Saba (The Caribean)

After Miami I headed to St Martin where I met my friend Shona at the airport before we jumped this tiny plane over to the Caribean Island of Saba.

Shona arriving at Saba´s airport.

For our first ever Caribean island we didn´t exactly pick a typical one when we chose Saba the smallest island of the Netherland Antilles which is actually the tip of an extinct volcano and not a sandy beach in site - but that was the reason we picked here as it is different from our next island and the diving was rated as some of the best in the Caribean.

El Momo Cottages where we were staying in Saba.

Shona on her first dive where she could see beyond her fingers - she had just finished her diving course in the Lakes at home - not much difference really!!

Me practising my underwater signs.

Shona and me.

Marcus and Steve our dive guides.

Shona and the other divers exploring the beautiful corals and finding some fish.

A tiny gold bug!

A big eared goat!

On the boat between dives.

A Turtle eating it´s breakfast.

A Squirrell fish

Lots of fish and corals.

Shona & Marcus.

Jessica one of the other divers on our boat.

I loved the patterns on this trunk fish.

Mount Scenery is not only the highest point in Saba but I am told the highest in all of the Netherlands at a great height of 2,864feet!! Most afternoons by the time we came back from diving it was clouded in and to be honest we were too tired (or lazy) so we never did take up the challenge to get up this great peak!!

The mail box!

The igauna that was loitering outside our cabin.

Hanging out on the boat some more.

The dive guides make these sort of moves look so easy but think I might need a few more years practice before I get anywhere near that good at controlling my buoyancy!!

Shona had a´near death´experience (Shona´s description which I am sure will get her a few beers from those in the pub at home!) when she ran out of air on one of the dives after we hit a really unexpected and strong current on the way back to the boat luckily we were not very deep so were able to surface without any problems other than the long swim back to the boat!! After that we were both extra careful and checking our air supply!!

Some big spotted fish.

Chom Poo Moo was feeling left out as she is not allowed to go diving so she decided to be a CPM Cannon Ball out of this tiny historic cannon!!

Saba´s main burial ground was not only strangely located in the middle of the village centre between the shops but every other house had a graveyard in the garden!

Shona enjoys some local Rum.

A trumpet fish.

In the words of Marcus our guide a ´Big F****NG Turtle´when asked what type of turtle - this one came swimming right towards us - think he was more curious than we were....

A sunbathing Iguana.

Shona and I at the departure lounge at Saba airport!

Saba´s runway is officially the smallest passanger transport runway in the world - not much room for mistakes here!!

So Saba may not have been the picture perfect Caribean Island but it still has a lot of charm and the locals were so friendly that within about half an hour of being on the island all 1,500 of them seemed to know who we were!! Three different nations (including England) tried to occupy this island before it was finally settled by theDutch as a fishing seaport - and now diving brings in some tourists - not much else to be done here but I loved it and worth a visit if you enjoy diving and are over in the Caribean anyway.

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