Day 13-Barbados to Boarding Gate

Dinner in Peninsular was absolutely fine once again. The food isn’t stunning but it’s very good and there is plenty of it. It has certainly been better than the first couple of meals.

We had had a drink on deck as has become our habit but the virtual queue was so short we didn’t bother to join until we started walking to the restaurant. We ate on our own again but chatted to the next table. A small aside which I can’t believe - we haven’t finished our wine package. We bought vouchers for 12 bottles of wine before the holiday and still have one left. Let’s hope we can use it on our cruise next year.

We could have gone to Oistins, an area that holds a street party every Friday, but to be honest neither of us had the energy. But I would like to go one day.

After dinner we went back to the cabin to do a bit more damage to the bottle of red from Christmas Day, but didn’t manage much before we headed for bed.

This morning we were extremely organised. Steve went and got us coffee at 7.00 (not our lovely mugs, they were packed) which we drank on the balcony. We had to vacate the cabin at 8.00 so headed down to the theatre where you could store your hand luggage for the day. Even though we were too early for our excursion we decided to head off the ship and explore Duty Free. Duh! It was only just after 8.00, what on earth made us think anything would be open. 😂😂

We headed outside to the tour buses before our departure time of 9.00. There seemed to be a few people on this trip, well 9!  We waited a while and set off at about 9.10. The driver started his spiel as we headed from the port but then he got a call. He was told two people had turned up late so we had to go back to the port to collect them. We were a bit concerned that by the time we left as we were half an hour late and couldn’t really afford to get back late to the ship. However we needn’t have worried, the driver was very strict about when we had to be back at the bus in order to make our 12.30 return to the ship.

The journey to Harrison’s Cave was about 30-40 minutes which meant we had a chance to see a bit more of Barbados

Once at the Cave we had a quick look round the Mount Gay Rum museum and then headed down in the lift to the entrance to the Cave. We had a short film about the history of the Cave and then were given our helmets and boarded the tram. It felt very Harry Potter like. I was expecting dragons or at least goblins as we headed down into the vaults of Gringotts.

Oops, go a bit lost there - back to the Cave.

It is approximately 50 metres below ground and sits 210 metres above sea level. It is situated towards the middle of the island and consists of numerous caverns that are naturally made from erosion in the limestone rock. The calcium rich water that runs through the caves have formed an impressive number of stalactites and stalagmites which are quite beautiful. The Cave has a long history from the time it was discovered in the late 18th century until it was opened to the public in 1981. As you travel through the Cave you can still see the passages through which the original explorers travelled and they are minuscule. Hard to believe they ever found the cave and went right into it. However if you are totally mad you can still join an original explorers tour and travel through those minute passages. Not for us I’m afraid.

After going through the Cave we went to the aviary and nature walk. There are also several zip lines and what they call a Challenge Course all of which look fun. So also for next time.

We had a wonderful morning and what a brilliant way to pass it rather than contemplating our navels on the boat.

We were back almost on the dot of 12.30 and went to collect our hand luggage. Then we headed to Horizon for a bite to eat and from there to the Crystal Room where we had to meet for our transfer to the airport at 2.00.

We are now sitting in the airport lounge awaiting our flight. Actually lounge is being overly generous 😂. I haven’t been to an airport anywhere that is so basic since the 1980’s. We are actually in the satellite terminal rather than the main one. Other than a Concorde plane right in the middle there is nothing other than some seats, a very basic cafe and a loo. However we are comfortable enough and probably haven’t too long to wait now so I will sign off and say see you soon.

😘 😘