Paradise here we come! Katie tells all.

Mike and I have been up the past hour sitting outside on the veranda. We are staying overnight in Grenada at Lester’s house. (Mike is Lester’s cousin).

The house is a beautiful bungalow built on a slight hill, the veranda looks over a small golf course, the grass is brown and dry.

To the left, the view shows the ocean with lots of buildings in between.

The covered veranda is about 4 to 5 meters deep and takes up half the house, it is filled with strong well made Wicker furniture and lots of cushions.

There is a day bed in the corner, (Mike has just gone to get a bit of shut eye on it having just watched an episode of House of Cards on my iPad with me )

This used to be a 3 bed roomed house but when the kids left Lester made the two smaller bedrooms into one which he uses. The other bedroom is vast and has two double beds in it.

We are sharing the room tonight with Auntie Jaqueline and Allen, a first for me. ( I’d been dying to pump all night but had to hold it in.).

Lester has 3 Labrador dogs; lean, well natured and young (the youngest not yet a year old). They are not allowed in the house but it is evident they have been in as some of the veranda furniture has dog hairs all over it. The property is fenced with a remote controlled gate and gardens to all sides so the dogs live outside.

Lester took us out to eat earlier, we had Crab Back (crab shell filled with crab meat mixed with herbs and breadcrumbs) with garlic bread, then fish with sauntered potatoes and mixed vegetables…delicious! I also had a light beer.

It’s just gone 4 am and in the distance dogs have just started to bark again, the crickets have stopped chirping but the wind is still blowing a warm breeze catching the wind chimes.

Earlier in the day, when we were all together, we’d been sitting here on the veranda chatting. We soon had company when a Blackbird and it’s young flew on to the veranda looking for food and seemed totally unfazed by our presence.

The sun slowly moved down the sky towards the horizon filling the veranda with hot hot heat. We all moved furniture around to take us out of the sun, my feet had swelled after the long flight. But now it’s just perfect, the occasional fly dancing around my iPad screen. I am looking forward to going to Carriacou later today (the boat ride is two hours long).

I’ll love you and leave you now, feeling a bit sleepy myself.

We headed out to catch the boat for 9am, with Lester, Aunty Jaqueline and Uncle Allen, Lester was coming over to Carriacou on Friday. The boat was small, seats in rows on the bottom deck with windows at the side and seating around the side of the boat on top. We all started the trip on the top deck with a view to going below if it got too rough, Mike and I had taken travel sickness tablets so I was feeling quite confident.

The sky was grey with black clouds over the interior of the island and as we set off buildings soon turned into walls of lush green trees peppered with houses. Aunty Jacky and Allen soon went downstairs but I felt comfortable where I was. At first the sea was reasonably calm, I was amazed to see flying fish, I thought they were birds but within seconds it dawned on me exactly what they were and I was like a child, all excited at seeing such an unusual thing (unusual for me but quite common I suppose here).

The trip continued and the sea got a bit rougher, we were near the front of the boat so only got an occasional splash. The boat travelled up the coast of Grenada and once in open sea, after about an hour, the sea got rougher and rougher. Mike had travelled this way many times when he was a boy so he knew what was to come. The stairs for bottom deck were at the back of the boat and by now Mike didn’t think it was safe to be walking anywhere on top so we stayed put.

The first wave of sickness came over me and I was conscious of other people around me so I took large gulps of air, fighting off the wrenching coming up from my stomach, and kept hold of the hand rail. Mike could see I wasn’t doing too well so he held on to me tightly. Another 15 minutes past by and all thoughts of other people had gone and I was very ill over the side of the boat.

By this time we were also getting wet through as the boat swayed from side to side and up and down (just thinking about it is making my tummy feel queasy ). Apparently one of the staff came up top and helped people to go below but I wasn’t aware of this, I couldn’t move, I just focused on trying to keep my head still as every move took the contents of my stomach up into my mouth, the best thing for me was to stay in the open air.

(Thankfully there were no photos of these events. Ed)

Mike let me know when Carriacou was in sight and eventually I realised the boat was no longer moving.

Time to get off…..which I eventually did with help from Mike (all I wanted to do was lie down). An Angel in the form of Denise, Mike’s cousin, took charge of me and let me sit in a vehicle whilst the luggage was being sorted out. Mike, Jacky and Allen took off to walk up to the family home and Denise led me to an apartment just off the jetty where I took off my wet clothes, had a quick shower and lay down on an enormous bed to sleep.

We had arrived in Carriacou, I had survived the two hour boat journey,

I never want to get on another boat again!!!

Later,
Katie Crunch!