Day Seven: Dominica

Next up is the beautiful island of Dominica. Unfortunately we didn't see much of the island, as we were booked on our favourite trip of the whole holiday....whale and dolphin watching!


The ship had to be docked about half a mile out at sea, as the port was already holding their maximum amount of liners (the Americans getting there first, but more about them later), so we had to be taken in by tender boat, which is one of the 16 lifeboats on board ship.






















...which was ever so much fun when you try to get off it and a big wave crashes the tender boat into the ship, throwing you into the arms of one of the maintenance crew!




The port itself was very nice, pretty much left as it always has been, with winding alleyways and really old-fashioned markets, so we made plans to investigate it when we got back, as we were herded onto our boat to take us out on our little jaunt.





To be honest with you, I don't know what I was expecting. I actually thought it would be a case of us just sitting there for 4 hours, waiting for something to happen, taking a few snaps of the view and getting hammered on rum (yes there was free rum, like you needed to ask!), which wasn't the worst way of spending a morning, I have to admit! We had been warned, not only on the cruise ship, but when we got on board the boat, that as we were dealing with wild animals, that they don't just turn up and perform for us just because we were there, and so not to expect anything, so our expectation levels were sufficiently low before we set off.....




....what we didn't expect, though, were scenes from a Flipper reunion!





As we set off on the boat, the captain (he even had a hat AND a t-shirt with 'captain' on) told us that we were heading for the Dolphin area of the ocean, and showed us a big National Geographic poster of all the dolphins that we were likely to see, and to keep an eye out for the spotty ones, as they are the only dolphins who tend to jump out of the water.





So then we were on watch, the captain on look-out, together with his 2 guys on either side of the boat, along with our group, who had taken up our positions and looking out for gulls circling around a particular area of the ocean, as they could smell the fish on the surface that the dolphins smelt of.




10 minutes went by........... then 20..............and on the half hour.........





'FISHY FISHY FISHY', shouted the captain as one surfaced just in front of the boat, then another two were spotted (by me, ithankyou) just to our right, so over we went to have a look, which involved us basically racing them at about 50mph. What happened next was one of the most memorable moments of my life, it has to be said. There must have been between 15-20 dolphins all around us, eager to try and beat the boat, who was getting faster and faster, usually swimming past us in pairs or more, ducking under the boat or keeping level with us before jumping out of the water and diving back down again.





Piccies:

I have a video that caught pretty much everything, which includes the perfect shot of 4 dolphins coming out of the water at the same time, that we must have watched 20 times, and a shot of one dolphin leaping out of the water and almost standing up on the water, which was amazing to see. Alas we couldn't stay there all morning, even though we wanted to, as we needed to go and find some whales.





By this time we must have been about 10 miles out at sea, going from the calm, serene Carib sea, to the more choppy Atlantic ocean, however for all our look-outs, plus the whale-caller (there is probably a more technical name for that, but as it was a pole, a wire and a stolen soup bowl, we'll stick with whale-caller!), there were no whales to be seen by us, or the yachts and fishing trawlers our captain spoke to. So for the last hour or so, we just floated around the bay and headed back to port, drinking spiced rum that knocked your head off!






Once we got back to the port, we decided to explore the shops and streets and mingle with the yocals before heading back to the ship for some lunch and an afternoon nap (god, how I miss those afternoon naps!). By the time we got back into port, another cruise liner had docked, unloading a few thousand americans onto the local population, and because of this influx of tourists, the local authority had closed the main road off to all traffic, so you could have a nice, leisurely wander round, without taking your life in your hands.





Now, I've never had anything bad to say about americans from experience. I mean, of all the americans I had met up till then, they had been perfectly nice people, polite in some cases, so I was well prepared to blow away the theory of them being loud, arrogant little blighters when on holiday, however Dominica changed all that! They were brash, shouty, sterotypically fat tourists who barged their way past you to get into shops, then shouted over the top of everyone to speak to the person standing next to them. If I had been in their company for any longer, heads would have been knocked together!

So, after being knocked around by some fat yanks, we headed back to the tender boat, and the safety of the cocktail bar before settling into the evenings entertainment, which was slightly on the thin side as half the boats passengers were packing their bags for their flights home the next day. Luckily for us, we were there for two weeks, so we had a relaxing time out on deck, preparing ourselves for our next island, its back to Barbados for us!

The Seven Dwarfs didn't have do do THIS much work!

Judging by the title, you can probably tell that I've been pretty damn busy this week, firstly in the garden, taking advantage of the hot weather to hack the hell out of every weed and nasty looking thing in the back garden, only to wake up the next day to find 10 more sprouting up everywhere. But the garden is looking slightly better for it, so we must be doing something right.

Work this week has been mad, with a huge influx of work that yours truly has had to wade through, but after hours of solid work, and not a lunch hour to be seen all week (hey, its the commitment they'll remember me for!), everything got done and dusted in pretty good time, which is knackering but pleasing.

I've made in-roads into the next part of my course this week, which is good as its been playing on my mind for the last few weeks, so hopefully by the time the exams come round in October, I'll be ready for anything they throw at me....well thats the idea anyway!

This week also saw the mighty villa qualify for europe, which is fantastic considering where we were just a few years ago. So fingers crossed we can add to the squad and really go for it next season to stay in the top 6 on a regular basis.

This weekend I'm off to a birthday bash at Edgbaston cricket club, which should be good fun, especially if they have a cheesy disco, as I could do with a good ole bop!