Lazy day in Tyrrell's Bay and a gourmet delight at night!

Tyrrell's Bay Yacht Club

Bruce, Gina & Mal in Slipway Restaurant

2 x Juvenile Iguanas

Good spot for a quiet one!

Yesterday, we motored back to Tyrrell's Bay (just round corner from Sandy Island) and decided to do some exploration of the village. We picked up a mooring in close and then tied up the dinghy at the Yacht Club. Had lunch at Slipway Restaurant next door - gorgeous little place on the beach - the boys had grown a little tired of fresh salads every lunch so were ecstatic that hamburgers with fries were on the menu! Gina and I had fresh passionfruit juice - unbelievably good; it tasted pure with no added sugar and cost us $2AU! A small stubby of beer is around $2.50AU. We all had a hamburger but this was a little more upmarket than greasy joe's. Finely diced red cabbage coleslaw, dill pickles and the best fries were the accompaniments. Over here they ask how you want your hamburger cooked: rare, medium or well done - 4 well done thanks! The restaurant is only a year old and was built on an old shipyard. They had some fabulous rustic machinery that they'd turned into chairs, tables and ornaments that really gave the place character. We all loved it!

We spent the afternoon walking through the village, stopping for a beer and picking up the odd piece of fruit from the roadside stalls. We met a couple of guys, with six-packs you wouldn't believe, catching their evening meal: baby iguana. They had two about a foot long. Apparently they are juveniles, can grow to 2-3 feet and are prevalent on the island.  During our walk we came across a sailmaker, Andy of Stitches, and Gina and Bruce engaged him to make some additions to a weather cover between the biminy and the deck. Andy is an Englishman who would be in his 60s and who, after sailing the Caribbean for 30 years, settled in Tyrrell's Bay. He likes that it is undeveloped from a tourist point of view in comparison to the rest of the Caribbean. He introduced us to his South American Red-legged Tortoise who he is helping recuperate after coming in contact with a lawnmower. She had lost one of her front legs but he was pleasantly surprised when she laid an egg the other day so feels she is on the road to recovery.

Sth American red-spotted tortoise

During the afternoon we met Malcolm Fraser, a local taxi driver. When I told him this was the same name as a previous PM of Oz, he knew and we all laughed. We negotiated a fare for him to take us that evening to a restaurant called The Round House at Bogles, north of Hillsborough. This had received a write up in Lonely Planet and Gourmet Traveller a few years ago. We were not disappointed - what a great meal.

The Round House @ Bogles aka Bilbo Baggins home

B, S, M & G dining at The Round House

For starters Gina & Mal had calamari that was sooooo tender,  Bruce had a blue cheese and bacon salad and I had a double baked blue cheese souffle with rocket - to die for! We had a very nice Italian pinot grigio and then came our mains: Mal & Bruce enjoyed lamb shanks in a red wine jus - the lamb just fell off the bone and the flavour was gorgeous. Gina had barracouda and I had lobster with a red pepper, butter sauce! We both loved our mains too and promptly ordered another bottle of the pinot grigio. All of this was great but the venue was really interesting too. It is a little round house made from large round stones that you would think was made for Frodo or Bilbo Baggins overlooking a small bay. Everything about the house is round; the windows, the tables, the central trunk, the placemats, etc. The owner, Roxanne, is English and came to Carriacou with her parents when she was six. She is an exceptional chef and recommended the chocolate fondant to finish. We ordered 1 per couple and weren't disappointed. It is made with Grenada's 100% organic cocoa and the runny centre exploded out of the chocolate "cake". It was accompanied by vanilla and chocolate icecream. Happiness is......   We finished the evening with an espresso coffee - who could ask for anything more? Malcolm Fraser arrived to take us back to our dinghy at Tyrrell's Bay where we zoomed across the water to Wyuna. On the other side of the bay we could hear the great music from a local Steel Band at one of the shoreline restaurants - gosh they were great so the four of us lay out under a full moon on the "trampoline" part of the cat. A perfect finish to another great day in The Caribbean.

Today is Saturday and Gina & I went ashore to drop off our washing at the local laundry cum supermarket (who suggested we return at 1pm to collect it) and then took a bus into Hillsborough for some food shopping. What's so funny about the buses is that they will pick you up anywhere and take you anywhere you want to go, so you never really know how long it will take you to get to where you are going. Gina & I ended up seeing a lot more of the island than we had planned but that's ok mon, we're not in any hurry because we're now on Caribbean time! People hop on with all sorts of things from buckets of fish to petrol canisters; people come out of a home to give the driver who has slowed down a cooked meal; everyone knows everyone. The island only has a population of 9,000. A woman with a baby hopped on but someone else ended up holding the baby; the children are so gorgeous and you never hear a peep out of them.

We finally arrived at Hillsborough and got our goodies. Most of the shops close around 12.30pm  so we just made it in time. Caught the bus home and, yes you guessed it, we made a small detour to a shop someone wanted to visit. Had great baguettes with salad back on board and then at 2pm off in the dinghy to the "laundry" to collect our neatly folded clothes. Wrong! Try coming back in half an hour; what the heck, make it a couple of hours. Off we go zooming again! Back at 4pm and fortunately everything is dry but not quite folded. No problem mon, we're cool, we'll take it anyway. All in all, it's clean, dry and we're happy.

Dinner on board tonight. Love to everyone, S, M, G & B. xox