Wednesday 24th January 18
Beating a path up Montserrat hills
Up early today, going for a hike. I was surprise how many hikes possibilities there are on Montserrat, all of it noted on a map (although the disclaimer is stark for all the walks, do not attempt without a guide, not that we took notice). The nearest to us will take us from Drummonds over to Rendez-Vous bay and then back over Little Bay. If everything goes well we should be done in 4 to 5 hours which will be perfect. Jo the taxi takes us to Drummond Hill over the airport side, the runway is actually constructed over the road. Not much flat area around here. The first part of the walk is on the road and given the incline, we are quite pleased with this. The views over the surrounding hills and sea are fantastic. We found the head of the trail easily enough and the sign instils confidence that the path is well marked… well, it is well trodden for a bit; until we reach the pasture and its cows (I do love cows by the sea). After that it gets vaguer, so vague in fact that we must have followed cows or sheep’s tracks for most of the way down as we often end up in an impassable end, either through sheer drop stopping us dead or the thick thorn bushes are just not letting us through. Allan disappearing from view, Francine whistling to bring him back. The hills are alive with dragonflies and butterflies, and beautiful flowers. This must be the most aromatic walk we have had, the smells lingering on as we tore through bushes. I swear we must have done twice the distance with all the retracing of steps. Still Allan without fear led us through the worse thickets of tangled bush, shredding his shirt in the process (cleaning rags for the engine?). The map was useful if only to identify the river bed that would lead us to the sea. However getting to the river bed entailed sliding along washed up tumbled down earth and rocks. The volcanic soil and boulders in beautiful colours are not very stable though. Quite hard going. But we carried on spurred by the sound of the waves braking on the shore. Surely we can’t be far now? We will find the beach or will the hill just end in a cliff? We all cheered when we reach the shore, only a little jump away not far down below as we were kind of expecting it. We celebrated by having lunch sitting on the most well formed beautiful beach. We have not seen many pebble beaches but this one was spectacular. The rocks from deep purple to light pink and various shades of grey and gold are the biggest and smoothest. The waves make that particular sound as the stones are rearranged to make another pleasing composition. We can just see the end of the pebble beach, will this lead us to the golden sand Rendez-vous Bay? One way to find out. We breath a sigh of relief when we turn the corner. We are indeed in the right place, soon enough the pebbles get scarcer and the sand takes over. All we need to do is finding the path to go over the sheer drop of the cliff to Little Bay. As it were that was the easier part off the walk. Only one way and very well defined. The views from the top were fabulous. We were back in time to be the first customers of the Soca Cabana on the beach. Definitely deserved a cold drink after this one. Again, the pelicans provided endless entertainment. Never tire of their antics.
We’ll be parting company tomorrow, but not before we have a last meal together, Ian is cooking. Time after Time is going back to Antigua and we are heading to Nevis, before the winds pipes up. We’ll miss them.