Falkland Islands Deployment

We made 2 stops in Cape Verde, the first was in the capital "Praia", on the island of Santiago, and the second was in "Mindelo", on the island of Sao Vicente, 200 miles to the north west. Praia was a proper culture shock, being almost 'third world', the place looked like a dump, and very much like a shanty town in some places. But the stokers had organised a department barbeque, and we all travelled in a couple of minbuses down to a beach 10 minutes away, and set up with meat already prepared by the chefs. There were a lot of locals on the beach- and the one thing that was obvious about all of them was how muscley they all were- I mean, they were absolutely ripped! Every single one of them! I guess they must have been down at the beach playing football most of their lives! We watched them playing a football game, and when we'd all suitably stuffed ourselves, we found we had a lot of leftover meat and salad, so invited them all over to eat it! Seeing their faces light up when they realised the food was for them was amazing- we fed the entire beach- about 40 of them in all. And then we had the inevitable beach football match- England Vs. Cape Verde! They won quite easily, but we put in some heavy challenges, showed them what pub football is all about... on grass it would have been a different story... And then, at about 6pm, the light disappeared, the evening closed in within 20 minutes and the place was dark. So we set up a fire and the locals went wild dancing round it, jumping through it, really crazy but really funny! This was about as good a night out as we could have had in Cape Verde. On the way back to the ship, our driver took us through central Praia, and it just isn't a place for tourists. No bars or anything like that- still quite busy with residents, but a lot of gangs hanging out, and you really wouldn't want to be there on your own. I didn't take any photos- thought that was probably a wise decision!

After Praia, back out at Sea for the weekend, I had a chance to lie on the upper deck and soak up some sunshine, write a letter, and then all of a sudden, just THE biggest school of dolphins I think I'm ever likely to see- there must have been over 60 in all- diving in and out of the waves, doing backflips and somersaults... It was absolutely breathtaking to watch! All lasting for just a few minutes as we were travelling quite fast... and hence my poor speed at getting my camera out... is why I only got these shots. But was brilliant to see nevertheless!These shots really don't do justice to what I was seeing. But it was one of those quick moments which I'm sure I won't ever forget!
So, on monday we were in Mindelo, apparantly a more touristy town in Cape Verde, on the island of Sao Vicente. ...yeah right.
OK, so it is more touristy than praia, -it has a beach bar and a few nice looking places around the beach, but as sson as you get more than 5 streets back, all the holidayness disintegrates into a completely different culture- very dusty, the whole town seemed like it was in the process of being rebuilt. Me and Olly signed out 2 of the ship's mountain bikes for the day and went for a bit of culturul exploration... basically aimless cycling with the intention of getting completely lost. This proved to be a daunting idea... You can't describe some of the places in Mindelo as a slum- noone's homeless, there's more than enough homes... it's just the state of them and the lack of a working sanitation system, litter absolutely everywhere... foul odours, wild dogs and cats all over the shop, and then, after what looked like a good morning of shopping, a middle aged woman put her bags down next to us as we were having a quick drink, just to let us know she was EXTREMELY lonely....! Er, time to move on! The further we cycled, the more desolate the land became, and eventually, we seemed to just cycle into a desert. The land was made up of volcanic red dust (copyright Doug Clutterbuck), which was so soft our bikes just couldn't get any grip, and we eventually had to carry them. By this point, it looked like we were on planet Tatooine from Star Wars. (You need to watch Star Wars). Anyway, cut to the end of that story, we got back to Mindelo waterfront on some cobbled roads we found, and avoided being killed by Wookies. Although, we did stop at a market to try out a bit of our haggling nouse.

So I'm at the end of our Cape Verde Islands visit... back onboard ship, and in the morning we set sail for another new place... and I just KNOW that the next update I write shall be quite entertaining!