At this time of year it’s great to be able to get out and see more of this wonderful island where we live, and where so many people choose to have their sailing charter – Antigua.  There’s as much beauty inland as there is for our sailing guests who charter with us.  Yesterday had us hopping on a minibus to take a tour of the old plantation estates over on the east side of Antigua.  This tour was put on by the Museum of Antigua who do a brilliant job of bringing Antiguan history to life.  A lady called Joy Lawrence was our ‘expert’ of the day as she had undertaken a huge amount of research and published a book about the area of Bethesda and Christian Hill – two of the areas that we were covering.  Her enthusiasm for her subject was infectious.  On this tour we were able to see where the old plantations were, we saw some of the original stone work of the Rangers house and many many ‘towers’ as Joy called them.  Sugar Mills to you and I!  We made our way to Potworks Dam which to me was an area of great beauty and serenity.  Butterflies, rare ducks and roaming goats were just some of the wildlife we saw on this part of the trip.  We also went to the first school for little slave children (see the cornerstone below).  It is now a church in Bethesda.  We also stopped at the infamous tree that saw a heated debate about plantation workers pay rates and led to a strike.  Some of the guys at that time were thought to be inciting others to strike and they were actually imprisoned.  You can see the stone below with their names.  Our lunch stop was at Red Hill – they believe so called as the rocks way above the sea used to be a red colour.  A perfect spot to look out over beautiful Willoughby Bay. A fantastic day with perfect blue skies and cooling trade winds…. looking forward to my next tour.