Bridgetown Barbados and home

Wed 8^th June

Left the ship as we docked in Barbados and had a delightful flight home to Antigua……..that is until the tropical storm hit!  It was quite different identifying some of the islands from the air, their own geographical imprints amid the turquoise waters, Barbados, Martinique, Guadaloupe and unexpectedly landing in St Lucia on the tiny little runway where we had docked   nearby when there! Quite a different perspective.  

I found the sky with its myriad of colours, the range of blues  and whites, the everchanging cloudshapes just fascinating in contrast to the deep greens and turquoises below.I love abstract paintings and prints and there is nothing more abstract than the sky and the sea in their  natural settings.

As we neared Antigua the blues and whites became grey, black and angry and things began to get a little bumpy! Having been given the warning by the Captain I could feel the adrenalin pumping and thought immediately of you Blair and wondered how you would feel in this situation.

However, I must add, once we were through the cloud we could see what was going on above us but everything was OK……….well until we thumped very hard on the runway and with breaks screaming we eventually ground to a halt. I am quite sure there couldn’t have been much rubber left on the tyres! The rain was horizontal and a bit like looking at a very badly focused TV screen. Everything was black! 

We happened to  be sitting in the front seat. When the door was opened and the steps which folded up inside the plane  were lowered we thought the roof had blown off as we were not just drenched but felt ourselves swimming in water as the call came for women, children and the elderly to come to the front…………..we of course fell into the elderly category!!!!!!!!!

At least the rain and squalls were warm as we tried to keep our balance as we descended the six steps to the tarmac. By the time we got into the terminal drowned rats looked like fashionistas compared to us.

However our very wet disembarkation worked to our advantage. On entering immigration a Virgin Atlantic plane had landed before us and there were at least 400 passengers in an enormous queue in front of us with at least 200 screaming small children…bedlam! It usually takes forever for even one person to get through these channels and the thought of at least three  hours in this queue was despairing.

Help was at hand however! A wonderful woman took one look at us and said “Oh my dears........... and promptly directed us into the queue for the residents  and not the foreigners.

10 minutes later we were through and our bags were first off the carousel….someone was looking after us!