Ghauts & Scuba diving

This weekend gone has been a busy one, and as I now settle back into this mid-week post I can see my arms slightly reddish from a bit too much exposure to the sun. On Saturday, a group of us - Doug, Mel, Rob, Dan and myself - went on a hike in the north, starting from Drummonds heading to Rendezvous Bay and going via Silver Hills. What was meant to be a rather straightforward undertaking quickly turned into somewhat of an intrepid bush hike as we somehow veered off the trail, stumbled onto a farm and then proceeded to edge our way slowly down a steep slope into a valley before clamouring down the entire length of a ghaut on our hands and feet.

At this point we were beginning to wonder if we were truly lost, but by some fortuitous chance we came across two men who were building a goat fence, albeit in the seemingly most random and remote location as where we were. They, however, did seem to know the local geography well and managed to point is in the right direction - this time following yet another different ghaut down the valley, towards the sea. The aim was to reach Crystal Beach, a rocky beach along the north coast purportedly containing crystals.

And crystals we did find! Well, nothing too grand, but crystals nonetheless - they were embedded in some form of limestone. Following the coast, we continued on to Rendezvous Bay, the only white sand beach on the island. The water was pristine and nothing short of relieving, after our long detour.

My return to the summit of Silver Hill.

Carib or Arawak ruins, perhaps?

At the summit of Silver Hill, we spotted what appeared to be ruins of some sort - two monoliths strangely sticking out of the tree canopy. While I can't profess to know much about Caribbean history, I did hear that the earliest evidence of humans in Lesser Antilles arc of islands dates all the way back to 2,000 BCE in Antigua - which is right next door from Montserrat. This area certainly has seen lots of human history.

Dan being a bit of a geology nerd.

Attempting to reconcile with the trail.

At some point, the trail we were trying to follow disappeared, and no amount of consultation with Doug's hi-tech GPS tracker could point us back in the right direction. We crossed a farm gate and, after avoiding a potentially irate cow looking after a calf, arrived at a steep side of a hill overlooking a valley which, we reckoned, would lead us to the ocean.

Rolling hills and valley.

A rocky respite.

At a scenic rocky outcrop.

After pushing our away through some low but thick vegetation, we arrived at a dry ghaut that was bordered by a goat fence on the east side. Which, I suppose, was good news - that meant someone had been here previously before on foot to build these fences. Although, considering how remote where we were, it seemed like a massive effort to go through just to make sure a few goats don't accidentally wander off.

And just as I was pondering on that point, we ran into that pair of fence-building farmers.

Mel expressing some rocky love.

The intrepid five.

Familiarizing myself with more local flora.

And finally, two-and-a-half hours later, we finally heard faint sounds of splashing waves. At the end of ghuat we emerged at sea level, on a rocky beach that was Crystal Beach. From there, we followed the coast west-ward and arrived at neighbouring Rendezvous Bay. This beach is only accessible by boat, or a hilly 30-minute trek from the port in Little Bay.

First stop: straight into the sea.

The cliffs which cut Rendezvous Bay off.

My little spot of paradise.

On Sunday, Mel, Philippa and myself returned to Little Bay - not for more walking though, but to get our sea legs in shape with a boat dive with Emmy and Andrew, a couple who run a diveshop on the island called Scuba Montserrat. We went out to Rendezvous Bay (again!), but anchored off about 400 metres form shore for our dive and a spot called Rainbow's End.

As I don't have an underwater camera, I didn't get any pictures from our dive, unfortunately - but it certainly was a beautiful sight of corals, fishes and a couple of sea urchins. At 45 feet, one tank lasted pretty long, and we managed to clock just above an hour for our dive.

After returning to shore, we headed over to the nearby beach bar for some lunchtime beers to finish off the weekend - for me, at least - I was completely knackered. Here is a map of the trail we took for the trek on Saturday, taken off the GPS.

In other music-related news, the Montserrat Youth Choir will be having their inaugural performance on Cultural Day, 12 March. Montserrat Secondary School celebrates the annual cultural day with a parade from Salem, with students dressing up in cultural costumes representing all the countries which the student population derives from. There will be a UK contingent, and I have agreed to 'choreograph' a ceilidh-style Scottish reel routine for the parade.

The parade will then end at the school itself, where there will be a varying range of food and merchandise being sold to raise funds for the school. I almost thought I might be cornered into preparing some Singaporean-type cuisine for this, but thankfully I was spared. Not that I have the slightest inkling on how to whip up chicken rice, laksa or char kway teow! (I make a pretty damn good carbonara meatball pasta though.) And finally, There will also be a 'concert' of sorts, with students performing different artistic routines derived from different cultures.

Come next Tuesday, I will be meeting with the Rotary club here in Montserrat to see if we can raise even more funds for instrument donations - which is in itself a positive development. On the other hand, my order of music books from Chappell still hasn't arrived, and it's been nearly three weeks. Very frustratingly so. The postal system in this region really needs a big kick up the bum!

iPlayer & Mini-kingdoms

Well surprise, surprise. I guess the Beeb doesn't consider British Overseas Territories to be suited to enjoy their fine TV programming. Indeed, I am now iPlayer-less, or at least will be for the next seven months. I don't usually get a constant hankering for EastEnders, really. I just don't know why, this isle technically being crown-owned land, am I being denied my occasional indulgence of the finest British soap.

The BBC News app has also denied my live streaming of its namesake channel (it doesn't even give me an error message prompt, it just minimizes without playing) and I now have to, alas, contend myself with BBC World with an ever-increasingly American shift in coverage and other trashy American TV channels which show up to five back-to-back episodes of Wife Swap. (Guilty as charged!) Attempts to download the BBC iPlayer Global app have backfired too because it's only available on the US iTunes store.

In other more exciting discoveries, I noticed while driving around the island that there's yet another small rocky island not too far away from Montserrat. It cuts quite an imposing figure, rising out of the sea with steep cliffs all around topped by an area of grassland that slopes rather steeply. Welcome to Redonda, a very small, uninhabited Caribbean island which is now part of Antigua and Barbuda. It is basically one very large rock, the remnant of an ancient volcanic core. Due to a lack of a freshwater source, Redonda itself is currently uninhabited, except by seabirds and, according to Wikipedia, a herd of feral goats that manage to survive on the poor grazing on top of the island.

Redonda rising out of the ocean.

Montserrat is the closest land to Redonda, which is situated between here and the island of Nevis. Originally spotted by Columbus who claimed it for the Spanish crown despite not setting foot on the island himself, it was subsequently made a British possession in the 1860s (why not?) but was handed over to Antigua and Barbuda when the latter become independent. Interestingly, however, Redonda has been claimed as a "kingdom" and is now considered a micronation. Who by, you might wonder. Here's an interesting blurb about Redonda's history as a mini-kingdom, extracted from Wikipedia's article about the Kingdom of Redonda.

"Redonda also is, or appears to be, a micronation which may, arguably and briefly, actually have existed as an independent kingdom during the 19th century. The title to this supposed kingdom is still contested to this day in a half-serious fashion. The "Kingdom" is also often associated with a number of supposed aristocratic members, whose titles are given out freely by whoever is currently the "King". Currently there are a number of different individuals in several different countries who claim to be the sole legitimate "King" of Redonda.

The idea of the kingdom appears to originate with M. P. Shiel, 1865–1947, an author of fantasy fiction. He claimed that in 1865, his father Matthew Dowdy Shiell, from the nearby island of Montserrat, proclaimed himself to be the rightful, and supposedly legal, "King" of the island of Redonda in order that he might establish his son as the rightful heir to the throne. This story, as first recounted by the son in a promotional leaflet for his books, may be partly or entirely fictional."

Another curious development that has since emerged (in 2007) was when a pub in Southampton attempted to declare themselves an embassy of the "nation" of Redonda, in order to gain diplomatic immunity from a nationwide ban on smoking in enclosed workplaces, including pubs. This was after the pub was granted status as a consulate of Redonda by the island's current king and the pub owner receiving a Redondan knighthood. Of course, this bold plan was eventually thwarted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, no less due to the fact that if the pub was classified as "foreign soil", it would be allowed to serve cheaper drinks because the pub would be exempt from VAT. You can read more about it on this online news article here.

Above is a map of the area on Google Earth to give you a clearer idea of where this fascinating micro-nation is actually located. Perhaps if I went over (by what means, I have no clue) and planted a Singapore flag there I could make it the first Singaporean colony - given how fickle the process of claiming territory seems to be. For the more musically-inclined, do check out Redonda's national anthem here. If you have a seaworthy vessel which you would like to enlist as part of the Royal Redondan Navy, you can download the application form here.

In other news, today I decided to go for a run around my immediate area just to have a look-see. One-and-a-half miles later I was completely shattered from what was possibly the most undulating run I have ever done in my life. Montserrat really is immensely hilly and certainly very punishing for a casual runner like me. At times the road was so steep I thought it might be less painful to jog backwards instead!