IMPRESSIONS OF JAMAICA DURING OUR ONE WEEK STAY

We think of ourselves as white liberals but the problem for middle class English people coming here is that we are pre-programmed by our upbringing and the media to think that people with a rasta haircut and a West Indian accent are potential muggers. When you consider that most of the local population fit that description then you can see we had to make quite a few adjustments!

Contrary to the views expressed earlier most Jamaicans are very friendly and keen to make you feel at home so one has to correct that innate prejudice and respond to their friendly greetings as you go about your daily routine. They do greet you on the street and they are happy to pass on information with the ready response “Yaman!” to anything you ask. There was one exception which I will come to shortly.

So we stayed at EL Greco, a complex of self contained apartments, 14 floors above the famous Doctor’s Cave Beach and ‘Hip Strip’. Nothing too lavish but it had cable TV, a fridge and cooker and air conditioned bedroom so we were pretty comfortable, though we had to wear an identifying plastic wrist band to facilitate security which became a problem later. The best thing was that we could jump in the lift and drop 14 floors and find ourselves right opposite the entrance to Doctor’s Cave private beach. Picture shows view of beach at sunset 22 and 23 watercolour of old houses.

We passed most of our week in Jamaica snorkelling, the reef was just a swim off the beach, quite an impressive range of fish to observe, and visiting local sights. On Thursday we hired a car with a driver for the day to see more of the inland Jamaica. It is very interesting as you can see from some of our pictures, mountains, farms with cattle and horse breeding, some poverty as you might expect but a wealth of different foods to sample. We tried Jamaican Apples, Ackee ( Picture of tree 25 and fruit 26 ) the national fruit of Jamaica, pepper prawns, jerk chicken and pork and some excellent baby bananas as well as Naseberries and Escoveitched fish. Most of the cooked food is spicy and quite hot but not unpleasantly so.

During the trip we went to the Black River in the south of the island where took a small boat upriver through beautiful wide plains and mangrove trees. Pictures of Breadfruit 27, Black River 28, Mangroves 29, Crocodiles 30.> We saw many wild and very fierce looking crocodiles and assorted birds and views of the distant mountains towering over the river plain, very beautiful and peaceful. We then drove on to the YS Falls, a very pretty and steep climb amid the rainforest to see 7 beautiful waterfalls, Sue swam in the waters under the waterfalls and John sampled the local brew. Pictures of Fruit Buying 31, Pepper Shrimp 32 and 33, 34 to 40 Falls and farms. It was interesting to see very pretty farms where they breed cattle and put racehorses to stud. We were surprised at how pretty it all was.

What is appalling though is the state of the roads. It doesn’t look as if the government spends any money on road maintenance so that on the minor roads we were constantly dodging very large potholes and in some cases areas where the whole road surface was washed away for many yards. Very tough on cars and we drove through Cambridge on the way back and stopped for Jerk Chicken on the way home Picture 42 Jerk Chicken stall and Cambridge.

On Friday of the week the weather was somewhat cloudy and wet so we walked into the local town of Montego Bay. This was a mixed experience as we were taken for a ride! As we came out of the local shopping mall a man approached John, shook hands warmly and said “ Hi I’m one of your breakfast waiters from your hotel, and I want to make your stay in Jamaica a very pleasant one. I always show our visitors the most interesting things in the town and make sure you don’t get hassled!” Whereupon he proceeded to show us all the local sights, “The Cage” where early slaves were locked up if they misbehaved, ( see picture of cage 41) a tour of the local church, then offered he offered us a beer and a blast of ganja!

Of course it turned out to be a scam, English people, being nice as we are, gave him a large tip as well as paying for his beer. He had only spotted us because we were wearing the wrist bands put on by the EL Greco resort so he pretended to know us! This was highlighted after we had got rid of him when we were stopped by another man with the same approach! It’s obviously a standard routine, but then you have to consider there’s a lot of unemployment and everyone has to make a living somehow. We did see many things we wouldn’t have done without his guidance and no, John didn’t try the ganja!

Anyway that was our week, better weather on our last Sunday, Sue got up very early to try the Jamaican religious experience at the very old and lovely St James’ church. Well she said it was amazing, the singing was beautiful and they had a steel band playing during the Communion! The welcome and friendliness of the local people rather restored her faith in Jamaicans, she was hugged by the Rector and had her name read out as a first time visitor and was applauded by the congregation!
Then we had a very pleasant afternoon on the beach looking at the fish on the reef.

Tomorrow, Monday we re-join Fred Olsen’s Boudicca for the next leg of our journey home. As for Jamaica, we enjoyed an interesting trip, variable weather which surprised us as we had expected unbroken sunshine, a bit scruffy, lots of litter everywhere and no great gastronomic experience anywhere so I doubt we will go again.

DAY 23 February 7 at sea on our way to Cuba.
John gave his first lecture on “The Buena Vista Social Club”

DAYS 24 & 25 February 8 & 9 HAVANA, CUBA Picture of ship in Havana 44.
Well Havana was very interesting. We were not sure what to expect, John thought it would be like a tropical version of Russia before the wall came down, but that was not the case. Yes, it is somewhat derelict in a lot of places but in fact there isn’t as much poverty as we had anticipated and although old American cars were in evidence there were also lots of small modern Fiats, Pergeots and Citroens and the people have started to operate small private companies. (Pictures of cars 49 and 50 ) So although most people work for the state they also operate small self sustaining businesses like second hand book selling and private shops. This is due to the fact the Castro no longer has an overall hold on the country, his younger brother Raol at 82 is now in charge and it is he who is relaxing the communist hold on everything. It’s our theory that in a few years, if the Democrats stay in power that the impasse with the US will be broken. Once that happens then no doubt the place will be dominated by Starbucks and McDonalds! That would be very sad because there is a charm about the lovely old buildings even though they are in a state of disrepair.

Our impressions were formed over our two days there when Sue and John escorted passengers on walking tours of the city of Havana the first day and explored the city with our friends David and Suzie Allaun. You can see some of our pictures of Cathedral Square 45 and we although we couldn’t find the original Buena Vista Social Club there were plenty of places where music was being played in the bars. One place looked as if it had cashed in on the interest and was putting on BVSC shows at night, Picture 46. One was the original old bar where Ernest Hemingway used to drink and eat, full of old photos and paintings. We walked in there just as a local band were starting up and enjoyed a mojito or two as we listened to the music of “Carrasco”. John had a request for his favourite ‘Chan Chan’ which they played to impromptu dancing!

No trip to Havana would be complete without a trip to the famous outdoor nightclub Tropicana, the show has been running without a break since 1939 to the present day. It is truly spectacular, one of the largest shows we have ever seen in terms of stages, sound and lights, A very spectacular show, much more technically sophisticated that we expected and it’s hard to describe how visually amazing it was with dancing and singing on stages on different levels. Pictures 51 and 52.

We travelled by coach with several hundred others from the ship to the venue which was about four miles outside Havana. It was an outdoor venue seating around 1500 people and by 9.30 it was full. As we sat, waiters poured everyone a glass of sparkling wine, then delivered a full bottle of local rum, one per four people! There was not however very much to eat, a few meagre slices of cheese and meat, no forks.

The evening’s entertainment started with a performance by a string quartet accompanied by electric bass and keyboards, they played for three quarters of an hour before the main show started. It’s not possible to describe it all except to say it was made up of a variety of song and dance routines by many dancers, some in scanty costumes, others in exotic extravagant costumes and we had never seen so many dusky buttocks on one stage! Perhaps the most spectacular act was by two athletes who did body sculptures, posing in a variety of positions, which was really amazing. All in all a very spectacular show of song and dance performed in a wonderful outdoor setting with very good music. Well worth seeing, once! See our pictures for an idea of what it was like, though because it was such a large setting it was impossible to take photos of the complete set.

DAY 26, February 10 at sea on our way to Grand Turk

DAY 27, February 11 Grand Turk
As readers will know we had been there before so nothing much to write about. It is one of the prettiest of the Caribbean Islands though this visit was somewhat overshadowed by the presence of P&O’s Azura, with 3,500 passengers who swamped the small beach. We managed to walk to a more isolated beach, Gibbs Cay for a snorkel, see painting, 53 and 54 and we did see a lot of very large and colourful fish.

DAY 28, February 12 at sea on our way to St Maarten.

DAY 29, February 13 Philipsburg, St Maarten.
Both of us were on escort duty, John on a lovely catamaran which sailed off to a good beach for snorkelling and swimming while Sue took a party to a local beach where there were plenty of water sports and a local lunch. On both trips there was an excess of Rum Punch which ensured that all the guests came back happy!
St Maarten of course is where we started this trip a few weeks ago and from here it’s a long cruise back to the UK via The Azores for a brief bunkering stop.

DAYS 30, 31, 33, 34, and 35, February 14 to 19 at sea on our way to Ponta Delgado
The nicest thing was Valentines Day, Sue wrote a special poem for JB all about our food odyssey on this trip and how she’d still like a little dog! John made no bones about the dog and went to art class to paint a very personal card for his valentine. It’s also worth mentioning that we saw some fabulous sunsets on this leg of the cruise, picture 55.

DAY 35, February 19 afternoon in Ponta Delgado, Azores.
Weather very nice and sunny, 19 degrees and a very smooth crossing of the Atlantic. Sue has gone escorting passengers on a tour of the island while John publishes this last chapter. It’s been a wonderful trip and we missed some horrible weather in the UK, now we are looking forward to getting home. To all our readers we say goodbye until our next travels where ever that may be. Bye for now.

DAY 1 JANUARY 16, ON ROUTE TO ST MAARTEN.
It was minus 3 degrees when the alarm went off at 3am on Monday 16 January. Off to Manchester airport on a very frosty road and all too soon we were in Paris at Charles de Gaulle. What a confusing and complicated airport that is. The drive from our landing point to the gate for our long haul departure took nearly as long as the flight from England. With a few minutes to spare we boarded our Air France Airbus and soon were on our way to St Maarten in the Caribbean.

Good trip, Air France took good care of us and after eight and a half hours it was wonderful to be on the Island where it was a pleasant 28 degrees and sunny. We boarded Fred Olsen’s Balmoral, a ship we were last on back in September 2011 so it was like coming home. Especially comfortable as we had a super cabin with a large balcony on Deck 9 overlooking the pool and performance area. The company had booked a local steel band to entertain so after being awake for nearly 24 hours Sue and I dozed off to the strains of Caribbean music. What a way to start a working trip.

DAY 2 JANAURY 17, TORTOLA
We have been here before so we knew we wanted to go to a local resort, Cane Garden Beach to swim, relax and get over the four hour time difference. The best laid plans of John & Sue were somewhat disrupted when it was discovered the silly older person had not packed his blood pressure tablets so we had to shilly shally about trying to buy some replacements at a local pharmacy. When we found the price was $75 for one months supply we settled on purchasing from the ship’s doctor! With that out of the way we caught one of the local bright open-air small buses to Cane Beach. Again the best laid plans were disrupted this time by the weather, which was not as warm as we had expected and there was a strong on shore breeze so it was warmer in the water than on our rented sunbeds! Disappointing, but we were cheered by a beach bar named after our favourite American gentleman, Stanley. Insert picture of my painting “Stanley’s Bar” served Rum Punch, Cold Beer and fried shrimp so we settled for that and John did a painting of it as a souvenir.

DAY 3 JANUARY 18, AT SEA.
Weather back to normal, sea a little choppy but this was time for John to “sing for our supper” by giving his first lecture. As the majority of the passengers appear to be in their mid sixties we settled on “ A History of Light Entertainment on the Wireless” for the first one and this proved to be the right choice. A good turnout of very interested attendees who asked lots of questions so this bodes well for the remainder. A chance too for us to relax later on our lovely balcony where we can sunbath in private and read at leisure. So far this feels like a good trip and already we have caught up with other lecturers from previous trips. Good sunset tonight.
The theme for dinner this evening is Indian so Sue is donning her sari and looking forward to a chapatti or two!

DAY 4 JANAURY 19, GRAND TURK AND AT SEA FOR JANUARY 20.
We are only here for the morning, sailing at 13.30 so we need to make an early start as we wanted to go to a local snorkelling beach, Gibb’s Cay, we visited last November. Sue has bought her own snorkel now and is keen to test it out.
This she did and we both had good views of the fish though we were surprised at how much colder the sea was than on our visit two months ago.
The ship sailed away at 1.30 as there’s a long haul to Key West in two days time so John did the Cliff Richard lecture in the afternoon and another on the following day. Weather was lovely, 29 degrees as we sailed along the northern coast of Cuba on our way to the USA. What a drama that is going to be as the immigration procedures for our 900 passengers are estimated to take 4 hours! The American department of Homeland Security has a lot to answer for in the way they make it so difficult for visitors to gain entry.

DAY 6, JANUARY 21, KEY WEST.
The ship docked at 0500 to start immigration. What a palaver, luckily we are on Deck 9 so were called fairly early, around 7.45 and were cleared after an hour or so but some of the passengers down on Deck 4 didn’t get through until 11.30 and as the ship sailed at 5pm they were not very happy!
We made the best of it by hiring bicycles, at Sue’s suggestion, and a very good idea it was too. Key West is very flat and once we got used to the funny American style bikes, (you have no brakes and have to back pedal to stop) we found it an easy way to get around and see the sights. Local Cemetery, Earnest Hemmingway’s house, Zachary Park and local beaches as well as all the shops and charming old style homes. It was a lot of fun and we finished up having an excellent late lunch of local oysters and shrimp on the charming old deck of Alonso Lobster House opposite the harbour where we looked at the expensive yachts and the pelicans.
The ship had to sail away at 5pm, as there is a bylaw that says no visiting ship is allowed to block the view from Mallory Square of the wonderful Floridian sunset. Any violation results in a very large fine for the captain.
To compensate for the aggravation as we arrived the crew offered free run punch to all the passengers as we enjoyed a sail away party on the rear deck right below our balcony so we were very happy people as we sailed into the Gulf of Mexico en route for New Orleans.

DAY 7, January 22 AT SEA
John’s highlight was to give his lecture on “New Orleans and All That Jazz” which he had written specially for this cruise and we were gratified to see a full house in the theatre where it was presented and it seemed to be much appreciated by our passengers.
The weather is now very hot, clear blue skies and around 32 degrees as we sail northwest towards New Orleans. We moved to another time zone during the night so gained another hour in bed and we are now 6 hours behind the UK.

DAY 8, January 23, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANNA
When we woke, quite early, it was dawn and we were steaming up the mighty Mississippi River, chilly and covered in mist as we approached New Orleans. We were disappointed with the weather after so much heat, but then realised we had steamed several hundred miles north so it should not have been a surprise. Not only was it around 18 degrees but also very showery when we landed. Being British we donned our waterproofs and set out on the free shuttle bus for the French Quarter and Café Du Monde for a welcome beignet and coffee. That’s where we saw the real evidence of America overeating! Mind you if we go on eating like this on the cruise we could finish looking much the same way. We wandered around happily exploring and revisiting old haunts and the rain cleared up. Eventually we found ourselves at the Acme Oyster House where we overindulged in delicious oysters, crab claws and yet more shrimp, just wonderful.
As the ship wasn’t due to sail until midnight we went back to the ship for a rest in the afternoon then it was back to town, dark by 6 pm, to sample New Orleans by night. The city really comes alive then and there is music blaring out from every bar. We really wanted to revisit the Preservation Hall so we queued for 45 minutes to get in as it opened at 8 pm and were lucky enough to sit through two sets until just after 10.00. It was really wonderful, great atmosphere and good traditional jazz played, as it should be, by excellent musicians. We were so thrilled we abandoned an evening meal, (we’d had that excellent lunch anyway and we put off by the sight of the fat man earlier) and eventually caught a late shuttle back to our ship. We arrived just in time to catch more jazz as the Cruise Director had booked another excellent local band to perform in the ship’s theatre. So we had another hour of great music before we toddled of to our beds as the ship sailed away. New Orleans is still a very special place and we were please to see the Hurricane Katrina had not spoiled the atmosphere of the city, we had another very excellent and memorable day. No lecture tomorrow so we can sleep in.

DAY 9 at sea, DAY 10, January 25 GALVESTON, TEXAS.
Weather is forecast to be very wet! John has tour escorting duties to the Johnson Space Centre at Houston while Sue is intending to explore the town.
We were somewhat late in arriving as the whole place had been fogbound all night and the Captain didn’t get clearance until 9 am. The weather was much cooler and not unlike a UK winters day when we finally did get ashore and John’s 130 people set off by coaches to the outskirts of Houston, about a 45minute drive away. Basically it is a space theme park with several interactive cinema displays about the past and current space programmes, exhibitions of moon rocks and mock ups of the international space station, space shuttle and so on. The highlight of the place was a “tram” ride outside the theme park round the actual working space centre. Here we saw mission control, exactly as we’ve seen in on TV so many times, the training areas where the astronauts work in full size mock ups of the international space station and practice space walks, docking manoeuvres and so on as well as redundant rockets, including Saturn 17 which was the last one, never used. Insert photos. It was very interesting though our tour was somewhat delayed by the really heavy rain and lightning.
While all this was going on Sue had to dodge the downpours and see what she could of the town. As you can see from the photos it was really a quaint old town, as she said “like something out of the wild west” with classic old buildings and almost deserted streets.
It was winter so perhaps we were expecting too much but it wasn’t a very exciting place and the scenery was very flat, dull and uninteresting. About the only thing that goes on there now is the construction of many oil-drilling platforms so there is a lot of heavy industry and we were not unhappy when we sailed away at dusk into a rainy Gulf of Mexico. Now it’s three days at seas as we sail south for several hundred miles to Jamaica and Montego Bay.

DAYS 11, 12 and 13 on the sea with two lectures during the journey.

Day 14, January 29, MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA.
This is where we leave the comfort of our lovely cabin and disembark from Balmoral for our week on land. The Tours office was short of escorts so Sue and I both went out on Sunday morning escorting passengers on a tour of two grand country houses, Rose Hills and Greenwood. These were the former homes of English landlords who made their wealth on the backs of large numbers of slaves who farmed the sugar plantations here on Jamaica. They certainly lived in some style and the homes were both elegant and large with wonderful views over all the land they owned. It was a very enjoyable trip and after a last lunch on the Balmoral we caught a taxi to our apartment block over the famous Doctor’s Beach where we intend to say for eight nights.

Since arriving we have explored a little and we are above Doctor’s Cave Beach, a local beauty spot as you can see from the pictures and there are humming birds around in the bushes, I photographed one.
That’s it for now, Jamaica is not the gastronomic capital of the world but the people are friendly and tonight we may try local delicacy, curried goat!

I will publish the rest of the tale when we get home on February 23rd. Watch this space.

AZURA at sea

Friday September 2

We are off again, this time from Southampton, on route for ports towards the Eastern end of the Mediterranean.

Azura is a huge ship, enrolled into the P&O fleet in April 2010 she carries around 3,500 passengers looked after by 1,500 crew so we were a little overwhelmed as we dragged our heavy cases on board in search of our cabin. (I should explain that as “crew” which we are designated we get no assistance with anything like baggage handling.) Our cabin turned out to be an inside passenger one up on Deck 12, pretty high up near the bows of the ship, although there are 18 decks in all so readers can see from the picture she’s something of a floating hotel, not the most elegant of vessels but very comfortable with many swimming pools, several different restaurants, open air cinema, 800 seat theatre and all the comforts associated with a P&O Cruise liner.

We soon found our way around though it was a little daunting each morning to face a ten minute walk from our cabin near the bows to the breakfast dining room near the stern. The sail away, scheduled for 4.30 was somewhat delayed due to a huge traffic accident on the A34 into Southampton and over 400 passengers didn’t arrive on board until after 6.00 but eventually we were off towards the Bay of Biscay. Thankfully it was a pretty smooth crossing and because of the size of the ship we felt little discomfort. I was scheduled to give a lecture every day while we were at sea at 3.00. Not a great slot once we get to warner climes as most people take to their sunbeds after lunch but I developed a gang of regular enthusiasts who seemed to enjoy my presentations. Technically the P&O ships are well equipped and so it all looked and sounded very good.

Monday September 5 Malaga, Spain

We passed through the straits of Gibraltar as the sun rose [/caption] As we passed a few miles off the coast of Estepona we telephoned Dennis and Barbara Jones (who were out) and Anthony Armitage (who was in) to tell them to look out for our large boat and then landed on familiar territory in Spain on Monday at midday in really lovely weather. It was a pleasure for Sue and I to spend time wandering round, exploring the old city, and Sue took lots of photos in case she has to do a port lecture on the city at some time in the future.

Malaga Roman Theatre

Malaga Street Scene

Then it was back to sea, more talks to give until the next port.

Thursday September 8 Cephalonia, Greece

By now we have somehow lost two hours in the time changes so I missed the “sail in” to this delightful Greek Island. My wife however was up early enough to take the photos you see here and we were ashore by 10.00, eager to find the location of the “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” film. Sadly for us it was over an hours drive away from where we were moored so we never found it.
Instead a very pleasant taxi drive drove us ten minutes to a beautiful bay, Plapi Yalo Beach, quiet and very uncommercial with warm seas, sunbeds and sunshades all for 3€ each. Good value we thought as we relaxed and swam,

Cephalonia coffee

Cephalonia beach painting

Sunset from "17"

No lectures for me now until Tuesday next week.

Friday September 9 Dubrovnik, Croatia

We took the complementary shuttle bus into the old town of Dubrovnik. It’s good that P&O provide these buses for independent travellers who don’t want to go on organised trips. There were several large cruise ships in town so it was very crowded in the city and we were somewhat overwhelmed by all the people as we queued for tickets to walk the city walls. No chance to use Euros as they have their own currency but we bought our tickets, about 9£ each and set off up the steep steps to the top of the walls. Well worth it though as you can see from my painting

John's painting of Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik another view of the city

Dubrovnik harbour

Dubrovnik Sue by harbour

Saturday September 10 Venice
.
We were both up early, just before 7am in order to watch the sail into the Venice Lagoon.

Venice dawn

Rialto Bridge

Venice wine shop

Venice sunset

Sunday September 10 Korkula, Coatia
Today we didn’t intend to get up so early but we were woken by the sound of the ship’s anchor being dropped. This pretty old medieval town is on an island and there is no mooring so all passengers wishing to visit had to be ferried ashore on the ship’s tenders, With 3,500 of us that took considerable organisation and it was accomplished pretty efficiently. It’s a very neat little place, one time home of Marco Polo according to legend and not changed a great deal in the several hundred years since he was there. Insert photos We wandered around like all tourists, enjoyed a good cup of coffee and then found a small rocky beach on the town outskirts where we enjoyed a relaxing swim in the crystal clear waters. I did a painting of the city

My painting of Korkula

Korkula sail away

Monday September 11, Corfu, Greece

Corfu citadel

Corfu street dance

Friday September 16 Vigo, Spain

Our last stop before we go back to the UK. As Sue has to lecture on this one in three weeks time we both opted to do tour escorting. I went on a coach tour round the town and its attractions while Sue went to Santiago di Compostella.
Not the prettiest of places as it’s really a very large port but it does have some attraction for us in that just behind the port is a very good area for buying and tastign sea food, particularly mussels and oysters.

Vigo Oyster lady

Good drive home via David’s in Sheffield for tea and another cruise successfully completed.

For new readers, when you last left us we were stranded in poor weather on the Island of Madeira on April 15 by the Icelandic volcano which had shut down most of the European airports. After several weeks we managed to return home to sunny Skipton via our Spanish house.
John’s heart condition was discovered in August and after recovering from that we were offered a five week cruise to the Caribbean on the MV “Marco Polo” operated by a company new to us, Cruise Maritime out of Tilbury. It was over the Christmas period but Sue’s daughter Georgie has become engaged to her Welsh boyfriend Sam Thomas and intended to spend Christmas with his family in Wales so we decided to try something different, Christmas in the sun.
As it happened the week before we were due to sail the UK started to suffer what was to be the coldest December since records began. Here’s a picture of John’s car outside his sister Vera’s in Sussex a few days before departure. So our departure from Tilbury on Monday December 6 was quite fortuitous.

Our first stop was Amsterdam where our 600 English passengers were joined by 200 Dutch passengers most of whom appeared to be heavy smokers and there was the first cause for complaint. There was little enforcement of the smoking areas and before long strong words were starting to be exchanged in broken English and Dutch! More of this later.
Sue and I enjoyed our return to Amsterdam, walking along the frozen canals, exploring the flower and bulb markets and even bought a poinsettia to make our cabin more Christmassy.

Next it was out across the Atlantic to the Azores, pretty grey and choppy seas which Sue didn’t enjoy though she did take the opportunity to play bridge every day. Of course with sea conditions as they were it was impossible for the passengers to eat out of doors on the sundeck so there was much more grumbling over the lack of seating, particularly at breakfast time. This was not helped by some of the Dutch who seemed to think it quite acceptable to use one chair as a seat and a second one on which to put their feet up!
Throughout our trip we were well looked after by our cabin steward, Saelesh, who not only kept the cabin immaculate but also entertained us by designing little works of art with the clean towels. The best one was a monkey who was left swinging in the roof of the cabin.>

No matter we soldiered on, John made friends with the other lecturer, Phil Giles a former RAF pilot now Air Crash investigator, they were both scheduled to give twelve lectures on the sea days over the five weeks of the cruise and they became partners in adversity as you will see.

The Azores was a first for both of us and we found it quite interesting, quite prosperous, tea plantations and lots of farming on these volcanic islands. There were some smelly hot springs with Christmas carols and a crib and very neat black and white buildings.

The weather was a little warmer than the UK and we enjoyed a hot chocolate in the town square and lunch of fresh prawns at a waterside cafe before sailing off for Antigua.
At sea we resumed our lectures and John was in the middle of one on the Radio 1 Roadshow when there was a loud bang. “I thought I had been shot at, was the content that bad?” he asked. No as it turned out the projector bulb had blown so I had to struggle on with no pictures. I should add here that the technician having set up the equipment never stayed for the performance so there was no chance of adjusting anything in the event of a problem!
We suggested to management that they might replace the bulb but it turned out that the ship didn’t carry any spares and the other projector in a different room was not interchangeable.
Another problem was that the scheduled Cruise Director for this cruise had a minor heart attack just before we sailed so he was replaced at short notice by a young singer James Hadley. A good singer but totally lacking in authority when it came to getting things done! His solution to the projector problem was to suggest that Phil and I should do our lectures in a much smaller room. Sadly this was too small for the number of people who wished to attend and some of the blinds were broken and couldn’t be closed so it was difficult to see what we on the screen. You may wonder why the blinds could not be repaired, so did we!
After much dithering and an exchange of emails between our ship and Tilbury it was decided that the wife of the ship’s owner would fly out to meet us in Antiqua with a replacement bulb. This being several days away Phil and I had an enforced rest from lecturing.

While all this was going on we became friendly with a couple of fun people, Freddie and Linda Packham. Freddie had owned a recording studio in Tin Pan Alley so he and I had many mutual acquaintances. He also had a bee in his bonnet about smokers not sticking to the ship’s rules so started a one man letter campaign to the ship’s captain to have the rules enforced. Sadly the senior officers were all Eastern European who didn’t speak a lot of English so I doubt they took much notice, though there were more “no smoking” signs on the sundeck tables after Freddie’s efforts.
Saturday 18 December, St John’s, Antigua, and we escorted passengers on a Jeep tour with lots of off road activity and good views of the island. Sunday 19 December Basseterre, St Kitts
Being Sunday everything was closed so we went to quite a nice beach, Frigate Beach, where we spent the day swimming in the very warm seas
Sue took a very nice picture of the pelicans there

Monday 20 December Castries, St Lucia & Soufriere
St Lucia had a famous “Big Bamboo” bar where a punch up developed between Dutch and English passengers arguing over space at tables! While that went on JB did a painting of the beach and we photographed a very nice sunset as local kids sang carols in the warm evening sunshine.
Wednesday 22 December Kralendijk, Bonaire
At Bonaire, Sue and I booked an excursion on a snorkelling boat and very entertaining it was, John tried his hand at capturing the scene in watercolours, after he’d got out of the sea of course!
Here’s Johnny with Freddie and Sue after her dip.

Thursday 23 December Willemstad, Curacao
Curacao was colourful and pretty and we took a bus tour which included a visit to the factory where they make the famous liqueur. The whole island though was very scruffy and strewn with litter.



Friday 24 December Oranjestad, Aruba
Aruba was like New York on sea. John hadn’t been there for over 25 years and in that time it has become a suburb of America. We went to a beach in the morning where the locals tried to charge us US$15 each for a sun bed and sunshade. We didn’t pay and as we left the beach at mid day the heavens opened to a tropical deluge that lasted for the remainder of our stay. The streets we flooded and we waded back to the ship, we were glad to sail away.

Christmas Day
We were at sea and the weather reverted to being rough, wet and windy. We opened our little presents to the sound of Christmas music off the iPhone in our cabin and went to a carol service in the theatre. The singing was led by Stevie one of the cabaret singers but the was no accompaniment at all, not even a piano which we thought pretty poor considering there was a house band on board.
Dinner that night was traditional with crackers, turkey etc but the Christmas pudding left a lot to be desired. They were individual puddings with white sauce which looked fine until you bit into them to find they was stone cold and hard as a rock. We would estimate that 99% of the passengers left them on their plates.

Sunday 26 December St Georges, Granada
Here our ship was dwarfed by a really giant cruise ship which moored alongside of us. We took a taxi with Linda and Freddie and found a really nice beach, Anse Beach where we stayed until sunset and Sue and Linda were very daring being towed in a “banana boat” at high speed behind a motor launch.

Monday 27 December Kingstown, St Vincent & Bequia, Grenadines
Bequia was lovely and so were the people, very, very friendly and not pushy. We escorted a party all over the island visiting the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary and afterwards our guide recommended a local restaurant where we could eat local lobster. This we did and after while waiting for the tender boat back to the ship Sue, Linda and Freddie went skinny dipping in the dark, warm sea!



Tuesday 28 December Mayreau, Grenadines
We were unable to land here because the seas were too rough for the tender boats to run us ashore.

Wednesday 29 Bridgetown, Barbados Barbados we enjoyed very much, more civilised and some nice beaches, cheap rum of course and after we had sailed the ship had to go back because of sick passenger so we lost four hours and the Captain had to put on full speed to get us to Madeira in time. We had a very good New Year, excellent dinner and cabaret, followed by much dancing til 2.am and a special buffet supper, see picture,

Freddie and Linda flew to New York for New Year, while we had a smooth and warm return cruise to Madeira, where we arrived on Wednesday January 5.
We thought better of it than we did last time we were there, the weather was much better and it was Three Kings day so the lights were on and we took part in a local tradition where they cut an enormous cake and give away cake and coffee to all. Lisbon was big and noisy, we took a train into town to explore and as we sailed away under the great bridge wind picked up to gale force and everything was battened down as we crossed the Bay of Biscay where it calmed down until we reached Tilbury. It may be billed as “London’s Sea Terminal” but it’s a very scruffy dump!

Home for only one week when our agent rang to see if we wanted to go to Rio on the “Black Watch”. Sue was somewhat uncertain about setting off again so soon as there was hardly time to do the washing and repack but as there were many places we both wanted to visit we decided to set off again.

BLACK WATCH, SOUTH AMERICAN VOYAGE
We flew out of Manchester on Saturday 22 January to Heathrow and from there direct to Rio de Janeiro. A starvation BA Flight as they set off an hour late and after serving lunch we had to wait over eight hours before we had anything more to eat and that was only a reheated frozen sandwich! We arrived at Rio somewhat tired and hungry but were pleasantly surprised to find all our four suitcases had also completed the journey and we soon met up with other entertainers and we were all taken by taxi to join the ship. By now it was 2.30 am UK time and we had been up since 0530 so you can imagine we slept well in our rather fine cabin, 5004.

Sunday January 23, Rio
Time for a brief explore of Rio and we hooked up with friends David and Jane Shute, another ex BBC man who had first introduced me to cruise lecturing three years ago when we met up in Sydney. They are good fun and we decided to spend the day on Copacabana Beach. After some serious negotiations we found a taxi driver willing to take us there and back and we were very impressed with the immaculate gardens and parks as we drove to the seaside past impressive views of the famous sugarloaf mountain and the statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking this very large city. The beach too was nice but we were unprepared for the number of people there. Literally thousands all crammed in and determined to enjoy the Sunday sea and sun. We managed to find a small space to park ourselves and while one stayed guard over our meagre belongings the other three swam. John decided to paint the scene too but even with all these precautions when we came to pack up we found David’s shorts were missing! How was this possible? Maybe while one of the local lads was showing an interest in JB’s painting to divert him, someone lifted them but it put a damper on the day as in David’s pockets were his camera, his spare cash and other odds and ends.
There followed a delicate negotiation with our taxi driver, who had returned as promised to collect us, but we were short of local cash with which to pay him! Luckily he accepted American dollars but David had to go to the local police station so as we sailed away though some impressive scenery, it was with a somewhat jaundiced view of Rio.

After two days at sea during which John did his first lecture we arrived at our next port.

Wednesday January 26 Montevideo, Uruguay
What a delightful place. We walked into town, around twenty minutes and passed through a very busy market area into the old city. Lots of small squares with statues and horse drawn carts collecting the town rubbish.Not too large, a strange mixture of old and new architecture and a super museum about gauchos or cowboys as we would call them. We’d made a picnic and ate it in one of the squares before strolling back to our ship which set sail that night. Here’s an example of that strange archtecture.

Thursday January 27 to Saturday 29th Buenos Aires, Argentina
We steamed up the River Plate and the high rise apartments stood out of teh flat surrounding countryside as we came in on Thursday morning. We had three days in which to explore this very large city, over 12 million people live in the area, and we did our best though it was very hot and humid. We explored by buying tickets on the open topped tourist bus which was sufficient to give us a good overview. Some very wealthy high rise contrasted with some down and out shanty hovels under a motorway. There were many fine older buildings too as well as the “pink palace “ from where Eva Peron had spoken to the masses and as featured in the film “Evita”. The cemetery too was impressive and unique, only the very wealthy can afford to be buried there and we did find the resting place of Eva Duarte/Peron.

We drove though vast parklands beautifully landscaped and well kept and saw many impressive statues and works of art. One which we liked very much was a giant flower made of aluminium which opened and closed as the day progressed. The area we likes best was La Bocca, reminded John of Camden Market, but with very colourful buildings and lots of outdoor cafes and market stalls. La Bocca had its origins in Italy and as this city was the home of the Tango dance there were many public performances on the streets. We went there specially on Saturday to have a local steak and watch a show. It was good but Sue really enjoyed a much more lavish production which she visited as part of an organised trip from the ship. Here we are in La Bocca

This is the Tango

and this is the real thing..

We started our visit by being somewhat sceptical about Buenos Ares but finished up rather taken by it. After three days we felt we had only scratched the surface and would certainly go back again given the opportunity to explore more of the many cultural activities on offer.
We were at sea for the next two days as we cruised another 1,000 miles south to the town of Puerto Madryn, still in Argentina. The temperature dropped and the wind increased to Gale force 7, so the summer part of the trip was over.
Tuesday February 1 2011 Puerto Madryn
What is there to say about Puerto Madryn? Not a lot, well it has its roots in Wales doesn’t that say it all? We didn’t get chosen to escort any tours so wandered ashore along the long mooring pier to a rather boring seaside town where many Argentineans go for a holiday. It was very windy so the sand was blowing everywhere and in the end because of it the Captain decided to sail early. Sadly his plans were thwarted as there were problems getting all the passengers back and the tide had changed so that we gangway wouldn’t reach the ship! We sailed southwards eventually into force 11 winds, dropping temperatures and a rocky couple of days.

Thursday February 3 Port Stanley, Falklands

Because of the sea conditions the Captain changed the schedule and decided to visit Port Stanley before the West Falklands and we were very glad he did as it has a shallow approach and landing was by ships lifeboats acting as tenders. Our first impressions were of the many colourful roofs on the scattered bungalows that made up the town and of the lack of trees. Low hills with very little growing and lots of surface rocks sticking up all over. Plenty of wildlife, dolphins leaping as we came in and many varieties of birds on the water.

With some other friends off the ship we charted a four wheel drive vehicle for a couple of hours and our driver took us to see penguins, turkey buzzards, local geese and all kinds of spectacular scenery, there were even dolphins leaping around as they herded fish. It was very special as you can see from the photos and it’s clear that the legacy of the 1982 Argentinean invasion in the shape of minefields everywhere has done much to protect the local flora and fauna.
When we had finished our taxi ride we explored more of Port Stanley, the local museum and the most southerly C of E Cathedral in the world where a we attended a short service of thanks for the rescue of the Falklands.

We also saw reliacts of the whaling indstry

We had not been expecting a great deal but in fact this proved to be one of the highlights of the cruise.
Next day we were at sea again as due to weather and wind it was not possible to visit West Falklands, so we are sailing towards Ushuaia, the most southerly town in the world.
Saturday February 5 Ushuaia As we sailed in it was somewhat reminiscent of our cruise from North to South Island of New Zealand, lots of pretty mountains but much colder and we could clearly see traces of snow left from last winter. The town itself, the most southerly in the world, is much larger than we imagined and was very much like any skiing resort in summer. Dusty roads and sidewalks, some in a rough state but there were plenty of summer flowers in bloom and it wasn’t that cold, around 8 or 9 degrees C.
Sue had a wonderful tour to escort which embraced an old railway, the National Park
and a Cameraman trip up the Beagle Channel. This is John’s water colour view of it and some of the sealions.

This is the aproach to the harbour, you can see the snow on the mountains, and a few other sightsJohn was supposed to go on a Jeep rough rider trail but it turned out there were too many passengers so no room for an escort so he too did the Beagle Channel trip looking at Rock Cormorant colonies and large Sea lions too.
We were both very impressed with the fabulous views and the wildness of the location, it is a unique experience to be this far south on the bottom of the world and we looked forward to Sunday when we would visit Cape Horn.
Sunday February 6 Cape HornWe woke early as there can be spectacular sunrises down here but sadly it was cloudy so we slept in till nearly 8 when the Captain announced that we would be at Cape Horn around 9am. He also announced that the wind was up to 70 knots so everyone had to “buckle up to enjoy the ride!” It was very bumpy but spectacular to go to the bottom of South America and see the horn and the most southerly lighthouse and it made us realise how brave the early explorers had been to get round it in these terrible conditions. Luckily our ship, the Black Watch, was strong enough to weather the gales. Here’s a selection of pictures taken as we sailed around the Horn.

On this picture you can see the most southerly ligthhouse in the world. After all the celebratory photos were taken the crew served hot pea soup and gluhwein to everyone and we retraced our steps up the Beagle Channel on our way to view some of the Chilean Fjords tomorrow. So many glaciers there it was impossible to count them. The Captain sent some of the crew to collect a sample of this very ancient ice and it was served in some quite old whiskey, wondeful! We were overwhelemd by the whole experience.> Monday February 7 at sea for our last day.

We arrived in Punta Arenas, another somewhat scruffy city, which claims to be the most southerly city in the world. We explored with friends, David and Jane Shute and tried on a few penguin hats which are everywhere. All too soon we signed off, said our farewells and checked into the Cape Horn hotel which proved to be very comfortable. It was up at 3.30 am to go to the airport and an unspeakably long series of flights via Santiago, Madrid and Heathrow so that we arrived home on Thursday February 10, tired and happy to be back.

What a great trip though, one of our best. Now it’s time to put up the feet and rest, no more cruising or blogs for a while!

Thank you for your interest and if you want to contact us about any of this the email is Johnny (or Susan) @johnnnybeerling.com

Needs no title, it's our Bernie!

On our hols!

In Marbella

Bernie and I first met in BH Foyer on 28 September 1957, we were fresh faced TO’s, he came from the GPO and I from national service. We didn’t speak much then but during the first week of our induction course we were in the Crystal Palace canteen when this miserable looking chap approached me, “Can I join you for coffee?” and that was the start of a friendship which lasted for 53 years.

I remember his early studio in his bedroom in Rochester Way, my then fiancée, Carol, made his curtains from Blue Velvet, he had a Reslo ribbon microphone, Vortexion 4 ch mixer and tape machine and we spent happy hours making our own radio shows.

In our early days we would skive off and monitor the Goon Show from 5 PP Control Room, and often went to live studio sessions, I remember specially Steve Race’s “Music about Town” with producer Johnny Kingdon in Aeolian 2, and Skiffle Club with Jimmy Grant, then as our careers developed we moved away from the control room. He became a very skilled XP Tape operator and editor, while I was an SM, frequently we worked together on Sports Report and Thursday Roundabout with Ken Sykora, there we all shared love of folk and country music, recording Robin Hall and Jimmy McGregor, The Spinners, Dot Y Pete, and so on. He was a big fan of Guitar Club and of course Saturday Club. Later we both became producers, I was in Gramophone Department and he went to Popular Music based in Aeolian Hall, Bond Street as Saturday Club producer. He took endless trouble with his recording sessions and this earned him the respect of major artists. Particularly Beatles with whom he became friends, he had a flat in Shepherd’s Market where they would often drop in, John Lennon in Andy Peebles’ interview before he was shot mentions Bernie with affection.

Bernie always inspired great loyalty from his female colleagues, Shirley Jones, Pan Tarrant and Pinky, and his artists, John Peel, Top Gear, Brian Mathew, Anne Nightingale and even Tony Blackburn on Top 40, but he felt resented by some of his colleagues in the Pop music dpt. because he was so fastidious in his work, taking a long time over sessions, often overrunning, and his closeness with the artistes caused resentment. Bernie was never afraid to stick his neck out, there was one year when November 11 fell on a Saturday and consequently the “Saturday Club” Programme had to include the two minute silence in memory of those who had fallen in two world wars. Bernie looked at the audience figures a few weeks later and noticed that, by some statistical freak, it appeared that the figures for the silence were bigger than those for the programme. He wrote a memo to Ken Baines, Head of Popular Music, in it he said,
“I think we’ve hit on a winner here. I am volunteering to produce the omnibus edition of the silence as a complete half an hour as it could get us very good figures! The consequent savings could then be used to increase the meager £220 a week budget which I currently have for “Saturday Club”.
Ken Baines, a man not noted for his sense of humour, was not at all amused and gave Bernie an angry bollocking for his tasteless idea!

Our professional paths separated when I became part of “hated Radio 1 management” which put me in a difficult position, he was not an easy person to manage, very individual and he had an idiosyncratic way of working, sometimes all night not days, in fact he could be very argumentative, an awkward old sod! He once staggered up to the fourth floor wearing flippers to complain to his boss Mark White about the damp in his office.
He even decorated his office himself to get it the way he wanted it complete with an aquarium, he worked as he wanted and was not a great Radio 1 team player and made his feelings about my chaps in their ice cream jackets very public! When reprimanded about broadcasting the dodgy lyric in the Rolling Stone’s “Star Star” he went to street to canvas pedestrians re their interpretation of the words as understood, he never backed down in an argument and never forgave someone who had crossed him. He could certainly be a stubborn old bugger!

In later years one of his joys was to listen to “Give us a clue” and he would record in duplicate on CD and DAT every edition to listen to again and again, he never lost his love of radio despite being a TV addict.

Bernie's red hot pokers in our garden

His favourite store in Estepona

With Keith Skues in Marbella

He was always careful with his money and loved to shop for a bargain, his favourite stores being Aldo and Lidl. It’s a little known fact that on the stock market shares in Lidl dropped ten points on the news of Bernie’s death. Not sure if they will ever recover! We even found one in Spain as you can see above.

We shared a love of Spain, where he had tried several times to settle but had always become frustrated with Spanish practices and the manana attitude to getting things done, like Telfonica not coming to repair his phone line quickly and he desperately needed a friend to share with but found it impossible to find anyone willing to put up with him, maybe because he was somewhat fussy in his habits. How fussy was he? Well put it this way, he owned a toaster but never used it and always did his toast under the grill because the toaster it didn’t cook both sides exactly the same.

However, he came to stay with me for several years running and at the airport I would push him in a wheel chair as we laughed about looking like Lou and Andy from his favorite TV Show Little Britain, “I want one of those!” Pointing at some silly unobtainable object. In Spain he became popular with my local friends in Estepona, Dennis, Barbara and Michael Roche, Roger and Sue Westoby, Jan and Mike and Tony and Vivianne. His favourite meal was a dorada on the BBQ with salad and loads of garlic.
He always intended to go back to Spain on a semi permanent basis, but like many of Bernie’s ideas he never quite got round to it, but he said to me in the Spring that he would not spend another winter in the UK, that proved to be only too true!

With my wife, Sue

In Estepona on holiday

Estepona Harbour

Where ever he is now, the struggle is over, he had a fascinating life, it’s a pity he never got round to writing the biographical book it would have been a great read. We shall all miss him very much. He was a great old bloke, a friend I could share anything with and I know my phone bill will be halved now I can no longer call him for a short phone call of an hour or so. Bye Bye Bernie.

At Roger Westoby's

With friend Michael Roche

In Estepona with Roger Westoby

At my 70th birthday with Phil Swern

With Maurice Boland at REM Radio

Ron, the man from Oz

Ron the true Brit

Ron, the man about town

Ron on holiday

In Estpona there’s a community of ex pat friends who meet socially on a regular basis. Some live in Andalucía permanently while others come and go with the seasons but over the years we’ve all come to know each other pretty well. Two special people in this group were Ron Storey and Janet, “Jan”, Garlick, both in the latter part of middle age, whatever that means these days, who had been together as a couple for the last four years. They were particularly popular due to their willingness to join in enthusiastically with any of our social activities, especially if it came to dressing up for a fancy dress part. One year Ron arrived at our house with a third leg announcing to the bemused Spanish taxi driver that he was “Jake the Peg”.
We were all delighted when a few weeks ago Ron announced that he and Jan were going to get married in Southport on May 8 and Sue and I made plans to attend the wedding along with two other neighbours, Anthony and Vivianne, who decided to surprise them by coming with us.
It was an awful shock when, one week before the ceremony was due to take place, we heard the tragic news that Ron had suffered a major heart attack and died. No more a celebration of a wedding but a celebration of Ron’s life at a funeral.
We will always remember this typical Yorkshireman, with his cry of “How Much” whenever he was presented with a bill and his twinkling eyes as he regaled us with the latest joke. He had a great sense of humour, loved comedy and on one occasion sat us all down after dinner to sit through a complete Dave Allan DVD that he’s picked up at a jumble sale for 2€’s. He couldn’t wait to share his enthusiasm with us all.
On the serious side he was a committed Christian with a love of the church and no mean performer on the electric keyboards. All of us will miss his straight talking and his love of life and our community is the poorer for his untimely departure. Our thoughts are with Jan at this awful time and we hope when things have settled down we will still see her back here as part of our community.

Namibian Dessert

Sandwich Harbour, 50km down the coast from Walvis Bay

Sand Lizard

Kyote in the sand

It proved to be one of the best things we have ever done. A totally new experience seeing things and sights we had never seen before. There are no roads as we went about 50 kilometres south of the town where our experienced guide showed us the salt pans, the wildlife, jackals and springboks, and did many exciting drives up and down the dunes. It was beautiful and culminated in us “sandboarding” like sledging but faster, down the dunes. Only problem was that my knees were dragging in the sand which wore two holes in my jeans. You can see some pictures of what it was like and altogether we spent five hours in the desert only returning as it got dark. A really wonderful day.

Sand Sculpture

Madeira

Funchal Floral Carpet

After a pretty rough couple of days at sea we arrived in Madiera just before mid day. It was Thursday April 15, a fateful day in aviation history as we now know, sadly we didn’t realise then how bad things were going to be in the Northern hemisphere.
The weather was unseasonably cool with rain showers and it was soon apparent that UK flights in and out of Funchal, the airport for Madeira were pretty well non existent due to the heavy discharge of lava from an Icelandic volcano. We offered to stay on Aurora to replace the new celebrity lecturer but that offer was declined and as we had previously decided to stay on the Island for a couple of days we were not too worried. We guessed things would be back to normal by the Sunday when we were scheduled to leave.
The ships agent arranged transport to a decent hotel and we settled in to look around Funchal, dodging the heavy showers. There were masses of flowers and floral exhibitions to see as it was the start of the Island’s flower festival. You can see some of these in the photos.

Friday was no better weather wise so any thoughts of going dolphin or whale watching were dismissed and we watched with some feelings of trepidation as we saw Aurora, our last link with the European mainland, sail away for Southampton. What to do then to fill our time? We took a local bus to Camara de Lobos, a pretty fishing village where Winston Churchill used to paint. It was however very cold in the wind so eventually we had dinner in a restaurant named after the great man, excellent fresh fish then it was another bus back to the hotel.

Camera de Lobos

It was however very cold in the wind so eventually we had dinner in a restaurant named after the great man, excellent fresh fish then it was another bus back to the hotel.

Saturday, the children of the island gathered at 9.00 to participate in a children’s flower parade through Funchal to the town hall where they were to build a “Wall of Hope” Sadly the weather was so bad at 9am that the start was delayed and eventually 1500 of them trooped off, following a horseman and woman, carrying their somewhat bedraggled bunches of flowers.

They made the best of it as you can see on our pictures.

Flower festival floats

Flower festival floats

Flower festival floats

“Please don’t book me officer I am used to Europe where it’s 120kmph and we are leaving the country tomorrow”

Common sense prevailed and we had a good chat and parted on good terms without a ticket which was lucky. He said he knew I was a tourist as when he flagged me down I turned on the windscreen washers instead of the indicator, it being the “wrong way” round on our hired Datsun.

We drove on at a more sedate pace. Our last stop was at a very rural chestnut farm, run by an ex Yorkshire man and his American wife. They cooked an excellent dinner for us and two other Canadian guests and we had a super last evening only to be woken by what sounded like an air raid siren. Next morning it was explained to us that it was the only way of summoning the volunteer fire fighters, we were worried in case there was a forest fire and we were about to be burned in our beds.

That was it, an uneventful drive to Auckland airport next morning and a great flight to Bankok, too long at 11 hours then an overnight in a nearby hotel before flying home.

In summing up we had a wonderful time, we drove 4258 kilometres or in English, 2661 miles, probably too much in 14 days and we should have had three weeks to give more time for relaxation, fishing and golf. The scenery is wonderful so are the people though it does look as if they have a passion for well kept hedges, even out in the country where they are 15 or 20 feet high they all appear to be well pruned. One other thought, it’s a bit like England 20 or 30 years ago with many of the better aspects of what we had then in terms of politeness but we did notie that their toilet rolls are very thin, at least they have toilet paper not torn up copies of the Daily Mirror!

Until we go again, goodbye from World Travellers, Johnny & Sue. March 8 2010.

Cray fish lunch on the ferry

Lunch at Clearview Winery

Art deco masonic hall , Napier

Electric scooter

We had a very restful time at Gorbay, walking and painting then it was time to move back to North Island. We set off early, stopping on route to see seals basking on rocks beside the side of the main road just past Kaikora, Sue would have stayed all day watching them play but we had to catch the mid day ferry from Picton. We had an excellent lunch on board eating fresh caught crayfish, well the locals call them crayfish but they were huge, more like lobsters as you can see in the photo. The weather was absolutely perfect, not a cloud in the sky all the day, the was scorching down and it was a pity when we landed that we had another 200 miles to do to reach our next B&B near Napier. It was something of a nightmare drive after the peace and quiet of South Island. We found ourselves in horrendous traffic jams as the evening rush hour was starting and we drove northwards on the main road only covering 80 miles in the first two hours so it took us until nearly nine in the evening to arrive in Napier. It was too dark to see our surroundings but it turned out to be a whole two bedroom cottage so plenty of room to spread ourselves. But our view of North Island is coloured by the greater density of population and the concentration of housing. Everywhere is so neat, trimmed hedges and lawns and nearly all the homes are single story bungalows.

When we woke on Friday we were able to see better where we were and get out to enjoy the delights of Napier. We started by driving up to the top of Te Mato ( was this the Maori for tomato?) the highest local mountain from where we could see about 40 miles in every direction. A local who had cycled to the top, they are fit out here, explained that in 1931 there had been a huge earthquake which destroyed Napier and Hastings. Unusually the whole area had been rebuilt in 2 years in classic Art Deco style which was well preserved today. We drove there to see for ourselves and found a delightful town with many beautiful buildings in excellent condition. We hired a bike for Sue and a strange electric powered scooter device for me with which we explored the seafront footpath. After all that excercise it was time for a late lunch and as Hawkes Bay is the home of New Zealand wines we went for a tasting as one of the better wineries, Clearview, which has the unique situation of being right on the beach. I enjoyed one of their best bottles of a wine called “Old Olive Block” which was great but sadly not available in the UK, all the wine from Clearview being sold in New Zealand. That was our Friday, now we have to move on during Saturday to be near Auckland and the flight home on Sunday.

Jet Ski ride

View of Mount Cook

Up early as we had a longish drive and wanted to get a good look at Mount Cook from this side in the early morning sunshine, it looked just great as you can see, inspiration for a future watercolour painting when I get more time.

We had another great scenic drive and the highlight was a high speed trip on a Jetski power boat up the Rakaia Gorge with driver Blair who really showed off for us in a ride that lasted 45 minutes, a really thrilling ride culminating in a 360 degree high speed spin on the fast moving Rakaia river which drenched us but we really didn’t care.

Drove on after our riverside picnic though the Canterbury Plain which is much less spectacular than the remainder of NZ, very reminiscent of the UK, fenced fields, trimmed hedges and plenty of sheep and cattle. We were not sorry to get past that 100 or so miles and motored north to Gore Bay, a lovely B&B by the sea where we shall stay for a couple of nights.