Friday 17th – Thursday 22nd September 2022

And just like that, the house-sitting assignment comes to an end and it’s time for us to move to pastures new. Although parts of the last 5 weeks have been tricky, that can’t be denied, our overall experience has been amazing and one to be remembered for a long long time – for all sorts of reasons!

Last Friday we took the mile wander up the road again, to Roses Bar, with the intention of saying our goodbyes. Turned into a fun session with Brad, Rose and all the chaps – they certainly like a drink and a chat. We introduced Brad to our blog and he loved it – he showed lots of the customers, feeling famous as he was so largely featured. We stayed longer than intended as we were being bought drinks and didn’t want to appear rude. But we tore ourselves away at 6.30pm as it was getting dark and we still had a supermarket shop to do … and that closed at 7.00pm. We did however get talked into going back up for a final beer and goodbye on our final evening here – Wednesday.

Masseys, the supermarket, is across the road from Roses Bar and even getting that far we got pretty wet as the rain had started. We’d just got inside though when the heavens opened and there was an almighty downpour. The metal roofs in these parts certainly alert you to the situation. Feeling a little ‘merry’ after a few beers we were still relaxed about the storm outside, the mile walk home in the dark and the heavy bags we were clearly going to have to carry … it’ll be fine!! Towards the end of our shop, and by miraculous coincidence, we came across a young English couple … these are the first non-local people we have met in the last 5 weeks. So of course we got chatting and exchanged our stories – they really were sweet. They have just moved to live in St. Lucia and are so excited about their adventure. It just happened to come up in conversation that we had no car so they very kindly offered us a lift down to nearer our accommodation – we accepted without hesitation. They dropped us at the top of our lane so we just had a 10 minute squelchy walk down the muddy overgrown path to the house – we were like drowned rats when we got home – I think we even scared the cats!! But we’d had a great couple of hours and now had enough supplies for the rest of our stay.

We’ve had so much rain, thunder and lightning this week – a real tropical storm. There’s always sunshine in between though and things dry up so quickly. We’re still swimming everyday and making sure we enjoy these last few days of having a swimming pool to ourselves – that really has been such a luxury. We’ve even swum in the rain this week – no time to waste! And a couple more after dinner skinny-dipping swims too. I can’t begin to explain the marvel of floating in the dark under the magnificent array of stars, there’s very little light pollution here – that memory will stay with me forever. And because, as many of you will know, we always have music playing, we’ve discovered that late night pool dancing is on another level to kitchen dancing – absolutely magical and hilarious. Thought of all our fellow kitchen-dancers, including Immy!

We had an early rise on Monday, 5.00am, to be able to watch the Queen’s funeral live. My goodness, what a send off, it just couldn’t have been any better, so appropriate and deserved. Thrilled that so many people turned out to show their respects and the pageantry was something else. We couldn’t believe how seven mesmerising hours slipped by … and we’d only had a cup of tea. Betyann was in cleaning that day and watched some of it with us – she was absolutely fascinated. We tried our best to explain who was who and why we did things in such an extraordinary way – like all of us, I don’t think she’ll ever forget the spectacle of how we said goodbye to our beloved Queen Elizabeth II.

On Tuesday we spent quite a few hours making sure everything was ship-shape for the Doc’s return on Wednesday afternoon. It’s been so disappointing for Steve not to have the lawn at its best, due to broken mower, after all the effort he put into it in the first couple of weeks. But inside and out we made sure everything looked marvellous for the homecoming – our job was done. We’ve even managed to keep the cats alive!!!

As the Doc arrived back after a 2 day journey from Upstate New York, we grabbed Presley to drive us up to the bar for our final night beers. Turns out Presley has his own bar just near Roses so we stopped in there for a couple first (there were a lot more females at that one). And then on to Roses. We were given such a lovely farewell – people we hadn’t met before turned up as they’d heard about us and wanted to meet us before we left. A fair few rounds of beers ensued and much much laughter – we will treasure that night always. Presley gave us a lift home and we had a lovely chat with the Doc over dinner and wine.

Oh my goodness, there is SO much we are going to miss about house-sitting in River Doree, Choiseul. The views of the Caribbean Sea at the bottom of the garden and the views of the Pitons as we walk up the road. Picking fresh fruit from the garden and enjoying local foods that are kindly donated by the villagers. The ready smiles and ‘hellos’ from everybody we see. Although we hated it at first, we’ve even grown fond of the night-time jungle noises – so atmospheric. We’ll miss our lovely furry chaps – Tabby and Bebe – they’ve been an absolute joy. The birds too – our increasing number of egrets, the magnificent frigate birds which soar above us each day and the stunning hummingbirds. We’ll certainly miss the swimming pool and the relaxation it’s brought us … and from our sun loungers waving to the British Airways flight as it comes into land around 3.00pm each afternoon. And it’s hard to say goodbye to our new friends – travelling is the best adventure but always brings the sadness of farewells – we will miss seeing Betyann, Paul, Presley, Ian and all the lovely folk at Roses Bar.

And then it was time to say goodbye to the Doc, the house, the pool (after a final swim in the rain) and the cats. Presley is driving us up the East Coast of the island today, stopping off at some sights, on our way to our new home for the next 4 days at Bay Gardens Resort in Rodney Bay. The rain has been pouring all morning – raining tears as we depart this little piece of Paradise.

‘The Doctor’s Inn’ …. we’re out!!