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 !