Saturday, March 8, 2025
Thankfully today turned out to be a complete 180 compared to yesterday.
In 2012 we had taken a southern Caribbean cruise out of San Juan with our good friends J & K. They had booked the cruise with J's sister and brother-in-law and we sort of invited ourselves to join them. It was impossible for me to be booked on a cruise without going into extreme planning mode and luckily they were happy to let me find most of the tours for the six of us. For our stop in St. Kitts, I found a tour guide named Royston who had good reviews online and was available for a private tour.
The day we spent with Royston was one of our favorite tours ever so when we booked this Eurodam cruise last summer Royston was one of the first contacts I made. A couple of months went by and I hadn't heard from Royston so I found another tour online and made reservations.
In November I got an email back from Royston who said he had been busy with other work and had taken some time off from the tour business during the summer. He said he would be available to do a private tour for the four of us so I immediately cancelled the other tour I had booked and told Royston we would LOVE to spend the day with him. (If you decide you would like to spend the day with Royston, you can contact him at: roystontours@hotmail.com)
When the Eurodam docked, I realized it was near Port Zante where we had been before, but a little further away from the cruise terminal and hence a longer walk to where we were to meet Royston. I checked and discovered that the new dock had been built in 2019.
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| A long walk... |
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| Google Maps |
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| It makes me feel old, but I brought my cane. |
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| Entrance to the cruise terminal. |
Royston was easy to find right after we walked through the cruise terminal. Since it had been 13 years since our last visit, Bob and I were surprised to see Royston was still driving the same van that we had been in before. (And it was in rough shape back then!) There was still no air conditioning and no glass in the windows. I got a little damp when we drove through a brief rain shower, but the absence of glass made for some great photos out the window!
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| Not much to look at, but the van got us where we needed to go! |
The traffic getting out of the city of Basseterre was quite heavy. There were many times that I thought we were going to take the paint off the side of the van because we squeezed through so closely. Eventually we got out past the edge of town and the traffic thinned out. (I was glad I wasn't driving!)
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| Looking back at the Eurodam. |
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| 😄 |
Royston began the tour by going to Timothy Hill where there is a gorgeous overlook with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Caribbean on the other. But Royston didn't go to the traditional spot where other tours go. He took a road that was barely passable and went almost straight up the hill.
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| Royston didn't look like he had aged a day since we last saw him in 2012! |
That was just the beginning of many, many routes that he took away from the main road system. Some of the roads were littered with rock slides, others cracked and caving in from past earthquakes and still other routes where there was no road at all...just grass littered with large rocks. I don't know how his van keeps going but it made for a fun and adventuresome day!
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| Such a steep road! |
At one stop I stayed in the van while Jon, Michelle and Bob walked down to a beach. (I knew it would be hard for me to navigate.) While they were gone, Royston took the opportunity to do a little maintenance on his carburetor!
Royston continued on to the far eastern tip of the island and from there we could see across to the island of Nevis.
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| The blue dot was our location. |
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| Royston said this is referred to as the "million dollar road"...quite a feat to build! |
On the way back into the city, Royston phoned in an order for roti for our lunch. We had our choice of beef, chicken or conch which was in a curry sauce and wrapped in a flatbread. When we arrived at the cafe, Royston ran in and picked up the paper bag with our order.
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| It amazes me how such beautiful flowers can grow in some of the worst conditions! |
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| Royston stopped here to pick up our lunch. |
After picking up the food, Royston made a quick stop at a gas station so we could use the restroom and then started our drive around the island in a clockwise direction.
We made a stop at Romney Manor which was the home of Thomas Jefferson's great-great grandfather. Or possibly one more "great". There seemed to be a little discrepancy on how many generations there were prior to Thomas. The flowers and trees were just beautiful. This was also the location of the Caribelle batik factory.
We walked through the gift shop at the batik factory admiring the beautiful (and costly) fabrics and clothing. A lady working there gave us a demonstration of how the batik is created. I purchased a panel that we framed on our last visit so we did not purchase anything but Michelle did buy two bright colored pillow covers and some "fat quarters" to use for quilting projects.
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| This is the same print that I purchased in 2012...just a different color. |
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| An example of the batik process. |
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| Bob sort of blends in with his tie dye shirt! 😄 |
On our last visit we had watched monkeys playing in the trees near a beach and I had mentioned this to Royston. I'm not sure if there wasn't time to get to that area...or if maybe the monkeys aren't always there, but anyway...Royston pulled over to a small road-side shop and bought some bananas. He didn't say anything and I thought at first they were to be part of our lunch? But shortly after he pulled over next to a cage by the road...and fed the monkeys! 😀
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| Royston buying bananas. |
Royston drove to a beautiful overlook and pulled over so we could eat our lunch. He also had a cooler filled with bottled water, beer and Ting soda which we were anxious to try. The soda was grapefruit flavored, similar to Squirt...but better.
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| Our lunch time view of Nevis. |
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| Loved this! |
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| Conch roti. |
From there we drove down to the shore side where there were many small boats tied up in the water plus many more on shore that had seen better days. Jon noticed there were a lot of conch shells laying on the beach so he and Bob got out a collected some to take home to the grandkids. They all had holes cut in them where the fishermen had cleaned out the conch meat and before discarding the shells.
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| Shell hunting. |
It was getting close to the time we needed to get back to the ship so we told Royston that we didn't want to take time to visit Brimstone Hill Fortress, a site that is normally included in a St. Kitt tour. We had visited there the last time and knew it would take more time than we wanted to spend.
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| A distant view of Brimstone Hill Fortress at the top of the hill. |
Royston was going to head back to the ship but asked us if he could take us to one more place he thought we would like to see and he started down the bumpiest road ever. At the end of the lane we discovered another stone windmill but this one had been overgrown by a banyan tree. It reminded me of photos that I have seen of ancient Cambodian temples covered by tree roots.
At that point I thought we were going straight back to the ship, but Royston decided to make one additional stop...at Black Rocks. The rock formations there were formed by molten lava flowing into the ocean water and most island tours make a stop here.
Finally back at the port we said our goodbyes to Royston and made the trek back to the ship. Jon and Michelle quickly changed into swimsuits and went up to the Sea View Pool. Bob and I took time to shower and change and eventually we all met up at the buffet. It was Caribbean night so there were many interesting items on the menu. One of the best dishes I had was the sweet potato and sausage soup!
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| Port Zante |
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| Sailing away from St. Kitts |
After eating, Jon suggested we go up to Deck 10 and check out the arcade. Normally the space was used just for the youth, but since there were almost no kids on the cruise they had opened it up for any to use for free. We tried several of the games, including ski ball, air hockey, etc.
Island Magic was on the World Stage for their 2nd performance of this cruise (and our 4th time to see them!) Most of the songs we had heard on the first leg of our itinerary but I think I noticed a couple of new ones. They are such outstanding performers!!
All four of us were tired after our busy day and headed back to the cabin right after the show. One more port still left to go tomorrow...
