A fortnight in the Caribbean - Part 3 - and 8 years of blogging

It's 8 years today from my very first post, and the beginning of blogging! I now have a number of blogs and many new friends. I am delighted to say that I have met some followers personally, and each meeting has been a great experience; with the discovery of common attitudes and interests, I have no doubt that lifelong friendships will be formed.  For those followers  I have not yet been able to meet, many have become friends via personal email and others via chats on the blog.  Thank you, one and all, for being there and taking the time to read and comment; it is much appreciated!

Back to reminiscing about Nevis, see Part 1 and Part 2 and here are a few more photos taken during our holiday.

Taken in the grounds of the Montpelier hotel.  Montpelier was formerly a 17th century sugar estate, but the buildings now transformed to provide luxury and upmarket accommodation....

On the veranda.  This is where Princess Diana used to visit....

Cogwheels from the sugar cane crushing process reminding the visitor of what used to be here...

One of the lounges with a pub at the back, housing a great selection of drinks....

Nelson’s love affair with Nevis was largely due to Fanny Nisbet, a widow he met at a dinner party on Nevis. The two fell instantly in love, and their nuptials are without a doubt the most famous wedding here to date....

The house is no longer standing but the famous silk cottonwood tree, under which they got married, still is!

Moving on to another part of the island - nothing is very far away!  We arrive at the church of St Thomas, which we were told was the oldest Anglican church in the Caribbean.   The original church was built in 1643 and there are still a few old and broken gravestones in the churchyard (see below) from the 17th century....

It was closed up on the day we visited, so we did not get to see inside, but there are services on Sundays. There are loads of churches on the island, dedicated to all varieties of Christian faiths!

The churchyard overlooks the sea and the island of St Kitts in the distance.

The tourist signboard neatly describing the circumstances by which the church was founded and built, as a gift from English planter Thomas Cottle.

He was once the President of Nevis and a very benevolent slave owner, by the harsh and inhuman standards of the day, of course. This church was the only one on the island, and probably in the Caribbean, where the slaves and their master worshipped together. It was never consecrated, since it was illegal at that time for slaves to worship. The structure was severely damaged in a 1974 earthquake and again in 1989 during Hurricane Hugo. The building is still a primary tourist attraction and is presently undergoing restoration to stabilise it and ensure its historical significance for the future.

Inside the church; quite a modest building as you can see.

Part of a wall plaque recording the names and ages of some of the slaves who lived on the local  Round Hill estate and worked on the construction of the church. One child named Aaron is listed as aged only 4 and others are shown as having been born in Africa, obviously  being transported to the island as slaves.

Returning to some of the wildlife in Nevis!  Caribbean Queen or Jamaican Monarch butterfly (Danaus cleophile).

The panther anole (anolis bimaculatus), is a species of lizard that is endemic to the Caribbean Lesser Antilles islands.

African green, or “vervet” monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops).  These monkeys were first brought to the islands as pets in the 17th or 18th centuries. Some escaped or were set free and they have thrived ever since. They can be a nuisance, running off with food and anything else not nailed down!

Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) wheeling over the seashore, no doubt seeking fish in the shallows.

Mangrove Buckeye butterfly (Junonia genoveva) taking a break!

Watching the sun go down in  a local restaurant with St Kitts on the skyline.

Also see my daily diary HERE

and My Life Before Charente (updated  February 2018) 

A fortnight in the Caribbean - Part 1

We have friends who live on Nevis (there are twin islands - St Kitts and Nevis) and who have asked us a number of time to visit.  We though that a trip before braving the cold of the UK this past Christmas would be a good idea!  We duly booked the trip early last year, not realising that the Caribbean would be having some of their worst weather for a long time during the (summer) hurricane season.  Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused total destruction on many islands, and at one stage we thought we might never get there.  Luckily, Nevis missed the worst of it all; the damage to our friends' property was thankfully confined to their front gates being blown down and a few missing roof tiles.

We drove directly from home in France to London (Gatwick) airport  on 24 November 2017 and then the following day, we took an early morning flight to St Kitts, stopping for one hour on Antigua (where most of the passengers disembarked!).  On arrival at St Kitts airport, we were met by a taxi, which took us to the quay, where a water taxi, skimming wave crests at high speed,   carried us over the waters to Nevis in 15 energising minutes!  The taxi pilot kindly phoned ahead to our friends, to let them know we were on our way so they would be ready to meet us. Very organised!

Just to give you some idea where St Kitts and Nevis are in the Caribbean, if you did not previously know! Most of the other islands on this map were very badly affected by hurricanes and outside help and reparation is slow in arriving.

The island of Nevis, which is separated from St Kitts by a 3 km (2 miles) channel. It is only 93 sq km in size (36 sq mi) and the capital is Charlestown; you can see the "by-pass" road around the town on the West coast.

We arrived fairly late in the afternoon and the photos  taken from the ferry were not the best!

The next morning, though, after a good nights sleep, I was delighted to see many enchanting humming birds zooming around in the garden.This is a Green-throated carib (Eulampis holosericeus), motionless for just a moment!

The bees looked much the same as those we have in France!

We went for a walk through a strip of trees and bushes down to the nearby sandy beach; it was very quiet and peaceful with almost nobody else around!

Looking across the water towards St Kitts.

We spotted a hermit crab on the sand.

Back at the house, we discovered vervet monkeys in the garden - lovely to see, but they do a lot of damage!

The very colourful Frangipani caterpillar (this one's 120 mm or 5 inches long), of which there were several on one plant, eats most of the plant's leaves, but we were told they actually do the plant good, as by eating the leaves, the plant's  encouraged to produce more flowers!

Lovely to see hibiscus flowering in November!

The garden was full of birds I have never seen before!; this is a Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola).

Lesser Antillean bullfinch (Loxigilla noctis) This is the male; the female is brown.

Out on our first drive around the island (maximum speed limit 40 mph!), we were told this is one of the original old houses, called a "skirt and blouse" house.  The skirt (bottom of the house) being built of stone and the blouse (top of the house) of wood.

 One of the most noticeable things we observed on the island were the many scrap cars! There is nowhere to dump them on a small island, so they are just abandoned by their owners for the vegetation to take over!

As above. There are plans for a private company to import and operate a car crushing plant, as the numbers of such cars must run into many thousands and apart from being unsightly, further damage to this beautiful tropical environment should  be avoided!

We ended up in late afternoon down at the beach, where we met up with friends of our friends, for a delightful meal of fresh fish of the day.  It was interesting to watch the storm in the distance over the sea, while we were standing on the beach, in temperatures around 30 C  (86F)

This is just to give you a first idea of our holiday.  Many more photos of the island are to come in Part 2, but due to me not feeling well,  I am far behind in the editing process!

Also see my daily diary HERE

and My Life Before Charente (updated  25 September 2016) I will get back to this eventually! 

Part 6 of our Southern African holiday, still in Botswana.

On the morning we left Kasane River View Lodge, (see parts 3, 4 and 5) we had a short drive ahead of us, (about 200 km or 125 miles) to our planned two night stop at Elephant Sands game park on our way back to Mahikeng in South Africa. More about the place later on!

Cruising southwards along the almost empty tarmac ribbon, Patrick's observant eyes suddenly spotted several of the rare Southern ground hornbills (Bucorvus leadbeateri) by the roadside...

Despite the fact that their name sounds as if the live on the ground, they do in fact fly, (as you can see above!) and also roost in trees.  This hornbill is the largest in the world, featuring striking red facial and throat skin which contrasts with its black plumage.  It has a wing span of 120 to 180 cm (4 to 6 feet) and it is on the endangered list. It is long-lived, apparently reaching 50 or even 60 years old.  It has a varied diet, mainly consisting of insects found on the ground.  They lay only two eggs, of which only one chick generally survives.  They do not breed very often; spaced anywhere from a few years up to at least nine years. So that might explain the rarity!

Arriving at Elephant Sands, we found the roads were quite wet and there was much mud around. It was the rainy season after all, but there had been exceptionally heavy falls in the two months before we arrived.

A warthog, having just got up from having a very welcome mud bath.  The mud cools them (they do not have sweat glands) and it also removes ticks and other skin parasites, which then become embedded in the mud.

Mum and baby.  Common warthog, (Phacochoerus africanus), is a wild member of the pig family that lives in grassland, savanna, and woodland.

The white-faced whistling duck (Dendrocygna viduata)  breeds in sub-Saharan Africa and also in much of South America.  At night, the birds fly to foraging areas to feed on a varied diet that includes grass, seeds and aquatic molluscs, by wading, swimming or diving. 

The yellow-billed oxpecker, (Buphagus africanus), is from the starling and myna family.  It feeds exclusively from the backs of large mammals, eating ticks and insects on their hides.  As with the tick birds in my last post, it is good for the animals and provides food for the birds, a win-win arrangement!

African three-banded lapwing (previously known as a plover) (Charadrius tricollaris).  It lives near water, feeding on land and aquatic insects and their larvae, crustaceans, small molluscs and worms.

As the name of the resort suggests, there are plenty of elephants to see in the open landscape. The safari tent accommodation is placed around a large waterhole, so the elephants can  freely come in very close to drink and bathe;  care must be taken to keep out of their way!  You can see  one of the safari cabins on stilts in the background.  We were sitting in the relative safety of the main lodge building, taking these photos with a long lens!

As close as I ever want to get!!!  Eyelashes of the African elephant (Loxodonta africana).

We each had a safari tent; here are Christelle and Patrick on their balcony.   We both slept like logs while here, but Patrick was up and about in the middle of the night, and on his balcony, taking videos of elephants very close by!   Brave, or a little mad, I am not sure which!!!!

Christelle, Patrick and Nigel in the heat of the day, relaxing with a cool drink....

from the bar opposite.  The pool was perfect for cooling off from time to time.

The elephants mostly arrived later in the day and into the evening, looking for water to drink and to cool off in.

Getting the fire ready to barbecue our dinner.  No fences anywhere here, so we were keeping a watchful eye out for large intruders; thankfully they left us alone.  The elephants and all game have total freedom and can wander anywhere, which they do!

Another amazing African sunset.

The next morning, we were greeted by a glossy starling (Lamprotornis  genus). There are a number of very similar starlings and I am not sure which one this is.  In low light these birds appear to be almost black, but in the right light they radiate the most spectacular array of blues, greens and magenta. However, there are no pigments in the feathers that give rise to these colours. It is simply a trick of the light!

Red-billed teal. (Anas erythrorhyncha).   This duck is not migratory, but will fly great distances to find suitable waters.  Very common.

 Rock pigeon (Columba livia). Feeds mainly on seeds, rarely eating fruits and leaves. It typically forages on the ground, usually on farmland, lawns or roads.  Also very common!

Early morning stroll, having taken a bath.  Note he has his trunk resting on his tusks; guess it gets a little heavy to carry around all day!

Giraffe (Giraffa) A newborn giraffe is about 1.9 meters tall (6 feet) at birth and weighs about 68 kilograms (150 pounds). Fully grown giraffes stand 4.3–5.7 m (14.1–18.7 ft) tall.​ Males are taller than the females. I have given more information in some of the previous giraffe photos.

Steenbok (Raphicerus campestris).  A small common antelope which is only about 60cm (2 feet) high at the shoulders.  Mostly solitary but occasionally they will pair for life.  Visitors will often think that they are babies as they are so small!!

Various mix of butterflies, the one with open wings is (I think) Small grass yellow (Eurema brigitta), and the white and orange one could be the Bushveld orange tip (Colotis pallene).  If anyone can help with identifications, I would be delighted as I am not a lepidopterist!

The white-browed sparrow-weaver (Plocepasser mahali).  Found in groups of two to about eleven individuals including only one breeding pair. One dominant male and female; the remainder are helpers! They build a number of untidy looking nests that look like a bunch of straw; inside is soft grass, feathers and woolly type material. The breeding nest has only one entrance while the roosting nests have two entrances.  The babies are fed by all the birds in the colony. Co-operation at its best!

Also see my daily diary HERE

and My Life Before Charente (updated  25 September 2016) I will get back to this eventually!