Mike discovers that spending the night with his legs pressed against the mosquito net is not a good idea – he has about 30 bites on one knee alone. Given that he is not normally prone to being bitten, and if he does get a bite, it doesn’t normally itch, these itchy buggers come as quite a surprise. The whole of the lower part of both legs have been got at – he looks like a skinny kid with measles!
I am fast running out of clean clothes so we arrange to go to Penny’s to pick a few things up. Malcolm takes us to the car hire place and guess what, the hire car we had ‘booked’ has been given to someone else. The lady says that she has another one due in if we want to hang around and wait, which we do, but when it comes in, it’s a tiny little thing which won’t make it up the steep hillside. In the end we settle for their old van which at least has 4-wheel drive and lots of room to put the boxes in.
We head up the coast road towards Penny’s then turn off up the hill towards her house. It has rained a lot in the last couple of weeks and the road is in even worse condition than it was when we were last here. The vegetation all around is lush and spreads inwards from both sides and the edges of the road are all chewed up and disappearing over the edge. I grow even more nervous as we climb. When I see the state of the dug up bit at the end of Penny’s drive, I get out and walk the last few yards then watch, heart thumping, as Mike attempts to get the car round the 120 degree bend and over the large step to the tarmac. The wheels spin and the car slides backwards towards the edge. I am now crying with terror even though Mike has his seatbelt off and the car door ajar so that he can leap out if the worst happens. It nearly does but thankfully the car just gets stuck at an impossible angle and he is able to go no further.
He abandons the feeble wreck of a car and joins me to walk the rest of the way. We look once more at the mountain of boxes and bags that Penny has babysat for us for the last few months. We feel bad about not removing it all now but there is nowhere to store it all at Maclolm’s so we just take a few clothes to tide us over, promising to be back in a few days time to take some of it away at least.
Candace goes to St Thomas with Robin so I cook for the three of us introducing Malcolm to Patak’s sauces. I find a willing convert.
The next day Mike gets a replacement car although it’s still not the one we ordered. In fact it turns out to be the one that he backed into the wall at the Bananakeet Cafe in May. Surprise, surprise, the repairs that we paid over $400 for are still not done, the damage there for all to see!
However, at least this one gets up Penny’s drive although I walk up again. We sort out some boxes and take away about a third, as much as we can stuff into the car. Soon, Penny, soon, these boxes will be a distant memory – promise!
We discover that the treacherous BVI humidity has got to our bed linen giving it that unpleasant earthy smell, so a visit to the launderette is required. No more Freemans for me – I find a brand new one near Sea Cows Bay, beautifully clean and well ordered. They sell drinks and pastries, have a huge table for folding stuff and the most enormous fan I have ever seen. Only the biggest, strongest mosquitoes can get through the door when that thing is on, and of course they find Mike and I for their dinner and desert! Buggers!
In the evening we go out with Candace and Malcolm for a meal. I am amazed to see a bottle of Amarula behind the bar and order a large one. It was one of my favourite discoveries in South Africa, sort of like Baileys in taste and consistency, but not whiskey, just fermented fruit. Better than Baileys any day. Yummy – cheers, mine’s a large one (well there’s no Sauvignon Blanc).
No comments:
Post a Comment