Welcome to St Kitts & Nevis, my 140th Visit UN Country and 136th Run Country out of a UN total of 193. This is our second and final visit of this island so refer to Post 7 for statistics, history and interesting facts about this destination.
Our second visit to St Kitts & Nevis Started at 750am with my first steps off the ship first. Herz picked us up at 815am and by 845am I was running and Bundy was walking away from our car parked at Herz. My groin behaved and my quads were almost back to normal but boy was it humid and hot – even at 9am – this is why we run/walk as soon as we get our car. Took us ages to cool down with the car aircon at its arctic lowest. We stopped off at a bakery for a leek and parmesan pastry and iced lattes all round. The day was excellent with tons of sun streaming down and the waters surrounding the island super clear and so blue. Chamberlains Balcony (Viewpoint) offered terrific views back to the capital and it all distances very small. The south of Kitts is hilly, green and void of jungle or rainforest – very different from our past few islands. St Kitts is uncrowded and spread out and very easy to drive. We stopped off at Major’s Bay where the car ferry travels to Nevis Island to the south. From here we swung around to Cockshell Beach where small power boats take you St Nevis. The beach there is quite crowded, sporting music and bars along the length of the beach. We caught a small but powerful boat to cut through the 3.2km crossing over to Nevis. We arrived there at noon and made arrangements to travel back at 130pm. Nevis is one giant extinct volcano popping out of the sea – 13km by 10km with a population close to 13,000. It is extremely idyllic with hardly any cars or people. The power boats pull into a tiny concrete pier at Oualie Beach, which is absolutely spotless and a pleasure to swim. I spotted a local guy dressed in a Herz T-Shirt and asked him if he would take us to historic Cottle Church, only 1.6km away but way too hot to walk. He obliged. Turned out that he was an ex-professional cricketer having played League Cricket for 9 years in Yorkshire (one level down from County Cricket). You will need to see Bundy’s interview with Tony to find out what role he played and what he thinks of modern-day cricket – a true slice of West Indies Cricket – we are so lucky we came across him. Cottle Church is just walls now but in good condition. It was built post-slavery in 1824 and was the first church in the Caribbean to see freed slaves and their masters attend mass together for the very first time – amazing. We enjoyed a swim back at Oualie before catching the boat back across to St Kitts. One more stop at a supermarket and we handed the hire car back without having to refuel it – we had only driven 34km and our car was so economical that the fuel gauge had not retreated from full – our first free fuel !!! Got back to the ship at 3pm and sailed away at 5pm. It was a very fulfilling day with a very striking set of images of Nevis to accompany St Kitts – we hope you enjoy them…
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