Lazy day

Our final port of call is St Lucia. Now without being big headed, we have sailed out of Castries, done the helicopter, done the airports, the catamaran trips and the booze cruise. We have played golf, done snorkelling trips to the Pitons and seen turtles do their thing at 3am. Each adventure will be in the blog history too.

So probably best to stay on the ship and get squiffy. We tried, but I think all the booze is low alcohol, so off to bed to look forward to our week in Barbados.

We have both decided we prefer dry land holidays to cruising but we have done pretty well all of the Caribbean now, so time to search for new challenges.

Michaelangelo and friends

While in St Lucia a few years ago, we were fortunate to spend one night camped out (yes I know I don't do camping but....) on the East coast hoping to see a Leatherback turtle or two come ashore and lay their eggs. It was blowing a gale and bitterly cold, and a two person pod tent is not the most secure.

We were delighted, therefore, to be woken by rangers during the night and had the chance to see a turtle in action. They come ashore, find a spot they are comfortable with, and use their rear flippers to dig a deep hole for the nest. Once satisfied with their construction work, they go into a trace and pop out over a hundred eggs, which look like billiard balls.

Once in her trace, we were able to stroke and take photos of the turtle, and on our particular trip there was a seven year old girl with her dad, so she had the honour of using the number clicker to count the final egg total.

We only witnessed one female on the night we were there, but the following night eight came ashore. The rangers were telling us that since they have started to use the experience as a tourist attraction, the number of turtles lost to poachers has dropped dramatically. That's good news as they have enough natural predators without human intervention.

This year we stayed on the West coast of St Lucia, so imaging our surprise, when one evening the sand started boiling and hundreds of baby turtles started to invade the resort bars and restaurants.....the babies had hatched and been attracted to the bright lights of the hotel, whereas on the East coast they usually head for the reflection of the moon on the water.

Holiday makers were running everywhere to catch the little blighters and throw them into the sea, only to have them washed ashore with the next wave. Only one thing for it, form a chain beyond the breaker line and throw the little darlings further out.....result, hundreds of turtles launched into a new life, hundreds of pounds damage to tourists designer shoes and trousers, but all well worth it.....and the cycle was complete.......the hotel have two more nests apparently so future visitors are in for the same treat.

They swim in the sea, we eat them for tea.......

Interesting weekend just past. Our oldest, Tim and his girlfriend Lili, used the house for an engagement party. Interesting guest list which included my present and past wife, and her two ex-husbands!!

Tim, as an only child, seems to have masses of siblings, and all were present for the big event. It all went off well, I think. I behaved myself and got to bed about 2am......not too bad.

They are planning to get married twice, bit like me really! The first will be in Brazil in February 2009, the second in England later in the same year. There seems to be huge interest in going to Sao Paulo so i think they will be surprised by the turnout. It will be Summer there so the combination of a wedding and holiday seems spot on to me.

Talking of holidays, I am just off to St Lucia, to defend my 'Sir Vivian Richards Pro-Am' title around the tricky but very picturesque St Lucia Golf Course. I won it last time with Jeff Crowe, the New Zealand cricketer, and two local members. Jeff is a cousin of Russell, and had just come back form seeing him get married. Jeff plays of 2 so we were quids in really compared with some of the team members. Ian Botham, Sir Gary Sobers, Tony Greig and Chris Cowdrey were playing, as well as the host, and it was a sound day out all round......I am told there is a fair bit of development going on at the moment around the course, and Jack Nicklaus is building a second 18 holes nearby. It will be interesting to see the new club house as well.

I am also playing in the 'Todgers Trophy' overseas edition when I return. This year it is in Portugal, and it is the annual tournament for Twickenham Rugby Club. In true rugger tradition, we have to go as famous Englishmen. That should irritate the Welsh amongst us.

They got knocked out of the Rugby World Cup on Saturday didn't they? To Fiji of all people. The QFstage is now quite interesting. I would take Argentina and South Africa to go through and meet in the semi, which then conjures up potentially four games in which anybody could win. On their day England can beat Aus, and France can turn over NZ. An E v F semi could go either way, as could the SA v Argie one. So we are suddenly looking at an Argie v England final! Who would have thought it a week or so ago?