Exploring the South Side

Our route along the south shore of Martinique led us through some diverse scenery and wonderful seaside towns.

We were treated to a hike last weekend out on the Diamante peninsula, right at the south west end of Martinique. Our friend John had a car so off we went to explore an area we hadn't visited much before. The hike between Grand Anse and Anse d'Arlet gave us a good view of both pretty anchorages (we stopped here briefly last July).

Grand Anse is chock full of boats at this time of year, but still retains the quaint charm of a seaside town.

Anse d'Arlet is a smaller bay, nicer town and definitely a beach destination for locals on this sunny Sunday.

On the walk over the headland between the two bays, Morne Champagne, Henry thinks he has found a great little real estate offering.

On the south shore we stopped at this great viewpoint overlooking Diamond Rock.

It's hard to believe but at one time the British navy took control of this rock, called it HMS Diamond and kept tabs on the French.  This is the first time I've seen a layout of where they located their operations (enlarge the photo for a better view.)

The drive back along the south shore took also us past a memorial statue that we had heard of but never found in the past as it is not marked on the tourist map. This statue (these statues) was erected as a memorial to the 46 lost souls on a slave ship that went aground on these shores during a strange manoeuvre by the captain in 1830. It is still unknown the name or nationality of the ship. The memorial is white, the traditional colour of mourning in the Caribbean, is approximately the same size as the burial ground, is in a triangle formation representing the axis of the slave trade and points to the location in Africa where the slaves were taken. An incredibly moving site.

We finished up the day at the Baraqu'Obama restaurant in St. Luce. You can't get your seafood any fresher than here: sitting at the tables on the beach watching the lobster begin sorted into holding pots, pulled out and placed on the grill just in time for your order! If you go on a Sunday, just make sure you get there early or there won't be a table available for you, it was a busy little place!

The story goes that the owner opened his restaurant at the same time that Barack Obama announced his run for the presidency.  He was so proud that a black man would run for president that he named his restaurant in honour of the event, never imagining that he would actually become the American leader.  Notice the Creole spelling.

Sitting at our table watching the lobsters being sorted as they are brought in by the fishermen.

The waves are almost lapping at our toes.

Can't get any fresher!

Our many thanks to John (Seamantha) who introduced us to these new sights. Not sure how he managed to avoid the camera for the day, but we'll get you next time!

Loving & Leaving Martinique

Today we made it official, we are finally going to leave Martinique and head a bit further south.  Hard to believe but we checked in at St. Pierre on the 10th of June and it is now the 17th of July!

Despite my inability to pick a "favourite" island a few days ago, Martinique definitely ranks up there and we've made Ste. Anne our home for almost a month now.  What on earth could we have been up to that would keep us in the same spot for so long?  Well, as you may know, I have a fond spot for Pain Chocolat, and certainly enjoy a bottle of French wine now and then, but to be honest it is just the laid-back atmosphere here that is so easy to love.  Add to that, Le Marin is THE place to buy bits and pieces for a French boat and if they don't have what you're looking for in the chandlery, they just order it in for you - from the motherland, across the pond.  24 hour delivery - no problem!

So we've spent our time completing a few little projects, but mostly watching fellow cruisers come and go as they hurry south to make haul-out, visitor arrival and/or insurance deadlines.  We've joined in beach BBQs, multiple hikes and then watched quite a few of the Euro 2016 soccer games in various bars around the bay.

We caught up with old friends from last season in Grenada,  we made new friends on Sula (Lesley & Stu) and Indigo (Kathy & Greg) and last but not least had a reunion with some of the first cruisers we met back up in the BVI in the spring of 2015 - Notre Vie (Sunny & John and their guest Dave).

Enjoying the view from the lighthouse on Cape Caravelle.

Sitting rather precariously on the ledge - boy was it a long way down!

We've now walked miles of coastal paths, especially up the wind-blown east side of the island.

On one expedition to the east side, we stopped for snack and self-picked mangos.  We had a fairly global contingent here:  Tracy & Wayne (South Africa), Lesley & Stu (New Zealand), Peter (Denmark), Kathy & Greg (US) and of course us (Canadian). 

Beach casting with big long rods on a Sunday morning.

The beaches at the southern end of Martinique have picture postcard white sand, palm trees and plenty of space for everyone.

Hiking with Kathy & Greg from Indigo - couldn't resist posing with this one!

And a cold Lorraine after a hot hike never goes amiss.

Unlike many of her neighbouring islands, Martinique is also very pastoral with large herds of cattle in fenced fields.

Getting in one last hike around Salines Beach - this one we like because there's a beer stop not far from the end.  Cold beer, a bit of exercise and great camaraderie - this is what life down here is all about!

We did manage to complete one boat project that is already paying off nicely.  We added one more solar panel over our dinghy davits which ups our capacity to capture the sun's rays a bit later in the afternoon and we are hoping we won't need to run our generator every couple of days to play catch-up on our batteries.

Getting the wiring installed inside the davit tube, ready for installation of the panel.

And there it is, nicely mounted over our davits and angled back just slightly to capture the later afternoon sun.

Of course we're getting into the rainy season so we're very glad of our wind generator that helps fill in when the skies are like this.

Picking up bits and pieces, and keeping the boat stocked with all the French goodness requires trips with the dinghy.  It's about two miles over to Le Marin and if the wind is blowing we either have to pack dry clothes or bundle up in hot rain gear to stay dry.  Nothing worse that standing dripping salt-water all over the chandlery floor!

Join us in the dinghy on this little excursion into Le Marin...

We drive over some crystal-clear waters as we leave the Ste. Anne anchorage - this is one reason why we like it here so much.

In the bay at Le Marin you see all sorts of neat nautical things - including this submersible dock that can lift a catamaran out of the water to have it's bottom painted.

The grocery store, Leader Price, has it's own dock.  There's another dock on the other side of the bay if you prefer to shop at Simply's and another up a creek where you can visit other shops.  All geared to the boater.

As we zip across the bay, we avoid the sailing school Hobie-cats.  These are local kids learning how to sail, not tourists from a resort.

Can you see the boats for all the masts!!  There are hundreds of boats on moorings, at anchor and at docks in this bay.

Arriving at the marina dinghy dock - blue building is a well-stocked chandlery and there's a great bar with TV and wifi just to the right.

Yep, here we are at Mango Bay with Bill & Wendy and James & Pam testing out the beer during the Euro soccer match.

After all our provisioning we trundle home back to Mowzer.  Lorraine beer is a must-buy on Martinique.

Returning to Mowzer, and the last photo of her without her new solar panel on the back.

Well, there you have it, that's what's been keeping us occupied on Martinique.  Tomorrow morning we move on to St. Lucia with a forecast of light winds but hopefully enough to move us along comfortably.

Conquering Mt. Pelee

Mt. Pelee:  At a height of 4,583' sits at the top of Martinique and as we've sailed by on the western side of the island appears charming with it's lovely sloping green approaches, much of it farmed on the rich volcanic soil, gently sweeping down from the heights.  Little fishing villages with black sand beaches nestle along the shoreline at inlets created by rivers that tumble down from above, and gravel quarries create a micro industry like little ants labouring away on the lower plains where ash and mud run down to the sea.

What we don't see from this approach is the rugged uninhabited northern side of the ruptured landscape.  Deep canyons and craggy spires charting, and charted by, the course of rushing torrents of water.  Flooding from massive rainfalls at the peak makes this an inhospitable landscape that has wisely been left to nature.

We have watched Pelee and it's moods over our last few visits to Martinique, always tempted to tackle the peak but knowing that conditions must be right or we would be miserable.  Winds at the top are constantly howling, added to cold and wet and it would be unpleasant to say the least.  So, patiently we have watched and our patience has paid off as we were treated to two days of light cloud shrouding the top, quite often breaking to provide a peek at the peak.  This was it, we were reaching for the top!

Given the height of this mountain, we were definitely not hiking up all the way from the bottom.  There is a wonderful trail system across the peak and the best place to start was at the car rental agency in St. Pierre!  It's low season in the islands now, so why not?

We drove up the southern slope of Mt. Pelee, through the town of Morne-Rouge and up to the 1st Refuge which lies at about 2,600' where we then carried on up the mountain on foot.  Here began the real adventure.

The northern tip of Martinique is dominated by Mt. Pelee.  We took the eastern approach.  The western is currently closed and the northern from Grand Riviere requires a guide and two days!

The hike took us up the slope, over the dome and around the old caldera.

After reading of the explosion of Pelee in 1902 which completely wiped out St. Pierre and approximately 30,000 inhabitants, I can't help but be reminded of Pompeii.  I'm putting my complete trust in the volcanologists who say that there will be months of warning before Pelee blows again, so putting thoughts of instantaneous destruction to the back of my mind we headed off.

The first steps of many - and look, you can see the peak above!

The lower part of the trail is well set up with many steps to help prevent erosion.

We passed quite a few groups descending from their hikes to the top and after a number of  bonjours, we heard people ahead of us chatting in English.  Turns out that just about the whole anchorage of St. Pierre was on the mountain that day and we met a number of fellow cruisers:  Planet Waves, Jewel of the Sea, Neko and 'Mud Fog Cove' - sorry that's not their real name but their hailing port is on the side of the boat so that's what we call them.

We joined the group and trundled higher and higher sometimes in the cloud and sometimes sunshine.

Group photo of everyone on the mountain at this point, including this charming dad who had pulled his kids out of school for the day for a bit of exploration.  The little girl climbed the mountain barefoot so she wouldn't mess up her shoes!

That's where we're heading - one of the domes at the top of the mountain, momentarily clear of cloud.

Looking back down the spine of the slope and the trail we had climbed.

All very atmospheric and we're seeing lots of beautiful alpine growth at this level.

The growth is delicate and multi-coloured with tiny little flowers and fronds.

It's also lush and wet with moss growing on the tree ferns and completely soaked from the clouds that keep drifting by.

At the point on the trail where the upper loop begins is the 2nd Refuge.  These refuges are places that would provide shelter in a pinch and one can imagine that the weather could turn very nasty up here very quickly.  The refuges however, are damp, mouldy, concrete huts with leaky tin roofs and muddy stinky floors - not a place I would want to have to hang around for very long!  At the 2nd Refuge we split from our newly formed party and climbed down an incredibly steep track into the caldera and then back up to the top of the 1902 dome.

Before climbing down we checked out the track on the opposing slope.  This turned out to be hand and foot work all the way up.

3rd Refuge (hut) just below the summit.  Here we're on the dome formed after the massive 1902 eruption.  There is another dome from the 1929 eruption and one higher peak called Le Chinois.  We didn't hike to the top of Le Chinois since we still had quite a distance around the caldera and didn't know how tough it would be.

Le Chinois behind us - still smiling :-)

The rugged northern view - hard to tell from this picture just how rugged it is.  No habitation out there.

The variety of alpine growth is stunning.

There is a trail to the west that leads down to the village of Le Precheur.

However, due to washouts it is currently closed.  Glad we didn't plan our day to come up that way.

More surprising and beautiful alpine vegetation.

As we walked back down the section of the path below the 2nd Refuge, this little  Green Throated Carib hummingbird led the way, stopping every little bit to make sure we were following.  He was so bold he let me move right in close to get his picture on my phone - no zoom lens here!

Click on the picture to see more detail.

One final view - this one to the south west and if we had binoculars we could pick out Mowzer at anchor on the coast at St. Pierre.

We returned back to the parking lot to find the group we had met on the mountainside enjoying a cold beer and debating the best way to get back to St. Pierre.  They had taken the bus to Morne Rouge and walked up from there.  Apparently buses were no longer running (it was now 4pm) but I'm getting lots of practice with my French now and we were able to arrange a taxi for the group of six (they just couldn't all fit in our tiny little car.)

The hike took us over five hours and while we could have done it faster, we thoroughly enjoyed stopping and watching the view or the tiny flora while up on top of the mountain.  Remember too that we didn't climb Le Chinois and if we'd done that it would have probably added another hour to our time up there.  The hike is tougher than La Souffriere on Guadeloupe but perhaps not quite so dramatic as there are no vents on Pelee.  Two days after doing the hike, my calves were quite tender from the descent.

We finished up our day's adventure with a drive further through the rain forest around Fonds-St-Denis and Henry happily even found a road-side waterfall to show me.  He had promised one at the beginning of the day but I was super happy this one didn't involve too much of a walk since my legs were pretty tired after Pelee.

Henry proudly shows off The Gendarme Falls.