Off-Trail Hiking and Beach Time

One of the pleasures of our time in Montserrat has been meeting up with Dalynn and Glen on Amoray.  This couple from B.C. has been cruising down here for a few years and like us, love to get out and explore the islands on foot.

Our plan for a "lazy" Sunday was to hike over to Rendezvous Bay, just north of Little Bay and holding the title for the only white-sand beach on Montserrat this seemed like a good destination.  However, rather than taking the short up and down track out of Little Bay, the decision was made to walk up the road to Drummonds, an area (community?) at the northern end of Montserrat and then find the longer trail that would take us down into Rendezvous.

First order of business was finding the short-cut up the hill from the bay.  "Let's ask that guy over there!" exclaimed Glen - turned out to be a man in pink shorts and bedroom slippers carrying a hammer through a small quarry.  What could possibly go wrong with this scenario?  Well, apparently nothing as he pointed to a sturdily built ladder leaning up against the bluff at the side of the road.  Believe it or not this led to the roads above and probably cut a good 20-30 minutes off our walk.  I'm thinking the next Montserrat Development project could be a set of stairs.

We wound our way higher and higher, laughing at the local names and yet again marvelling at the views.

There goes that local sense of humour again!

Are we almost there yet Dalynn?

Reaching to the dizzying heights, we found the trailhead just as shown on the map.  However, from there on in we have no idea where we went wrong to miss the trail, but perhaps we should have heeded the signs along the way.

We scrambled, crabwalked, crawled and at times had to be extricated by the catch-and-keep (a nasty thorny bush), our mantra being, "Go down, go left" and "Where the heck did the trail go??"  Just when we were beginning to lose hope of ever finding the trail, we found our own way down through a clearing and then the gut, to land upon a beautiful pristine beach.  We made it!

Oh boy was the water welcoming as we washed off the sweat and bits of dirt and wood from our scramble down the steep slopes.  We carried in lunch and enjoyed it sitting on the rocks with the deserted beach laid out before us.

Now for the return, this time up the shorter trail that leads directly from Rendezvous to Little Bay.  With four pairs of eyes locked onto the trail this time, we scrambled up and over making it back to Little Bay and an icy cold beer at one of the bars behind the bay.

A glimpse of Rendezvous far below us.

Sizel is currently in flower.

How to wrap up the day?  With a resounding round of Wizard and a great pot-luck dinner no less!

Craziest hand of the night!