Truck talk

For those of you not familiar with the truck situation at STENAPA we usually have 4 green pick up trucks that we use for work. One stays at the Garden and is used to remove debris, take water up to the top gardens in the phase 2 and any other jobs that we need to do… moving rocks, transporting plants etc. One truck is used for trails. It goes on trails with the volunteers in the morning, takes them to the area where they are working, transports the tools etc. One truck is the Marine park truck and stays at the office and is used to move tanks from the dive shops to the office, take rubbish to the dump, take divers, tanks, equipment and fuel to the dock for loading on the boat and that kind of thing. Then one truck (the nice looking, posh one) is used by the Director, Kate, to take her to the important director-type meetings and pick up visitors and so on.

At the moment, however, we are working with 2 and a half trucks… The V350 (which we can’t really use for trails or the garden cos it’s too posh) and the V28. Now the V28 is not in bad nick, apart from none of the windows working and the dents and dings to the body and doors, the bumper being held on with garden twine (yep I kid you not) oh and one of the back doors not opening…(it has a big dent… apparently a cow backed into it? I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you believe it or not) but hey it at least goes. It take some logistical planning with trails because we have to share but we get by.

The half truck is the V401. It has scary, about-to-explode tyres and so definitely cannot be driven to the garden (for those who don’t know the garden road is bordering on not being called a road… what can I tell you, apparently it’s not a high priority for the government to provide a safe and accessible road for the public of Statia to visit and use their own botanical garden... but I digress… The 401 also has a bit of rope holding the door on… the front passenger side door is basically falling off and so to keep it attached to the car we have had to wrap a length of rope round the door frame and the back door.

It of course means that both windows on the passenger side of the truck cannot be shut… it’s a pain if it’s raining and we’re now in hurricane season… that could be interesting? It also means that unless you can fold yourself in half and climb over from the back or want to scoot over from the driver’s side to the passenger seat, you have to clamber in through the window… if anyone wants to see a video of me doing this… (courtesy of Ms Saphira) there will be a small charge…

The tyres are now on way from St Maarten and bushings too so the V01 will be back on the road… no new doors on the way though so it’s still hopping in and out of the window for the time being.

Now, the V350 is in comparison, is a thing of beauty… I got to drive it today… air conditioning… CD player… doors that shut properly and windows that close… I mean you can LOCK it and leave stuff in it because the windows will shut… ahh the luxury! It’s all over next week though, Kate is back on island so I will be back in the stinky V28… there isn’t a written substitute for blowing a raspberry but that’s my sentiments!

Anyway… until next time… much love from the garden on the golden rock…