Solo in Grenada

2008, and I'm travelling solo, in Grenada and on Grenada Island. The hotel is La Source, sister hotel to Le Sport in St Lucia, so its daily massages and treatments included. the building is beautifully situated on its own private, Pink Gin Beach, almost next to the airport runway. Fortunately, there aren't that many planes and there's the usual pellucid water beckoning you in.

Pink Gin Beach even has its own small reef and a developing artificial reef system. Not content with that, they've added some sculptures, going into competition with The Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park, further up the coast. And, perhaps, to distract from the complex and not so scenic breakwater system, protecting the cove from the stronger winds and waves. These are Troy Lewis’s 'The Nutmeg Princess' and 'The Christ of the Deep' installations. I snorkel off to have a look, though sadly they're not very exciting). what's more, the beach lifeguard, who has been trying to engage me in conversation all week, is determined to accompany me, to 'make sure I'm safe' and keeps popping up at my side.

Grumbles in Grenada

But, I still don’t seem to have worked out how to propitiate the rain god. The weather hasn’t been great. The red flag is wafting in the wind still, as I speak. But I’ve had enough sun to get a tan.

The hotel is nice, but I’m not sure who rates highest on the scale of importance, the staff or the guests. I’m only here for a week and so far we’ve had the staff children’s party, all over the beach, and the staff dinner party, so we all had to eat fast and early, and the corporate do in the beach restaurant, so we couldn’t use it at all. We’ve also had no hot water for two nights. There was a burst pipe. I’ve just washed my hair in some coppery coloured liquid coming out of the tap at two centimetres  a minute. I am off to dry it and see if I’ve now got auburn highlights.

Solos in Grenada

Back in 2011, on a solos holiday, I'm not having much more success. La Source is now part of a different hotel group. (In 2012, it's taken over and refurbished by Sandals. So, today it's couples only.)

However, the main problem on this trip has been Stalker Man. (I used call him Twelve Contender Boatman, as he boasted he had 12 women vying to be crew on his yacht trip). Date One, in the UK, I stupidly told him I was booked to come here. I only saw him three times. but, when I turn up, there he is, waving at me from the terrace. He is on his mobile, so I just nip by and go to my room. So, then he goes all anxious and avoids me, just hangs around the bar talking to all the other singles, which makes it very hard for me to join them too - great.

Instead, I hang around with the other new arrivals at the opposite end of the room. There are, at least good margaritas. A few of those and we’re all under the bar. And I tell them about Mr. Stalker (who is also called John by the way) and they decide I need protecting, especially as he is hanging around. So after midnight one gangly 33 year old (nice eyes though) insists on escorting me to my room. And makes a pretty determined pass outside the door. I tell him that this is not a good idea and he should go to bed, though conversation is a bit difficult, as he’s got me pinned against the door. When I’ve persuaded him that’s not an invitation he departs. Next, he proceeds to sulk for the rest of the week, so that’s the other group I can’t join either now. Excellent.

Grand Anse Beach

To the north, I wander up beautiful Grand Anse Beach, lined with with resorts and bars, and poke around the little boutiques and stalls in the spice market. This is yet another of those beaches that feature on the Best in the World lists. It's lovely, but it definitely won't make my Best of List. The sand is suitably soft, but it's light beige to golden, rather than the white that leads to that truly gorgeous turquoise sea and there's little in the way of interesting vegetation to make a truly breath-taking backdrop.

Back in 2026, for a quick stop at the Blue Horizons Resort, just behind Grand Anse. They laid an artificial reef here, in 2013, using concrete pyramids just opposite the dive shop. There's a little coral and even fewer fish. Hopefully, it will eventually be worth the effort of swimming out there.

St. George's

At the other end of Grand Anse Beach (and a bit further) is the capital of Grenada, St. George’s. It's billed as one of the one of the Caribbean's most picturesque ports and I'm not going to argue with that. Nestled into an old volcanic crater, the old bustling inner harbour, the Carenage, is filled with small shops, cafes, and fishing boats. The hillside lined with colourful homes, red and white Georgian brick built buildings, so pristine they look like toytown models, churches and back to back forts. There were eight of these, designed to mitigate internal Amerindian attacks and slave uprisings, as well as external European rival invasions. but only three, restored, now remain. Fort George is the oldest; there's also, Fort Frederick and Fort Matthew. And, I can count at least four church towers. They include the Anglican Church (built in 1825) and the Roman Catholic Cathedral.

A Brief History of St George's

• St. George's was founded by the French (as St Louis, then Port Louis, after King Louis IX), in 1650, who first built, a wooden fortification (named Fort Royale), over the natural harbour, in 1666.
• This was replaced with a stone star fort, on the same site.
• When the island was ceded to Great Britain, in 1763, it was renamed Saint George's Town, after the patron saint of England, with Fort Royal renamed Fort George, not after the saint, but after King George III.
• Following the withdrawal of Bridgetown, Barbados, in the mid-1880s, St. George's replaced Bridgetown, Barbados (Barbados wanted more autonomy), as the capital of the former colony of the British Windward Islands.

Escape - Round Grenada

A car around the hilly main island ( approximately 20 miles long by 12 miles wide) makes a better escape. Grenada's volcanic nature gives us crater lakes, small rivers and waterfalls. Its hills are high enough to produce the rainfall which transforms Grenada's northern coastal areas into rainforests. Unfortunately, it's still doing that for me, but there are flowers aplenty and grand colonial houses to visit. And spice plantations, of course.

Beneath us, at the bottom of craggy cliffs, fishermen are hauling nets. In the far north, a panorama across to Sauteurs Bay from Leapers Hill. Then, in the north-east, from Levera Beach, views across islets (Ronde is the largest) and beyond them to the sister islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Past the immaculately circular crater lake, Antoine. There's also the usual sugar cultivation, mainly for rum.

We stop for some time at the River Antoine Estate Rum Distillery. This, the oldest functioning water-powered distillery in the Caribbean and the Western Hemisphere. Established by French settlers in 1785, this historic estate operates as a living time capsule, near the town of Tivoli. The distillery is famous for rejecting modern computerized technology and electricity, completely relying on eighteenth-century, organic production methods to craft its legendary Rivers Rum.