Wild Barbuda
28 February 2010
Barbuda is a pretty wild country where horses, deer and donkeys run free and where the beaches are notably longer and more beautiful than anywhere else in the Caribbean! We should in theory have had a blissful few days here alas the weather did not permit. On our first afternoon when the bad weather was still at bay we had a lovely time on the beach - the sand is the deepest we have ever trodden on and just glorious underfoot. That night high winds, huge swell and rain kicked in and Barbuda offered very little protection against this.
Our grand plan was to get away from the island and get to our next stop, St Barts, to take shelter. But we had to clear customs before this (many of the Caribbean islands are different countries and you have to check into and then out of customs - Antigua and Barbuda are the same country so we had checked in in Antigua and planned to check out in Barbuda). What a mission this turned out to be! The dinghy ride ashore was pretty scary and we had a job to keep us all in the boat, particularly when we landed it on the beach - we were soaked! We then had to walk across country to find the hotel from where we could call a taxi to take us into the capital Codrington - we waded through rock pools with jellyfish in and were attacked by prickles with barbed spikes on the ground - our feet were so sore! We finally got a taxi and headed straight for Customs - the 'office' was a run down house with a hand painted 'customs' sign outside - the door was answered by a young guy and Jason was nearly knocked out by the smell of hash coming from inside - the guy produced the necessary forms and then went back inside to continue his smoke while Jay filled them out! Completely mental! We were very happy to get back on BattCat and set sail for St Barts!