14/12/2019: To Dieppe Bay

Friday had a black start with the General Election result coming through.  We had stayed up late and got up early just in time to get the result for Bolsover.  Dennis Skinner, our long-serving MP had lost his seat after 49 years of service.

But there was little time to reflect on the appalling  results as we had to get Kevin to work.  Then with his car, Joan dropped of JB at Arkwright, the meezers at Spondon, collected the boat cushions from Clay Cross and headed over to Mansfield Woodhouse to deliver some family cards.  Pretty soon it had gone three and Joan needed to be collecting Kevin from Rolls-Royce.

Apart from an hour long road stoppage around Luton, we found our hotel at Gatwick - the Courtyard by Marriott - and headed to our room where we had a picnic.  (The hotel menu for veggies was uninspiring and there was nothing for vegans.


Next morning it was a shuttle bus to South Terminal.  We manged to get our seats changed so we could sit together.  Then we checked into a hotel lounge - £16 each with Dragon Pass - and watched the planes on the runway.  We had the smallest glass of wine with breakfast as Kevin will be driving when we get to St Kitts.

We had booked World Traveller Plus seats with extra leg room to make our journey more comfortable.  We stuffed the bottles of wine offered with dinner into our luggage for later.  The in-flight entertainment kept us amused till we touched down in Antigua.  There most of the plane got off and we then took off again for the 20 minute hop to St Kitts.

On landing we could see it was raining but the air was humid.  We got off last as Kevin wanted to finish his in-house film - Yesterday.  The queue for immigration was slow as was baggage and customs. Outside we were pleased to see someone waiting for us to take us to the Hertz care hire office.

The car was a small automatic which we are not used to.  We bought a few provisions to tide us over till we could do a big shop when we were less tired.  It cost £100!

The chap from the rental gave us directions to Dieppe Bay, where we are staying.  It was now dark and we initially got it wrong and ended down in Frigate Bay.  After questioning some locals we made it back to the airport and found the road - Payon - which runs up the coast to Dieppe Bay.  However there were no road signs and no town names and we had to keep asking how to get there.  The map made no sense and when we asked people where we were it wasn't on the map.  It turned out we had thought we were going up the eastern side of the island but we were in fact on the western side.  This we only worked out when we finally arrived at our rental and could not understand why the sea was in the wrong place!

Cheff, the caretaker was there to greet us and show us how things worked.  More of the place where we are staying later.

It was now getting late so we had a pasta and pizza meal on the decking, listening to the waves crashing in around us.  Bliss!

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