Brash Aruba

Brash is maybe a little unkind to Aruba. It's only brash in comparison with Bonaire which had a pleasant simplicity about it.

It was before dawn when we entered the port in Oranjestad, and we hadn't really been aware of the manoeuvring necessary to put Black Watch alongside the quay.

It was with some surprise that we looked out of our cabin window and saw people walking on the water about 100 yards (or metres if you prefer) away from the ship. We eventually realised that they were actually walking along a reef which ran parallel with the shore and that we were in quite a narrow channel (for ships the size of Black Watch).

I was even more surprised when going up on deck for an early breakfast, via the pool, there, right behind us, invading our pool privacy, was a rather larger ship. Yes, it was Britannia again. We hoped that the 4,400 passengers wouldn't be taking quite all the resources of little Aruba.

As we only had the morning in Aruba, everything started a bit earlier than normal. We had a 4½ hour tour of Aruba to fit in before the ship departed at 2pm so the, now familiar, routine of assembling in the Neptune Lounge preceded our introduction to Beth...(?), our pleasant young guide,

aboard our pleasantly cool, air-conditioned bus. It was, according to the bus's display, already 26°C outside.

Beth (can't remember her exact name) kept up a running commentary of everything we could see, even the roadworks and the reasons for them!

In due course we got to the sizeable desalination plant producing drinking water for the whole island. I didn't bother photographing that - if you've seen one desalination plant, you've seen them all.

If we'd had more time on Aruba, we could have apparently taken a tour of the plant (probably would have been quite interesting actually).

Stopping by the desalination plant, we transferred to a small jetty to await our next adventure: a fast ferry to our undersea exploration of the coral reef.

A pelican was one bird I hadn't yet seen (or flamingos which are also common), though Barbara saw some.

En route to the next boat though, we did see a lovely great egret take off nearby.

A few minutes later, we reached our next boat, a semi-submersible designed originally in Australia for viewing the Great Barrier Reef.

An odd looking craft, most of it is underwater where the passengers sit:

And off we went, cruising the reef with many fish and different corals to see. Not very photogenic though, as the reef was 30 feet or so below us, so there was a lot of seawater in between us and the scenery.

After our statutory 30 minutes or so, we transferred back to the ferry to return to the bus.

Halfway back, I became aware of three black, menacing looking ribs (rigid inflatable boats) chasing us, or so it seemed.

Pirates I suggested to Barbara. She agreed that they did look rather unusual. It was just like a scene from a James Bond film, they were weaving around as if to make themselves a more difficult target to shoot at.

As they closed in, they really did look seriously dangerous .....

And then close up, the danger was confirmed:

But with a friendly wave, having established that we weren't smugglers, the coastguards (presumably) swung around and went off to play elsewhere.

Excitement over, it was back to the cool bus, and Beth's fun commentary en route to the wild east coast.

The approach to the 'rock bridge' was via a rocky, sandy track. Our bus driver didn't think it was sufficiently different to a normal road and kept up a good speed, overtaking several other vehicles which were more cautious with their passengers.

The original 'rock bridge' was quite big, but that had collapsed some years ago, so we could only see the son-of 'rock bridge' ...

Quite good, but not a patch on Durdle Door. The rocks and wild waves were good though.

Back to the (relative) comfort of the bus and back along the rough track to a rather larger version of the many granite boulders which are strewn across the island.

This one was worth climbing as it gave quite a good view.

On then, via the gold mine the Spanish Conquistadors had failed to find many centuries ago, to the island's lighthouse.

It was hot and windy and very touristy there. I felt rather sorry for the poor parrot, chained to a perch to attract the tourists, with no food or water ...

Back on the bus after the obligatory 15 minutes retail therapy, the bus display was showing

Quite hot for us cold-weather Brits.

And back to the ship, via the hotel district. Lots of very plush places to stay, at suitably plush prices.

A light lunch as we left sunny Aruba behind, the usual loud 'sail-away' party on the back deck with a band and many people dancing, and, free drinks courtesy of Fred Olsen.

Non-alcoholic of course!