Paradise Continued

Quick telephone call to reception and we were out the door champing at the bit. First stop.. Dodgy Dock, the on site restaurant… where we had an excellent lunch….. Caesar salad with grilled chicken for me…. Shrimp Alfredo pasta for Mike followed by home made ice cream.

The restaurant is right on the water looking out over True Blue Bay…. Three catamarans sat dancing on the water, a frigate bird soared in the thermals out at sea. The warm breeze billowed and Calypso music filled our ears.

Across the bay a large concrete looking apartment building sat incongruously against the blue sky….but at this moment in time all is right in the world.

Lunch over, we made our way back to our pod via the bakery where we purchased fresh bread and guava jam for our tea.

The site is a labyrinth of paths but well signed. We have a pool at the front and back of our pod, the back pool looks like it is deeper and would be good to do laps in, if I was so inclined. Taxi ordered we asked to be driven to the local shopping centre….the vehicle that showed up is air conditioned with doors that close themselves.

Our driver sprayed our hands with anti bacterial liquid before we got on our way and was chatty and engaging on our 10 minutes drive to the shops.

It was very busy, everyone wore masks and before you entered a shop you had to fill in your name, address and telephone number on a list and your temperature was taken. (remember those times at home?)

Supplies bought we went in search of a pharmacy so I could buy something for my poor right hand as it hadn’t faired well with Antibacterial products! That bought we then looked for our taxi driver in a sea of vehicles, all to no avail! So back to the resort in another vehicle.

Air con on in our pod, our balcony has full sun by around 2pm. Time to catch a few rays, lots of sun cream on..siesta time!

As you can see having a nap in the afternoon on Monday didn’t help me to stay awake later on in the evening…. 8pm and I’m dead to the world….Still on UK time… and now I’m awaiting the break of dawn.

Breakfast time Tuesday ….. we take a short cut to the restaurant along the water front…..guava and pineapple juice, coffee…no yoghurt so I had omelette with mushrooms, peppers and tomatoes and toast again.

There doesn’t appear to be many guests here, we sit where we want in the restaurant. The bay seems a little busier, I can see signs of life on one of the boats and can hear the outboard engine of a small craft but other than that life seems to be suspended!

Walking back to our pod along the board walks via the water front, above the rocks, blue buildings appear to cling to the vegetation a few metres above our head and as we round the bend to the Aquanauts club the sounds of daily life assault our ears as people get ready to scuba dive or spend time on the water.

Later on in the morning we swim in the pool behind our pod. The water is warm but it takes Mike several minutes to be fully immersed as he thinks it’s cold.

I chat to a man who came here on a boat in 1980 and stayed. I got the impression his work has been onboard yachts since then but the pandemic has put the company out of business and he is looking around for other work. He’s not a young man anymore, hopefully he will be successful.

Mike and I fantasise about living here 3 or 6 months a year! Sounds like heaven to me!

Lunch is banana on toast for me, toast and cheese for Mike. The heavens opened later on in the day, huge dollops of rain fall from the darkened sky. Water seeped through the balcony cover and down the wall outside our balcony door, the balcony furniture got wet and I had to move towels and swim wear, which has been drying, inside …….and then the sun came out again the air is fresher and the day continues as if it never happened.

We have an early dinner at the Dodgy Dock, my starter is a Pina Colada followed by Barracuda with Rice n Peas and sautéed vegetables (mmmmm butter! Not had that for a long time) the music playing is all 70s stuff and we remember past times as we try to guess who the artist is…. Joan Baez, Paul McCartney, Sweet, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor…. Excellent stuff…. they cater well to their clientele, who are our age or above.

The sun sets and the night closes in. 6 pm and it’s dark here. Perhaps because it’s early in the evening, there is little foot traffic on the way back to our pod but our ears are filled with the sound of….. what?…..it’s all around us but I can’t see anything in the vegetation which surrounds our walk back.

At first I thought it was some kind of alarm going off! But as we walked further into the night the sound is prevalent. Google informed me that the Johnstone’s whistling frog and the Highland piping frog are nocturnal and live in the trees here and after heavy rain their chirping intensifies but once we are in our pod we can’t hear them.

Mike is having problems with mosquito bites and although I spray him with Jungle formula every evening he has not been able to evade the little critters and I am now using Bite and Sting roll on him. I wonder if it’s the fact I have an anti histamine tablet every day that I don’t seem to be bothered with them. I have been bitten but up to now the bite sites aren’t sore. I do use the Jungle formula in the evening though.

Don’t manage to keep awake much after 9pm but it is an improvement, you never know by home time our body clocks may be in sync with Grenada!

Katie Crunch