It was a record night for rain battering down on the tin roof of our room, sounding like someone trying to break in. Once the day starts, the rain tends to be more intermittent and so we decided to walk the six miles into the capital Roseau and dodge the downpours. It was mainly downhill as we are 300m above sea level, but there were a couple of challenging inclines to keep us on our toes. Wildlife kept us entertained, land crabs, goats, cows, but little else. Did the animals run away from the rain of Noah's ark?
Ant did find the steep downhill parts a challenge in flip-flops and so walked barefoot. He has loads of shoes but none on this trip!
We met some really kind people en route offering free lifts, or buses or just saying hello. We think that travellers walking here is a novelty. We sheltered from downpours in peoples' garages and lean to's, which is where we met our favourite contact. He was building a 'shopping mall' in his garden from tin sheets and bamboo, on a sharp bend. He'd clearly forgotten the adage location, location, location. Westfield can sleep easy. He did, however, pass on some useful advice. Always cut your bamboo on moonless nights. Thus preventing them being infested with worms. The same applies when taking your worming medication, if you want to be rid of them in one purge. On that advice alone, we will probably avoid the restaurant he is planning on opening in his garden sized mall.
We also met with some huge downpours, Gill's umbrella came to the fore and it saved her from the indignity of yesterday's soaking. It also doubled as a sunshade in those rare dry moments.
Finally the sea and town came into view. Sadly the view of the Caribbean was blocked by the monstrosity of P&O's Azura towering over quaint little Roseau.
We had been forewarned and to be fair we didn't get mistaken for cruisiee's they were old and clean and cheap, we were young and soaking and looked like we'd been dragged through a hedge backwards. Ant expressed surprise that the cruisiee's weren't all dressed up, he had assumed that everyone on a cruise wore linen, duh!
Roseau is a lovely little town, and is amazingly friendly and non threatening, in a way that some other Caribbean towns haven't been. It is a gorgeous mix of tumbledown shops, shipping agents, and women selling lettuce and tomatoes from the back of their pickup trucks. The streets are a mix of wooden and brick built houses, many with porches and balconies, we had a lovely morning running errands.
Two streets from the port, the influx of cruisiee's is felt in their version of Caribbean life, duty free shops, pirate bars and masses of taxi drivers offering trips to the rainforest. However, we didn't let this spoil our fun and we even went to look at some watches!! Weather at the coast is drier but still changeable and it hadn't finished with us yet. When it rained we loved watching the cruisiees scuttle back to the safety of their ship as if they were under fire from the locals.
We had long decided that we weren't going to walk back and so feeling like locals who know their way around town we piled into a dollar van. It was however, a club class van, complete with DVD playing reggae full blast. It was a fun ride and a lot quicker than the walk down. These vans provide a great social service, dropping people outside their doors with all their shopping, or dropping off parcels. It dropped us at the hotel door for less than a £1 each and that was tourist price!
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