats ready! After lunch we disembarked to meet the bus to take us on our trip to St. Kitts Railway for a trip round the island. The bus driver, Joseph, was very friendly and informative, pointing out places of interest on the one hour bus trip to the other side of the island where we were to board the train.   Joseph told us he used to be a firefighter but because he was 60 years old they had retired him, but he still needed to work so had taken a job as a tour guide and was really enjoying meeting so many different people from other countries.

Joseph

 We arrived at the point where we met the train, which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, and then we heard it trundling down the track.  It was very colourful and we were allocated carriages according to our bus number, ours was number 3.    We sat up top in the observation car, which thankfully had plastic sheeting to protect us from the wind.    It had stopped raining by this point but the skies were dull.   The train was an experience - very noisy and rattly (is that a word?) as it trundled through what had once been sugar cane plantations, now no longer because sugar became too expensive to process.    The main source of income of St. Kitts now is tourism though Joseph told us that the people of St Kitts were really hoping for someone to invest and really do something with the vast expanse of sugar plantations.     

There was a conductor on the train who very kindly allowed me to take his photograph and there was also a lovely lady who distributed soft drinks or rum punch if that's what you wanted.   We had the rum punch which was delicious!    There was also a trio, consisting of a man, a woman and a young girl, going from carriage to carriage singing a couple of songs to entertain the tourists.

I took some photos, which I've put in this little slide show, so you can see just how green St. Kitts is and the dismal weather didn't detract from the beauty of the place.

Whilst getting showered and changed for dinner we listened to O(cean)V(illage) Radio each night from 5 pm - 7 pm and sometimes they had competions where you could enter by ringing them from your cabin.   This particular evening the competition was 'guess what programme this is the music for'.   Right away I knew it was 'Dynasty'!   I phoned my answer through and guess what - I won!    The prize wasn't another cruise or anything like that it was just a 'Mega Share-Me Cocktail' which I have to tell you were like goldfish bowls!   Tom, a member of the events team that was broadcasting that evening, wondered if we had a balcony when he realised we were on A deck so he said over air "I'm coming to deliver this prize, can I see your balcony?".   Five minutes later he was knocking on the door of our cabin and I invited him in for a tour.  He was so enthusiastic and asked if he could report back on air, "Of course" I said.     A few minutes after he left he was raving on air about our spacious cabin, the balcony, the bath - "I thought only the Captain had a bath" he said.  

That evening we ate at The Bistro again and a gastronomical delight it was.  Just to tickle your tastebuds here's what we had:

Me: Spicy Crab and saffron linguini with chilli oil/Fillet of beef with buttered spinach and pommes Anna and a selection of vegetable/Iced lemongrass parfait with mango and chilli.

MWM:Spicy Crab and saffron linguini with chili oil/Rack of lamb with Procencal vegetables and chateau potatoes/ Sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce and vanilla bean ice cream.

The show that evening was a local Reggae Band who were so very good lots of people got up dancing in the Marquee, including MWM and I.    The party carried on in the Bayside Club later so we went along and boogied the night away.

Our next stop was Antiqua, I  hope you'll join me.