Rob&Bonnie

The ticket was for not wearing his seat belt. Apparently they are really strict about that.

We did have a good day, and let's face it, we have great stories to tell lol. :rolleyes:

We took what we are now calling the All Terrain Mini Van Tour (ATMV) with Royston. I’m still unsure how to review this tour, so lets just say it was ‘interesting’. Royston came to get us in his mini van, which has a broken windshield and no side windows. Not to worry though, if it rains he stops and pops in plexi glass panels so you won’t get wet. This was our first clue that this would be interesting. On our way out of town he was stopped by the police, so we really got a taste for island life! It was pretty funny - they don’t ask for identification on St Kitts, they just ask your name. After the ticket was written we popped the plexi glass back out as the rain had stopped and moved along.

This tour was advertised as going to the Fortress and the Batik factory, a plantation and other local sites, all of which we did. Everyone else walked the grounds around the fortress, we drove it, only getting out when we went up the stairs to the actual fort. I think he would have driven there as well if the van would fit. From there we drove THROUGH the plantation. I don’t believe there were actual roads where we went, just right through the fields, over the rocks and onto a posh hotel’s grounds. I think we were more impressed with the hotel than the hotel visitors were with us. As we crashed out of the fields in the scratched and dented mini van with broken or no windows and into their grounds, we must have looked like the Clampetts arriving in Beverly Hills. Not to worry, we were just cutting through on our way to the Batik factory. The batik factory was interesting, though a pretty quick stop.

Next we took a ride to see a beach area that pretty impressive, with a lot of volcanic rock and awesome ocean views. This stop had a lot of tour busses, one of the few ‘normal’ places we visited. We left there and drove to see where some fishing boats are moored. We thought he was pretty brave taking the mini van through the beach area, where again - no roads to be found, but then he went even farther by driving the mini van into the water and along the beach over the mooring ropes. Yes folks, we have pictures of the waves hitting the side of the van as drove along the beach, stopping occasionally to wait for the waves to roll out and lower the mooring ropes enough to drive over.

We left the beach area after a few minutes and headed back toward town, with Royston calling in our lunch order from a local store. We arrived in town where he parked the car in the middle of the road and ran in to get our sandwiches. Apparently he wasn’t worried about holding up the 10 or so cars behind us that he blocked…. He finally hopped back in with our lunches, and we headed out toward South Friars beach.

But wait! On the way we took a trip up a closed road to catch another view of the island. Yup, this road had rock slide debris on one side, and a cliff on the other, with lots of overgrown bushes whacking the sides of the van as we merrily made our way this steep road veering back and forth around the rocks. At the top he took the van across a field (no roads again) and pulled within 2 feet from the edge of the cliff so we could get a really great view. I might have enjoyed this if I wasn’t busy having that heart attack… There is a reason this road is CLOSED, and seriously - could you leave more than 2 feet between a vehicle that has WHEELS and a cliff? Maybe stay a safe distance away and we could get out and WALK over to see the view? I admit, the view was great, but it would have been just as good standing outside the van. We stayed a few minutes, then headed back down the road, dodging rocks and bushes.

Next we stopped at South Friars beach to eat lunch. We’d been on the road for 5 hours, so we were hungry at this point. The ‘sandwiches’ were some type of wrap with curried mystery meat and potatoes. I’m not a big curry fan, but this was pretty good. We had the option of staying on the beach for a while, with Royston coming back for us later, but we opted for going back to the ship at this point. Not to be discouraged, Royston took us through some of the neighboring streets to see some of the new tourist houses that have been built. On one street he told us he had to turn around because there were some ‘potholes’ on the other side that he didn’t want to hit. The man who drove through fields, closed roads and into the surf is afraid of potholes? They must have been the size of the Grand Canyon or he would have headed in, I’m sure.

Returning to the port, we walked through the shops and back to the ship to get some much needed alcoholic beverages….