Rats, Bats and Iguanas

The wildlife outdoors continues to come a-visiting (which, given that the front door, such as it is, is never shut and there is no back door is hardly surprising) the other night a bat flew into the house, flitted around and flew out again. Nicky remembers the days when there were lots of bats around feasting on Erebus moths (not dissimilar in size or colour) but there are a lot less now – on account of huge chucks of their habitat being cut down by developers. My worse fears were realised on Friday when I was happily cooking in the kitchen. I’d just wiped my hands on the tea-towel hanging on the oven door, sat down at the table when I heard a cry of “Wow, look at that” from Nicky.

There, on the VERY tea-towel I’d just used was the biggest spider I have ever seen. How I’ve managed to get through so many trips to Africa and Asia without encountering a spider to set my skin crawling I don’t know. Nicky, Daniel and Skippings (Daniel’s friend) were photographing the beast and examining it whilst I sat quivering in a corner wondering where ON EARTH the beast had been seconds before when I’d used the very towel it was now sitting on……Thankfully they caught it and chucked it back into the bush (of course the only thing worse than a big spider is not knowing where big spider has just disappeared to!).

The increasingly load scrabbling and rattling in the kitchen has now been tracked down to the rat which I spied scurrying off into the rafters last night (part of the kitchen ceiling came down in the rains a while ago, providing easy access to the rafters). Not the biggest rat in the world, but still a rodent. So we treated it and the various mice that we’ve seen out the corner of our eye to a tasty snack of bacon fat. This morning we discovered that one mouse had taken the bait but the rat is still at large. Mind you, rats over spiders any day of the week.

At the weekend Osh and I once again went to West Caicos with Nicky who was working on Saturday. We fixed the RO machine which is taking on an increasingly Heath Robinson aspect as Nicky valiantly and successfully patches it back together every time it shakes itself apart. When we left it was making 8 gallons a minute which is about half what it should be doing, but making water nonetheless. Nicky’s company makes the ONLY fresh water on the island so if the machine packs up he has a bevy of irate builders hunting him down!

On Sunday we all went to Little Water Cay. The Turks Islands are host to the world’s largest population of Rock Iguanas – funny looking creatures, about the size of a small rabbit (only more iguana like than bunny rabbit, if you see what I mean!). They are highly endangered and the country is making a huge effort to protect the few that are left. To get there we hired sea kayaks. The only previous time I’d been kayaking was in Canada so I was pretty good at controlling the thing; mind, Osh was under very strict instructions not to wriggle too much lest the whole thing when in the water. Needless to say, Osh was sitting in his own seat when we were underway and not in my lap as in the photograph! The lovely man in the shop gave him half a paddle which Osh used very effectively as a brake for most of the time (which kinda didn’t help progress what with the tide and the wind and every thing). We also got a discount for being the first family from Kew Town to hire from him! Kew Town (the bit of Provo we are in) is not where you would normally expect a white man to be living. There is a (not unfounded) assumption that all the whites here are very wealthy or certainly far more wealthy than many of the Turks Islanders and so discovering one of them is living in a ghetto tends to raise eyebrows. Personally, I’d take Kew Town over the wealthy white-dominated parts of the island any day. In fact Nicky was the first person living here and was quickly joined by Turks Islanders from North Caicos (Kew, in fact, hence Kew Town) and the most recent residents are from Haiti – giving the place the distinct air of a West African village. Actually, it probably looks like Haiti on account of the Haitian residents but the similarity with West Africa is striking given the 200 odd-year gap between Haitian culture and that of their forebears. But I digress.

Nicky and Daniel took the other kayak and off we set armed with a picnic. It was excellent fun but very tiring. Nicky worked out that all together we did over 3 miles – at least half of that into the wind (which was pretty stiff). And because I tired quickly they gave us a tow. We got to the island and went to see the Iguanas which really do wander down onto the beach, some of them are tagged with beads. Their biggest enemy is cats which hunt them down, although local dogs have also been known to cross the channel between them and the mainland.





Before we went to see the Iguanas Osh finally proved that he can swim! He and I were both wearing life jackets and he quickly discovered that he made him very buoyant and so he just started swimming. It was great to see – although I did have to work hard to dissuade him from jumping off the kayak for a swim for the rest of the day.

After Little Water Cay we went to Mangrove Cay, passing a curious turtle on the way (first time I’ve ever seen one in the wild) and had lunch (being very careful not to drop any crumbs and so endanger the Iguanas further) and then we paddled round to Donna Cay and went exploring in the mangroves. They are just beautiful. Very peaceful and green and still and full of tiny fishes. Osh is now well versed in the specific ecology of mangroves and why they are so important.

The clocks when forward on Saturday night and we are now treated to lovely light evenings (getting dark about 7.30 ish) but dark mornings. Nicky now has to get up in the dark at 5.30 to catch the boat to West Caicos whereas before it was light by then. This morning, just after Nicky had left it started raining and before I knew it it was coming down hard – and at just the right angle to come crashing through the mosquito screens. So, much to Oisin’s delight, I had to run outside to close the shutters on the house – by the time I came in (all of 30 seconds) I was soaked to the skin. The shower didn’t last long but it emptied a LOT of rain out of the sky and has just started again at about 5pm.

Our other adventure was Sunday afternoon. We got back from kayaking to discover that 2 portaloos should have been delivered out to NorthWest Point. But hadn’t been. The Chief Minister (Michael Missick) is getting married in 2 weeks time to a famous Hollywood actress and one of Nicky’s long-term business contacts is helping organise the do. Portable toilets are needed for the staff (Hollywood bottoms don’t normally use portable toilets…not even executive ones). So, we needed to get 2 toilets out and quick – it was about 3pm at this point and they should have been there long ago. So, all hands to the deck we got 2 of these things onto the back of the poop truck (large lorry equipped with powerful pump for sucking out the toilets and septic tanks) and then drove out to Northwest Point.

I’ve always said that these islands are not particularly beautiful – not in a classic tropical island sense. They are dry and scrubby and dusty. But Northwest Point made me change my mind. It took us the best part of 45 minutes to get there and most of that was through a national park – mile upon mile of rolling green hills covered with bush. There were mature trees (not many of them around – it being so dry they take a long time to grow and often get chopped down for development (palms are so much more tropical than black olives, for example) or for charcoal (many of the Haitians are using charcoal stoves). There were huge cacti and lots of Thatch palms and then we got to the coast – which is wild and rocky and undeveloped (with the exception of one ghastly hotel where the wedding is happening). We plan to go back out there again for a picnic sometime soon. Very pretty indeed.