Tortola and St Lucia

Barbados 21/4/07
West Indies vs England
Absolutely an awesome day of cricket, the best yet!!!!! Apparently Steve was on TV, we were in the second row from the field. It was great to see Brian Lara’s last game but we were disappointed he didn’t bat for long.


Day at Sea
We attended an AST dinner where Dickie Bird was guest speaker, he told some great stories of his cricket and umpiring career and also took questions from the crowd, what an awesome character. Kerry O’Keefe also told some more stories, it was a great night.

Tortola – British Virgin Islands
What a gorgeous island. We jumped in a taxi and our driver, Gene, took us for a great trip around, unfortunately it was cloudy and we couldn’t see very far to the surrounding islands but we could appreciate the beauty. It’s only a small island and rather than have lots of small houses dotted over the hills they have 2 or three storey apartment blocks that actually look like very large homes, it’s impossible to tell, from a distance, which is a house or an apartment. BTW there are chooks everywhere here, all the islands have some chickens around but here they are in the streets, in the shops, bars and restaurants, mother hens with a brood of chicks on every corner, we even saw cats and chickens hanging out together, Alex would love it here.

There are lots of English and Americans who own homes on the island and live here for parts of the year, it’s also a very popular sailing destination. After our tour we went back to Cane Garden Bay where there was an Aussie vs Safa beach cricket game with some locals also joining in. We met a Canadian guy who was sailing around the islands and dropped into the bar for a drink, this is his 10th sailing trip. In true Aussie style, after a few too many drinks by some lads, there was a nudie run across the beach. Then the rain came, it bucketed down, the taxis came at 4.30 to take us all back to the Galaxy and it was a very hairy ride. The roads are quite narrow with sharp bends, now as its British they drive on the left side of the road, also, it’s much cheaper to buy American cars so they also drive on the left side of the car. This, however, comes in very handy on these roads when passing another car and avoids the driver overestimating the edge and crashing down an embankment. We also caught the taxi back with a 2 other Aussies and 6 very pissed Afrikaans Safas, they sung their native songs all the way home which was great fun even though we couldn’t understand the words.









Day at Sea
We bought the UK Sunday Times and devoured it today, it’s so good to read a newspaper. We get a news flyer on the ship but its all American news and mainly sports.

Saint Lucia
Australia vs South Africa
Anzac Day, we had a dawn service on the ship and there were a couple of WWII veterans onboard which was great.



Crap seats at the cricket, all of us were in the sun all day, not happy. Anyway we got the result we were hoping for, pity there wasn’t more of a fight, thankfully Ricky and Haden got out so Roy could come in and hit some decent shots and make it interesting. Ricky is a great cricketer but boring as bat poo. Kerry O’Keefe predicted that Gilchrist would score a century, haha. The Galaxy anchored at Rodney Bay Mariner instead of the port and we got tenders into shore. We spent the night at Saint Lucia but the last tender was at 10pm so you couldn’t really go all out on shore. All the bars were packed at the Mariner and many people couldn’t even get a drink so going back to the ship and partying there was a better option anyway.





We did our regular taxi tour yesterday, it’s a very mountainous island, windy narrow roads. We visited a couple of seaside fishing villages crammed in narrow valleys, the houses are small and tightly packed, the people use very clean shared bathing and washing facilities which avoids the streets become open sewers. Our driver, Junior, took us to a great bar and we ate fabulous chicken roti for lunch. The local beer is Piton which is pretty good, it’s named after the famous twin peaks, Gros Piton and Petite Piton. We made our way down the island to view the Pitons and see the sulfur flows, boy did it stink but was very interesting.

Caribbean Fishing

Barbados
Ireland vs Bangladesh
We don’t have tickets to this game so we organized a half day fishing charter instead. It was big boat and a great crew. Unfortunately I spent the entire time throwing up, usually I make burly once them I’m OK, not today. Steve and the other guys caught quite a few fish. It’s trawling method so all you really do is reel them in. One guy was reeling in a barracuda and another much larger one swam up behind it and bit it in half so all he got in the boat was the head. We organized with the first mate to fillet one of the fish and the transport guy took us to a local restaurant called the Blue Monkey, it’s right on the beach and serves awesome rum. They cooked up the fish for us and we shared it with other people from the Galaxy who were there too.
















Grenada
Australia vs Sri Lanka
Australia won, another boring game but it was good to see Andy Symonds hit some sixes. Steve and I had dinner with Merv tonight, a burger by the pool after the big day at the cricket. Apparently it was Merv’s first cricket tour on that notorious plane trip with David Boon, he said he was shit scared, the official count of beers drunk by Boonie is 53. Steve asked him why he doesn’t have a plastic doll like Boonie, he laughed but secretly I think he wished he had one and feels less of a man. Hahaha. My burly experience is infamous on the cruise, some other blokes went out fishing to and a couple of them were sick as well so we were all getting a hard time. My only face saving point was that my burly was more effective than their’s as my boat caught more fish. Yes I know that is lame. BTW Steve’s knee is doing well and getting better every day.

Barbados
Soid Afrika vs England
Man, we are getting a real sense of dejavu. The British batsmen were hopeless, we left at lunch and took a taxi down to the boat house area and had a very fine lunch at the Lobster Alive restaurant. We ate some very yummy lobster and enjoyed some rum punch. We were right on the beach again overlooking the beach umbrellas and stunning blue water. They also have a small jetty with a swing rope and the locals have a great time there too. Back to the cricket, the ground was almost full which was great and the supporters were much more vocal today. The locals were also out in force with a band moving through the crowd with drums, trumpets and whistles really energizing the place and putting everyone in a good mood despite the lousy cricket. We are back on the boat now and Steve has gone down to the pool bar, I’ll join him later for another evening of fun. With England losing it also means that the West Indies have no chance of reaching the finals, what a shame. Steve bought some local rum at the duty free shop today and smuggled it through shipboard customs, it was an outstanding effort of distraction, lying and a reliance on “I get paid $50 a month I don’t really give a rats arse” shipboard security. Well done darl. The South Africans are having a great time tonight, they are celebrating their victory. They also have a very cool national anthem and other fun songs and cheers. I feel embarrassed at times that all we have is Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi.





Tobago
The smaller sister island of Trinidad which is renowned for drug smuggling from South America. Tobago’s port is nice and has quite a few historic forts from the British and French colonial days. We hired a taxi for a few hours, our driver Joe is a well known and popular figure around the island, getting many waves and beeps from people everywhere. The housing seems much nicer, people seem to take more pride in their homes and a lot of them are larger too. Despite having corrupt government the people have access to good quality free healthcare, we saw the local hospital and quite a few clinics around town. We visited a lovely resort which has a gorgeous cove perfect for snorkeling, there are also lots of places to dive here too. We visited a water wheel which was used to power the cane mill which was worked by the African slaves. At one of the forts the locals were setting up for a huge music festival coming soon. Elton John is coming to play and Joe explained that many of the god fearing folk are not happy with “dat gay boy” coming to their island. His said Elton admitted he is a homosexual and is married and some man is his wife. I suggested that Elton was more likely the “wife”. Joe personally didn’t care and thought the people should mind their own business. We had lunch, flying fish today, at another great restaurant by the sea. We are also visiting on the end of the dry season which is a shame as it’s quite brown and drab in a lot of places, not the lushness I was expecting. We say farewell to some of our fellow travelers tonight, it’s the end of the Super 8s cruise and they disembark tomorrow. The occasion was celebrated by a traditional Aussie pub crawl on the ship which was great fun. We look forward to welcoming around 600 more Aussies today for the finals cruise.

Barbados
Start of finals cruise
We had to disembark at 10am so a group of us went down to the Boat Yard and relaxed, had some lunch and embarked again at 2pm. I got a few braids done at the beach. Four yellow ones to support Australia and one pink one for me. Had fun meeting new shipmates. We ran into some people Steve knows in the telecommunications industry and also from the E&Y awards. We had an AST get together to meet Kerry O’Keefe, honestly I had never seen or listened to him before but we had heard a bit about him. What a funny bloke, and he knows his cricket. He certainly gave Merv a run for his money, much more entertaining and is not afraid to give his opinion where Merv is always non committal (I think that is because of his selector duties). They had a great time giving each other a hard time.

Grenada
Australia vs New Zealand
Awesome morning of cricket with Australia choosing to bat first. Poor Gilly didn’t fire again, Ponting and Haden had a fine innings. Steve was crushed when Andy Symonds got out. Pity NZ didn’t put up a fight with the bat, never mind, it was great to crush them. Amazing atmosphere today, the ground was full and everyone was having a blast. We are having a special Caribbean night onboard, hopefully they will be serving some local dishes. We don’t have many kiwis to pick on either, I guess we’ll have to pay out on the South Africans again. At least they are spirited.

Grenada and Barbados from 10 April 2007

Grenada
South Africa vs West Indies
Had an awesome day at the cricket, the South Africans were fired up and we had a fun time giving them grief. They were quite upset that all the Australians were supporting the West Indies and not them. We had to explain to them that if they weren’t so arrogant and if they were playing against the English then we would consider supporting them. It was a great match up until the last couple of hours, very entertaining. We didn’t get much of a chance to see Grenada but it is slightly more 2nd world than 3rd and the ground is nestled in between the sea and the mountains, spectacular. Steve enjoyed the Red Stripe beer apparently it’s slightly better than the Carib he had in Antigua.









Barbados
England vs Bangladesh
Another fantastic day, of course we were supporting Bangladesh, unfortunately their batting collapsed and the English were sure to win, although it did take them longer than expected. The Barmy Army were out in force and together with the West Indies steel drums it made for a brilliant atmosphere, shame that the ground wasn’t full but I’m sure it will as the finals series starts. Most people are quite vocal about their disgust at the high ticket prices for the locals. Barbados is 2nd world, they even have street guttering and traffic lights. Again the people are wonderful and they love to see that the Aussies are supporting them. We have a day at sea today then back to Barbados for some more cricket, who, I have no idea. The Banks beer was not so good but of course did not stop anyone (Steve) from drinking it.



Day at Sea
What can I say, it was relaxing

Barbados
Australia vs Ireland
We won, it was a shame Ireland weren’t able to make more runs, the match didn’t even make it to lunch. We jumped in a taxi after the game and took a tour of the island. We drove up the West Coast where most of the holiday apartments and hotels are. None of the buildings are very big and anyone can still access the beach, it is beautiful. We then drove to the top part of the island, went inland to the mountains which had a spectacular view. We then drove down the East Coast, it’s mainly for the locals with little villages by the sea, our driver took us to the one he has been holidaying at since he was a child, he has family there and he takes his children there now to get together. In the more suburban areas there are small canteens on most street corners selling rum and BBQ, the adults congregate there and the kids play cricket or soccer in the street or vacant block. There is obviously more money here but the locals still live a basic lifestyle with small houses and the same wonderful temperament, love and friendliness.








Grenada
New Zealand vs South Africa
We were in a real quandary about who to support in this game, as were many other Aussies onboard. We arrived at the ground and found our seat behind a large group of New Zealanders so that kind of made up our minds for us. Really we were relieved, what with the ANZAC tradition and all. Sth Africa tanked early and never recovered enough to make a decent score. NZ bowlers are excellent, the Aussies are going to have a battle on their hands here. Poor Steve has caught my cold I got in Paris, sorry darl. His motto is “He’ll have to drink more beer and rum to burn it out of his system”. Who am I to argue with that logic.

Paris, Antigua and Dominica

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Our final few days in Paris were wonderful. We toured the Catacombs, underground quarry which the French turned into a mass grave actually storing their loved ones bones in neat piles all through the tunnels. During WWII the French Resistance also used the caves although disappointingly there wasn’t any real information about this there.

We then went to the Arc d’Triomphe, that was awesome, it really is huge, much bigger than I thought. The French sure know how to make monuments and buildings beautiful and moving.

Our final day we got up early and cleverly avoided the long queues and went to the D’Orsay Museum, the building has an iron and glass roof and was originally a train station. Due to the arrival of electric trains the station was no longer large enough to handle the bigger trains so the French had the great idea to turn it into a museum. It’s full of wonderful sculpture and paintings. You can get up close to the artwork and really admire the skills and vision of the artists. We then headed to the Louvre. The queue wasn’t too bad, however there were heaps of people in there and it’s difficult to move around and see things. We picked out a few areas we most wanted to see, mainly the big artworks and some of the antiquities. After 3 hours I got a severe case of ABC and cracked it (although I think Steve’s knee was grateful). We had a rest back at the hotel then went out for an absolutely divine French dinner, had a laugh at some stupid Americans being belittled by a French waiter then as revenge I suffered indigestion most of the night !

Our flight to Miami was OK, we did get selected by security at checkin and had to answer a bunch of questions but avoided a more “intimate” interview.

Galaxy Cruise

We arrived on the Galaxy yesterday, I’m sure our “welcome aboard” photos will show 2 annoyed faces but having spoken to some other people last night our experience was positively wonderful. Anyway we are here and having fun. We met with the AST team last night and were introduced to Merv Hughes, what a charismatic bloke ! We are planning on doing a couple of onboard activities today, we dock at Antigua at 2pm so we’ll go for a look around the wharf. We have an AST cocktail party tonight and our first game of cricket tomorrow. Our room is large by ship standards and we have a great balcony. We have a butler and an attendant. They are great blokes, one is Indian so is really appreciating the cricket guests. The food is quite good, as it is a big ship the buffet has almost a cafeteria feel with trays. The tables are not set. The fancy dining room is stunning and the food and service is first class.

Sailing into Antigua was thrilling. The captain had to navigate through a narrow channel of buoys, the crystal blue water turned into dirty brown from the propellers churning up the sea floor mud. It looks awful but made a great opportunity for the local sea birds to search for a feed. They put on a wonderful display of ducking and diving through the windy sky trying to target a tasty morsel. Steve and I stood out on the top deck so we had an excellent view all around. There are quite a few lovely homes perched on top of hills and cliffs. I really felt that the cruise ship has dominated the whole harbour. The other vessels are rusty fishing boats and the occasional small container ship. There isn’t a marina that we can see anyway, just a couple of cruisers and catamarans. We can see the lights of the cricket ground in the distance but it is over a ridge so we can’t see the oval.

We walked ashore and had a look around the local shops, we have lots of fun bartering with a gorgeous old Antiguan lady for some handmade jewellery, apparently she had 8 children and 12 grandchildren to feed, some of the grandkids were trying to flog brackets around the streets. Suddenly a mobile phone can be heard and from beneath the rickety old table out comes a designer handbag and the latest flip mobile ! Anyway we made off with our purchases into a taxi. Steve negotiated with the driver, Sammy, to take us on a tour past the new Vivian Richards cricket ground and across to English Harbour for US$60. Once we were in the taxi he tried to negotiate the price up but Steve was steadfast and we were on our way ! The sugar cane market collapsed in the 70s and the people are quite poor, there are open drains in the streets and the buildings are small and rundown, you will see the odd garden and freshly painted house. There also seems to be a lot of unfinished buildings simply abandoned. Sammy explained that the previous government was very corrupt and did not improve the infrastructure or help the people. The current government, in place for 3 years, has been spending the tax money wisely, they have built a new hospital and are repairing the roads.

The roads aren’t great, quite narrow in places and full of potholes. As we approached the cricket ground suddenly there were 2 full lanes of brand new bitumen, there’s no edging but no-one is complaining. This road proceeded about 2km past the stadium then abruptly stopped. Along the way we saw road crews simply laying new bitumen over the old road ! Everyone drives like a madman, over the good bits of road Sammy got up to around 120km and no-one lets an uphill blind corner stop them from overtaking ! The road goes through the villages along the way and the houses are built right on the edge. There are speed bumps at the beginning of each village to encourage drivers to slow down. Anyway it was a very exciting drive. English Harbour is stunning, there is a mariner and lots of yachts from around the world. The government is working on restoring the old stone buildings, some have been done, including the pylons where the old wooden ships were docked. We also saw where the African slaves lived and worked under appalling conditions. We went up to the local lookout and saw great views of the island, it is much more tropical and lush on this side.

First Cricket Match – Australia –v- England

The Vivian Richards Ground is fantastic, really well done. The seats were comfy, plenty of facilities and nice and open. We saw some exciting Caribbean dancers moving to the traditional steel drums which put everyone in the mood for a great day. No doubt you would have seen the pool on the grassed area under the big screen, what a great idea ! Unfortunately the tickets were very expensive for the locals US$75, most people cannot afford that. As a consequence the ground was nowhere near full. The ICC didn’t even give tickets to the local cricket clubs to try and encourage the youngsters, it really impacted on the traditional West Indies atmosphere which everyone was expecting. The game was quite good, the Aussies played it safe so it wasn’t until Andy Symonds batted that exciting big shots were being played. The crowd gave Freddy a hard time, singing Row Row Row Your Boat at him when he was near us fielding on the boundary. He took it well and had a laugh. We also tried some local food, goat water, which is basically goat stew, very nice, and also some BBQ chicken and rice. We heard later that Steve was on the news in Sydney wearing his Roy wig !!!!

Monday 9 April 2007 – Dominica

Sailed into Dominica this morning at 10am. It’s very lush and tropical with huge mountains. I am currently updating the blog overlooking the town of Roseau.

We took a taxi to the Portsmouth and had a fantastic look at local life along the way. Our driver, Thomas, was great and drove very safely. We saw a bad accident along the way, a van had rolled and there were serious injuries. Dominica is in a better financial position than Antigua, their governments over the years have preserved the agricultural way of life and the natural beauty of the island. As a result Dominica can feed itself, exports fruit, vegetables and spices and has a flourishing eco-tourism market. The town buildings are bigger and better and there is also some government housing. Unfortunately, being Easter Monday, none of the local restaurants were open. We were hoping to try mountain chicken, which are actually frogs legs from large frogs found in the rainforest. Thomas explained that they are not in season so would have been hard to find but there would have been lots of fresh seafood and chicken. Never mind. We also went past a university which has 1500 students studying to be doctors, they mainly come from the US and UK. As a consequence the locals have good cheap healthcare. Steve became very excited when he spotted some blue fibre cable in the ground at a construction site, he then became more animated as he spotted some more along the side of the road. Fibre cable, just being layed across the ground, oh well he said, no-one is likely to break it with a backhoe if they can see it, also it is thicker than normal so it must be very heavy duty. He even scrounged through the bush with his gammy knee to take some photos for the boys in the office, they would be so surprised ! The taxi driver was most perplexed, I explained to him that Steve was in the fibre industry and he loved cable. About 5 mins later we again came across this blue cable, going straight then making a 90 degree turn, into a tap, yes, Steve magic fibre cable was in fact a water pipe !