St Lucia

On Saturday morning we were on the road just after 4am, coffee at the ready. The trip went by relatively quickly with just a short stop to grab a Red Bull. Just before 7am we pulled into the “complex”, La Rochelle, where everybody was waiting. After nearly two years of dating Sharon I finally met her brother, his wife, and there 6 month old son. The ladies whipped up a quick breakfast of eggs, sausage, tomatoes, etc, and then the day began.

Sharon’s highlight of the weekend was discovering the existence of a table tennis table, and soon we had the bats and were knocking the ball around. This was followed by a swim in the pool – after all, it was well over 30 degrees. After staying in the pool until we had all ages by 10-20 years, we headed back to the house for lunch.

After lunch we decided it was time to leave the complex, and we headed to the mouth of the lagoon to look at the hippos. The water seemed rather high and dirty, which is probably a result fo all the rain we’ve been having. Then again, what do I know, I’ve never been there before. The hippos at the mouth we playing close to the bank, and we stood and watched them for half an hour or so. There must have been close to 15 of them, including some calves.

When we’d eventually seen enough we went for a short walk along the walkway, and then headed back to the house. Sharon and I headed out for a quick game of putt-putt (yes, the complex had a 9 hole course), and then were back into the pool for some more wrinkly fun. Eventually the day started drawing to a close, and we headed home for a fantastic South Africa braai including chicken, wors and steak.

Sharon and I had booked the jacuzzi for the evening, so at around 9pm we dropped our towels, and started to climb in. Clearly there had been a printing fault on the sign, as the skin on our legs began to bubble and peeled away from our bodies. WTF?! No human can stand water that hot! I was soon proved wrong as Sharon’s boet calmly climbed in. Damn these British people. There was still no chance I was getting in, so we headed for the office to find out how to adjust the temperature. We were soon told you can’t (I’m sure the office is employing idiots) and just had to grin and bear it. The did however come and top it up with a bit of cool water. This did allow me to “relax” in it for about 5 minutes before I’d turned a lovely pink. So much for a romantic jacuzzi…We gave up on that idea, and instead had a swim in the pool. Much better!

Sunday proved to be another day of relaxing around the pool. We had another good breakfast, watched some cricket, and then were back in the water. We also had another few games of table tennis and putt-putt, and before we knew it, it was time to leave. We said our goodbyes, climbed in the car, and started the 2 and a half hour drive back to Durban.

So I’ve now been to St Lucia. It seems like a great place, but sadly I didn’t get to fish, or go out on the lagoon. I guess there’s always next time!