Hunting for wasps and chickens – How to lose a bag on a 10 minute flight

The island was visible almost as soon as we took off and crossed the old canefields of Antigua.  We approached Montserrat from the east and I was able to see out the window the great massive of the volcano, and the flows down each side, including where the flow had caused a new bulge in the coastline on the eastern side, and the remains of the old airport runway.  We circled the northern side of the island and I could see the new runway, precariously perched on top of the hill, and the clusters of houses old and new that made up the main settlement.  We landed and my colleagues, Matt from Durrell and Geoff from RSPB, were in the small arrivals hall.  But my luggage was not.  Due to the large number of passengers they had been unable to get all the bags in the plane, but no worries, I was told, they were going to pick up the remaining passengers and it would be on that one.  They will be back in under an hour.

So in the mean time I was offered a beer down by the harbour at Little Bay, where the ferry now came in; it being the only point known by Geoff to have adequate wifi.  We drove down the hill and pulled up by this old beach hut.  We checked email and started to chat about my task.  Geoff had been around for a week or so teaching staff to tag birds, and was going to overlap with my visit for a couple of days.  Matt was staying for a longer period, over a month.  Although he was full time on the project, he was based out of Micoud in St Lucia, and so was in an out of Montserrat from time to time.

We headed back up to the airport to collect my bag and just as we arrived the planed swept in to land.  We waited patiently for a few passengers to come off and saw a pile of bags being manhandled off the plane onto a small hand trolley…. but I could not see my distinctive hard red case.  I was told it would be on the next plane, which was tomorrow morning.  So with the clothes I stood up in, a passport and a laptop, I got back in the car.  We stopped off at a small grocers in Brades so I could at least get a toothbrush and toothpaste, and a bar of soap.

Taking advantage of limited internet

Blown Away – An anxious night

A couple of groups were left in the hotel from the conference.  One were the Jamaicans.  The hurricane was heading towards their shores already and no flights were going into Kingston or Montego Bay.  The others were those whose connections were not easy.  These included a couple of good friends and colleagues, Craig Batstone and Renee Babb from Barbados.  On their last night in town they joined me at a meal further along the strip and we watched the sky carefully.  I’d heard about the way that clouds start to elongate as the storm approaches and all start to move in a very regular direction.  You know how clouds at different levels can often be at different speeds and heading sometimes in vastly different directions – here they were striped across the sky all heading south westwards, and at a fair speed.  Even down on the ground now, you could feel the hot wind, and dust was starting to swirl up in courtyards and from the beach and building site sand all around us.

Time for a drink with Renee

I went to bed that night resolved to sit the storm out.  A letter had been put through by the staff saying that I could stay in the hotel, but the hotel would not be insured if anything happened to me.  The main dining rooms had been closed and we were to take a breakfast in one of the conference rooms.  It was sensible idea; it had no windows and was in the centre of the complex, so if you were going to have a congregation of people, it was likely to be the safest location.

There was not much of a congregation that morning.  There were the Jamaicans who had had a worrying night contacting their friends and relatives back home where the storm had already hit.  It had not been hurricane force, but the rain had flooded many of the rivers, the valleys and the coastal areas.  Basically where most people lived.