Barbados - Day 8

David picked me up early in the morning and took me out to a fabulous breakfast. Beautiful setting in a hotel not far from mine. After breakfast I suggested he come up as Athelstone was picking me up to take me out for the day. DaSo -vid hadn't seen Athelstone since he had left college. We once were all great friends - David, Athelstone, Carol and I, yet even though they lived on the same island, they all had completely separate lives now. I had managed to find David on Facebook a year before my trip, but neither Athelstone or Carol were on there.

So - when Athelstone arrived... a bit of a reunion, and some photos.  It was hard to get me in the photo though as they are both so tall!

Afterwards, Athelstone took me to meet Carol. a small reunion outside her work. It was so lovely to see her again after all these years.

 Next stop was to Athelstones home where I got to meet his lovely wife.

And his garden.

Then we hit the road. This is an amazing rock formation which has had lovely bright artwork painted on it.

Then Athelstone dropped me back to Huntes Garden for half an hour as I wanted to get some more Hummingbird shots seeing we don't have hummingbirds in New Zealand.

He picked me up afterwards and took me to the abandoned church at Horse Hill.  Apparently there had been some excavations on the road to fix the road, then some heavy rain, and the hill started slipping..

Sugar cane... When I was there the island was covered with sugar cane, these days there isn't as much and therefore some mills have ben abandoned.

 St Johns Church, which I visited when I was in Barbados in 1979. It really hadn't changed at all.

The church back in 1979...

 I got to photograph more chattel houses dotted around the island...

And met up with another school friend whom I had forgotten, but slowly remembered.

We drove through the city.. Bridgetown

And sadly got dropped back at the hotel. I had a very early start in the morning so after saying my sad goodbyes to Athelstone, headed up to pack.  I had such a great day, really enjoyed the company, and seeing so much of Barbados.  I still think I saw more of Barbados in the week I was here, than in all the time I lived there in 1979.

I would still love to go back and spend longer. I feel I didn't get enough beach time, or time to explore Bridgetown. There were other gardens I wanted to visit but ran out of time.  Barbados will be forever with me. It seeped into psyche when I was 17 and has never really left. I'm grateful for the great friendships I made and hope that my friends will visit me one day here in New Zealand. They'll have to come in summer - they will never survive the winter temperatures!