Lunch and Sugarloaf Mountain

From Christ the Redeemer, we went to an 'all-you-can-eat' buffet restaurant for lunch.  The food was excellent.  We sat with a former travel agent from Belgium and her 78-year-old Mum.  We talked about everything from Trump and Brexit to camping and cruising!

After lunch, we drove to Sugarloaf Mountain, arriving there at about 3pm.  Up to this point, the day had gone according to plan.  Now, however, things started to go pear-shaped!  We joined the 'groups with guides' queue and waited there, taking photos and videos of the cable cars coming and going while Fab went to buy our tickets.  She was gone a very long time.  Our lunch companions got fed up of waiting in the heat and caught an Uber back to their hotel.  A huge group of British people all dressed in white turned up.  They were the guests at a wedding taking place at the top of the mountain!  Eventually, Fab returned with our wristbands, but the wedding party was allowed through before us.  After some insistence from Fab, we were scanned through, only to find ourselves in another, even longer queue!  This one moved reasonably quickly.  

Mark was getting tired by this point and was looking particularly yellow today.  His jaundice is not improving, but, apart from fatigue, he has no other symptoms.  One of the Scottish couples were both retired GPs.  They advised us to get Mark checked out because there could be a more serious underlying cause.

When we finally reached the front of the queue, there was a second scanner.  This time, the computer said 'no'!!  Apparently, our tickets were not valid until 6 pm, and it was only 4.20pm!!  No amount of tears and outrage from Fab would make the officials change their minds!  She was distraught, telling us that she takes groups there every day and she has never had this happen before!  In the end, though, she had no choice but to rethink.  The decision was taken to leave Sugarloaf to visit the Selaron steps and the cathedral, both of which were on the itinerary, but Fab had told us that we wouldn't have time to do them.  I was quite pleased as I really wanted to see inside the cathedral.  Fab was not the first person to say how beautiful the stained glass is.  The plan was to go to both places and then come back to Sugarloaf for 6pm, with the added bonus that we would catch the sunset from the top of the mountain.

Once again, we had to wait because the minibus that had dropped us off had broken down, and they needed to locate a replacement!  Another two people from the group gave up at this point and took a taxi back to their accommodation.  We stuck it out.  The minibus arrived, and we went to the Selaron steps.  Mark stayed on the minibus as we had already seen them.  From the steps, we drove the short distance to the cathedral.  On the way, Fab was telling us again about how stunning the interior is.  The exterior is pretty spectacular, too!  We pulled up outside.  Nobody took any photos because we all thought we were getting out to go inside the church.  This didn't happen!  After a minute or so, we drove off!!  Fab ignored all our protestations.  We were incredulous!  We had no idea what had happened, but we found ourselves stuck in rush-hour traffic as we inched our way back to Sugarloaf.

We arrived back there at gone 6pm.  The place was heaving.  The queues were longer than ever, with everyone wanting to see the sunset, which was due at 6.15pm.  We already had our wristbands, so Fab did her best to get us to the front of the queue as quickly as possible.  Despite this, the sun disappeared without us seeing a thing, and it was completely dark by the time we got to the cable car!  We had no choice, though, but to continue at this point.

To cut a very long story short, we eventually caught the first cable car and then queued again for the second one to take us to the very top of Sugarloaf.  We lost half of our group at this point.  We couldn't see anything in the dark and, to make matters worse, a fog descended too!  We finally reached the top and immediately joined the queue to make the return journey, all the while seeing absolutely nothing!!  It was a complete waste of time!  Most of us were vowing to return in daylight.

We got back to the minibus at around 8.30pm and were dropped back at the pick-up point at 9.  After calling at the supermarket, we walked up the hill and were back in our accommodation by 9.30pm.  Needless to say, we were both knackered, especially Mark!Read more