Day Eight – 27th May 2017 – “Crash? What crash?”

We awake with a full morning available to us. We wash and then go down to breakfast. You would never know there had been a BBQ on the beach last night. We totter into the buffet area and grab juice - waxed apple is quite good, as is wild cherry. We both have cereal. Then it’s a Full Monty for both of us. We admire the view and imprint it on our memories. There are a group of Scuba Divers leaving from the beach. What a beautiful day:



We have completed our packing – all precious souvenirs carefully wrapped in dirty laundry! The morning is ours.



It’s at this point Darrin reads the messages and news on his phone and we discover that British Airways has had a computer crash.



What to do? We start planning. An extra night at the resort? It’s end of season so shouldn’t be a problem. An extra day’s car hire – that should be fun to organise if we go by last week’s collection. At least we can go for the EU compensation (Euro 600 each!) Will call the insurance company later. No chance of getting through to BA.

We go into the front desk room and they are aware of what has happened. It would seem that our plane left Gatwick 30 minutes before the crash and is expected to be on schedule for our flight back to UK at 18:55p.m. Darn – I was hoping for an extra day in Paradise. Well you win some, you lose some.

We decide to pop up to Massy Big Store which is just up the road towards Rodney Bay.



When we get inside we could be in a branch of Costco. Massy run several branches throughout the island but this is the big boy. It even has a branch of the Bank of St. Lucia inside it and there is one heck of a queue waiting to do transactions.

We push our trolley up and down the aisles. I always enjoy just looking at stuff that is different to what we have in our shops in the U.K.





Of course they have brown and white goods but when I see a top loader washing machine at EC $ 2,400 my mind does a conversion. At 2.69 to the US $ that’s over US $800 and £ 640 in real money. Now how does the average St. Lucian afford that without getting seriously into debt? I can see the people of Cap Estate (where Jack Nicholson has a place) affording it but the average St. Lucian ?

We do treat ourselves to a shower curtain which will remind us of the amazing flowers of this Island.



It will certainly wake up Darrin every morning!

I wish I could get Bougainvillea to grow like it does in the Caribbean. They have pots of it on sale but, of course, I can’t bring back to UK.



Out there it is like a weed. In Harrow it struggles at best.
We pick up various other bits and bobs and then head to the registers. We are the only white people in the entire place but we get great smiles and some Good Mornings. These people are so friendly in the main.

We head back to the resort and as we still don’t have to check out until 12 noon we head for the pool. One last swim here before we head off to the airport.



We eventually put our cases in the car and then head to lunch. We opt for salads and cold meats. I feed the pregnant pussy some bits of ham after the meal. I’ll never know what kittens she will have.



Time to start saying goodbyes to people. When we arrived last week we witnessed members of staff being hugged by guests. Now it’s our turn. They have just been such a lovely bunch and in one week we have made great friends amongst the staff. I feel quite tearful. Carole, Carinda, Greg, Joseph, Yolande…..there are quite few to bid goodbye.





We head to the Port Clochere. Once again, Benny, the doorman and car valet, produces iced flannels and bottles of water. We shake his hand and bid him goodbye.



We drive towards Castries but will circumvent the capital town. I should mention fuel on the Island. It produces none of its own and so has to be imported – some 15,000 barrels worth each month. This comes in through Castries port where there are huge storage facilities:


(Library picture)

It’s also worth mentioning that there is little dairy production on the Island. All milk is imported, mostly by Nestlé and it is all UHT. You see the odd cow tethered in fields but this will be for a family, certainly not any milk cooperative.

To get out of the Castries area you have to pass through a tunnel under the mountain.



It reminds me of the Saltash tunnel that you pass through once you have traversed the Tamar bridge into Cornwall.

Then you are on the Millennium Highway. This title makes me laugh. I say to Darrin: Which Millennium?



We are lucky it has tarmac! It certainly comes with the obligatory stray goats and dogs and the craters of the moon pot holes! We pass by many banana plantations – one in particular has notices proclaiming they grow for Sainsburys. As you pass from the Castries to Dennery area you are on the Micoud Highway. You wind your way in a general south direction passing through Praslin. We stop for a moment to get this wonderful view.



The Micoud Highway continues down through Mon Repos (Isn’t that a name some folk have on the homes?) and to Hewnorra Airport (it means Iguanas if I haven’t mentioned it before) in the Vieux Fort district. The area is named for an old fort on a promontory that used to protect the southern waters of St. Lucia in days of yore. St Lucia’s motto is “The Land, the People, the LIght”. It was named by the French when they first invaded and it is also known as “Helen of the West Indies” – a reference to Helen of Troy who was fought over by competing countries. On 22 February 1979, Saint Lucia became an independent state of the Commonwealth of Nations associated with the United Kingdom.

Darrin calls in at a garage opposite the airport to top up the tank. You are not allowed to pump your own fuel here.



It's almost 35 1/2 gallons @ Eastern Caribbean $ 2.61 per gallon. 1 gallon = 3.78 litres. So just over £1 a litre.



We have the car to return and this takes some 20 minutes. It’s a different woman than when we collected it. She does an inspection and then promptly asks Darrin where the mat from the driver’s foot-well is. Darrin was not aware there was one in the first place. She then tries to contact her head office in Castries but to no avail. In the end she says the account will be “left open”. I have been sitting in the departures hall with the luggage all this time. We will be contacting Avis on return as we have some issues about the rental car not least the fact that the rental agreement states 54,000 miles on the clock when, in fact, it actually reads 74,000 ! It was a Kia Sportage but during the week I referred to it as the Kia Sabotage!



I spot this notice on the wall.



They don’t mess about here do they?
We check in. This has to be manual because of the BA system failure and boarding cards and passenger list are completed by hand. This takes considerably longer than scanning a passport in a reader.




We are handed an invitation inviting us to use the Iyanola Executive Lounge. We then have to pass through Immigration – once again the bullet proof from kiosks have no backs on them! They remove the little white slip which was at the bottom of the Immigration / Customs form we handed in when we landed. Next is security – we have been warned. It doesn’t matter if you are wearing flip flops or Doc Martins. They all go through the scanner – no exceptions. They do a thorough job for which we are grateful and they are pleasant about it.

We make our way up to the lounge for a much welcome glass of fizz. We have about an hour to kill before boarding.





We get chatting to John, a chap who is British but lives on St. Lucia. He has a foot wasting disease and is flying to London for private treatment. He has seen Doctors in St. Lucia but they have no idea what to do and the nearest “proper” hospital is in Martinique – an hour’s flight away. He is a pleasant guy and we while away our wait discussing all sorts of stuff.

Time to board Flight No 2158.



As you pass through the gate you are outside on a communal path which you walk along until you reach the tarmac of runway. Up a flight of steps and into the aircraft.

There are already people on board. They have come from Grenada. Considering all that has been going on with BA today we are lucky to depart ten minutes later than scheduled.
We are hungry and once in the air they come around with the drinks and snacks.
Dinner follows – we both have the same –
Procuitto with pickled Bosc pear, rocket salad, black pepper and red wine reduction:



Ricotta and spinach filled breast of chicken with potato au gratin, sun dried tomato sauce and green beans.



Mango and vanilla mousse with mango coulis and fresh mint.



Coffee follows.

No films tonight – we both settle down and get some 5 hours shut-eye. The flight coming back is only 7 hours as opposed to 9 hours on the way out. Those tail winds are certainly strong across the Atlantic ocean! 4225.29 miles.

We arrive back at Gatwick at 8:20a.m.



Once through Passport Control (automatic) and Customs we head to the Long Stay car park to pick up our vehicle. We are in the door at home by 10:30a.m.

It’s been a great experience and we do want to go back. Thank you Sunday Times Travel Magazine for this amazing prize. Lots of memories to cherish.

St. Lucia seems so far away now:





We bought this small painting:



I'm back on that beach every time I look at it.







INDEX: https://DIBB.in/12539741

Not a bad end to a great holiday but I'm sure an extra day would have been most welcome

Great holiday... another day would of been fabulous...🙂

Thanks for sharing. 😘

Geoff. Well a great holiday and as you say all thanks to reading a newspaper and entering a competition. I suspect you were actually glad to fly that day as opposed to being messed about with another hotel or battling with BA to get them to cough up and put you back where you had been originally.
Nice report, well done.

I've really enjoyed reading all about your trip; it certainly sounds like you had a fun time!

A great finish to a wonderful holiday
Hope you manage to sort out the car problems

Thanks for taking the time to do this trippie I have really enjoyed reading along..

Joan

We had an email from BA saying that because of the computer problems and the grief and stress it caused they have extended our Executive Club Membership by two years. We weren't inconvenienced like some poor souls were but I'm quite happy to have the two year extension.

I was expecting to see the car mat on the wall... you know you have it...

Fabulous trip report. Thank you for sharing.

If we did have it I'd burn it in protest of an old car.