Another day, another island, another country, another tour. We thought St Lucia was our favourite island, but now Antigua, we think, is the best. Jean has a colleague whose uncle owns a resort here. And the singer, Eric Clapton, owns an excellent property on the island. If it's good enough for these guys, it's good enough for us. Antigua, like Granada, Barbados, and St Lucia, is hilly around the shore line. But I was pleased to find that driving inland does not mean constant driving around windy roads, which, on the other islands, was annoying. There is more development here, and it just seems nicer. The national bird is the frigate bird. You should google it. A flock of frigates fluttered above our ship as it cruised into St John's this morning. The frigate looks intriguing, reminding me of the pre-historic pterosaurs. Our guide, Danna, said the male is prettier than the female.
Our tour was interesting, taking us from the capital, St Johns, in the northwest of the island to the south. We stopped first at Fort Blockhouse, where there remain ruins of an old fort, dating back to the 18th century rivalry between the French and the British and the need to protect the sugar industry. You could see Eric Clapton's house from here.
We next pulled in at Shirley's Heights lookout which offers very good views of English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour. In this vicinity are excellent resorts, we were told. Soon, we stopped at Nelsons Dockyard, named after the famous British naval hero, Horatio Nelson.
After lunch, Jean and I walked into town.
The barrel cactus
In the bar at Nelson's Dockyard
No comments:
Post a Comment