Kate and Andy wandering

Over the last 2 months we have celebrated both of our birthdays and our 20th wedding anniversary, we have completed 3 pretty big projects, been on a trip around the island and had guests to stay. Great times... For our anniversary we travelled to the opposite corner of the island and stayed at Jungle Bay. A lovely experience and an opportunity to explore an area we haven't been to. Our hike to Sari Sari falls was a real hi-light and quite an adventure. Between trips and other jobs we finally finished the kitchen with just one day to spare. We ripped out everything and built what we have wanted for the last 3 years. There are no fitted kitchens here, we designed and built it from timber, ply, tiles and paint. When Sue and Patricia came ... read more

We have comfortably settled into island life and love it. After initially missing all the family and the first couple of weeks of problems and repairs, we have been able to enjoy our surroundings and catch up with friends. So the problems of those first couple of weeks… well the car needed new brake pads and lights to pass its annual inspection… the dishwasher was broken so fixed that… the brakes failed on the car (rear cylinder seal) – on a rather steep winding road, scary… we replaced the broken hinges on our bedroom door… also replaced a broken door handle… the brakes failed on the car again (cylinder seal again)… we got the house phone re-connected… and the brakes failed on the car again (cylinder replacement this time). The car is working fine now but ... read more

Our last guest this summer was Andy's mum, Jill. But before that we should go back a few weeks. Before Helen and Chris came onboard, we had delivered our 2-year-old netbook to an engineer in a hopeful attempt to fix it. So our first task after they left was to return to Fethiye to discover the result. With no reply on the phone we went to the shop to find it closed. After enquiries we discovered it was Ramadan – just our luck. 3 days later the news was bad, the netbook was dead. We left with the hard drive re-packaged so at least we had all our documents and photos. Within 2 days we had ordered a replacement netbook to be delivered to Leeds – Jill would bring it with her. Other incidents in the ... read more

For a month we sailed quietly through a few Greek Islands and down the Turkish coast. We came to Fethiye to meet up with Tom, Linda and Glen, and then things got busy! We were very excited about havng Tom on board and from the start he took to the boat and everything we did was 'fantastic' - well apart from the pump toilet which he thought was very wierd! Along the way Tom experienced helming, winching, swimming, snorkelling, diving, water skiiing, jet ski, multiple inflatables, water tennis, frisbee, fender racing, being towed behind the boat on a rope, driving the dinghy, rowing the dinghy and so much more. We swam around an underwater town and visited a roman amphitheatre, and he even saw 2 shooting stars when we were star gazing at night on the ... read more

Never can you have so much fun with so little effort! Just sit back and let the river take you - this is not an extreme sport! We were taken very good care of by Malin and David from River Tubing Dominica - rivertubingda@hotmail.com - from the tubes being brought down to the river to managing the floating bar (a coolbox with its own tube). Periods of calm drifting and gentle chats with other floaters were broken by bursts of speed along narrower stretches, usually involving bouncing off rocks and disorientating spinning. All this under the canopy of the rainforest without any sign of civilisation. So a couple of hours after leaving Hibiscus Cottages, after much laughing and squeeling, the occasional beer and a long stop at a beach en-route, we hauled our tubes out at ... read more