We see from the news that the UK is being hit by even higher numbers of covid. This time last year we were watching the depressing news from the Canaries, 12 months later nothing seems to have changed apart from our being in Antigua which is recording a few cases a day and no one is in hospital (Shropshire has 490 cases a week), we are hopeful that this won't suddenly increase with all the Christmas visitors.
The biggest worry is cruise ships, three ships in the Caribbean have had outbreaks and although all the islands authorities are playing the risk down it can’t be long before one of them sets off an explosion of cases.
The picture shows the guy who takes you on catamaran trips round the island, he is armed with a temperature tester and a bottle of sanitizer, not the bottle of rum he would have been holding a year ago and of course every passenger has to show him their vaccination certificate, that is compulsory for all trips, restaurant meals and bars.
The highest hill on Antigua is called Boggy Peak, it is 1300ft high. The name originated from slave masters telling stories about the dangers of the Boogie Man who stole the spirits of people who lived in the hills. This was to discourage slaves from escaping and running into the mountains.
As it was not an attractive name some bright spark in the Government suggested that in 2009 it’s name be changed to Mount Obama in the hope that the man himself might pay the island a visit. He never came and in 2016 it’s name was changed back to Boggy Peak. No one suggested it be renamed Mount Trump.
Yesterday we decided we ought to climb it, boggy or not, especially as the Lonely Plant guide said you could drive to the top. Oh no you can’t, at least not in a small hire car with little ground clearance. I manfully negotiated lots of pot holes and gullies made by the rain but we had to abandon the car about a mile from the top.
On we climbed on foot (in 30 degree heat) to find a big fence surrounding the summit where Cable & Wireless had their aerials. Undaunted we managed to scramble round the perimeter to admire a wonderful view of Jolly Harbour (picture below).
We deserved our dip in the sea after that excursion, we discovered the sea in the bays on the south west of the island is much warmer although this relative, nowhere in Antigua is the sea cold.