Thursday
16 Jan – Guadeloupe – My Birthday!
25°C
E
Force 3
I
woke around 6am and Caryll gave me her card and present. I also opened the
other cards I had brought with me. We arrived at Pointe a Pitre around 8am and were off the ship by
8.10 ready for our tour to Parc des Mamelles.
I was surprised how different
this French Island appeared against the others on this cruise. Lots of run-down
areas against modern newly-built parts and a rolling landscape similar to parts of western Europe - were it not for the pineapples and sugar cane in the fields - and of course the rain forest we were heading towards..
At
the Parc we followed a one-way trail of wooden walkways, and a free-hanging
bridge! Animals were in compounds but it wasn’t like a zoo and birds freely
flew around the rainforest trees. There
were parrots, racoons, tortoises, turtles, iguanas etc.
 |
| Brown Trembler |
At the entrance/exit I
stood and photographed the hummingbirds feeding at a feeder there. I love watching the hummingbirds!
We all had a
fruit punch and then drove to a waterfall – the Cascade des Ecrivisses. As we
arrived there was a downpour, but we donned our rain jackets and walked the
short distance to the falls. The rain amongst the leaves was very soothing.
Back
in Pointe a Pitre, we walked around the colourful market by the ship where I bought a hand-carved wooden hummingbird for 8 Euros. Then we walked into town – but it very run down and I found the people a
bit unfriendly, especially in comparison with our previous stops. After
the vegetable market etc we headed back to the ship.
There
was an announcement from the captain (Andy Willard) just before departure that he would be
leaving us tomorrow and Simon Terry taking over. He also officially
announced the re-branding of P&O Cruises and the new livery of a painted Union flag on the bow and blue funnels with
gold logo. Personally I'm not convinced by this new colour scheme and to me it looks very NCL. Might work on the new Britannia - but on Oriana?? Not the best birthday present!
After
sailaway we went down to wash and change. We had cocktail in Tiffanys before
going into dinner. The table was nicely decorated with balloons and my table mates kindly gave me a card and gift. And best of all the waiters
sang happy birthday. After dinner we went
to the Syndicate Quiz where everyone also sang Happy Birthday to me and we came
joint second! Probably my best birthday ever - at least as an adult.
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