So we got up early for the visit and Annette told me “she only wanted to go because it would keep me happy,” or words to that effect. Well it all meant the same thing to me and as we’d finished being American citizens, with dollar prices all over the show, it would be nice to see a few Euros instead.
We went down for the coach and got put onto number two, which pretty well meant it was going to be a busy day for the crew. Trust us to end up on a coach with no sound system for the back end of the coach. There would be many arguements called out “cannot heaer you” etc before the woman decided to walk to the back so they could hear her all again, and we heard most of it from the front. So we went off on our trip, up to north of island and we got a ready commentry on the way. As we drove past the half way mark, we were pulled in where we could see the posh hotel from series 2, which was pretty big but way down on the coast below. We got off and took some snap shots of hotel and the beach, which was far below us. So we went back on the coach for the next part.
We then pulled where we could look up the mountain to see the post house they always included in the film clips. A bit further on we could see where they often filmed the boats on the dock, just further down from where we were and it was good to see a bit of the filming stuff. However, we were soon back on the bus to go and see the legendary Elizabeth Bourgine (bar owner and mayor) drinks establishment and the PC station just up the hill. Annette was pretty well done in by the heat and had a go at me for trying to lead her down to the local Police yard, that I’d seen on the way through, and was determined to stay put while I went up the hill to see the “Police station”. As it happened, I was pretty dissapointed as the place was as seen on TV (without the whiteboard) but, it was full of all the old grandads and nannies pretending to be the “cast”. I took a couple of shots and went through to the cells at the back, where I quickly got another shot. It wasn’t too bad but, it was full of newbe “detectives” and “police officers”. I did notice they had an expensive souvanier shop – T shirts with photographs etc, but I decided to go and find Annette has we’d only got just over an hour and we had to get a drink in Elizabeth’s bar before we left.
Annette was waiting, not in too good a mood, and we went onto the bar. Shock horror! There was a road straight through it all and there was no rush to tidy up the front where everyone was seated, so we waded through the heaps of empty bottles and sat down for a dink. I got us a couple of local beers (cannot rember the name) and Annette began to thaw out as she was seated in the shade and had a drink. Caeras were out and I was photgraphed as she tahwed out and enjoyed the beach front. There was a broken down bit of a schooner, that featured in at least one of the shows and it all turned out nicely. It wasn’t too expensive there as we ened up with 2 drinks (330ml only) for about $ 8 and Annette was ready to go back to the bus via the police station. We stopped for the legedary “piddle” on the way up and we found the “station” was all closed up and they were cleaning up all the junk ready for the next lot tomorrow.
So, a little disapointed we went back and got on the coach for the last trip to see Ralf Little’s beach front shack he called home. We were told though that because all the locals had been done for “pinching” every bit off it they could, that it would be down to the ground but, they were getting ready to rebuild it for the next show to be filmed in three weeks. Well it had to be a let down but no more that expected, as I certainly would have brought his “chair” or “table” back with me if I’d been able to. The bits that were not seen on the show was all the other huts that had crept up along the beech where everyone was having a nice drink. That sort of spoiled it for me, but it was good end to the show. We found a bar and sat down for another drink. Quit a pleasant drinkit was too as we bumped into some more crew from the ship and compared notes and we’d seen pretty much all ther was to see. All that was left was the return to the ship.