Canepiece & Sandy Bottom

Over the weekend I had the chance to get out and stretch my legs in the great outdoors of Montserrat. With Gerren as my guide, we walked up Silver Hills - a range of hills at the northern end of the island. A relatively easy trail, it took about two hours for a return trek and offered many scenic views. At the summit is an antennae array used by LIME (the local telecom and mobile provider), the MVO and the airport. I could also see most of the inhabitable area of Montserrat, with the volcano in the background masked by quite heavy cloud cover.

On the way we spotted some feral goats and a well-hidden pig farm. The wild boars that occasionally roam the area which I were warned about didn't make their presence felt, though.

Some rather striking local flora.

Some of the scenic views on offer en route up to Silver Hill.

The rooftop of an antennae array building at the summit.

Probably the least of your worries should you lose your footing.

Being the hilly island that it is, Montserrat boasts quite a number of hiking trails. And from this first sneak peek of the hills, I look forward to start ticking all of them off one by one. Montserrat also has quite a fair few number of beaches which, due to the prevalence of cliffs, are only accessible by boat. Currently, the only way to get a proper grand view of Soufrière Hills seems to be helicopter - once a week the MVO gets a helicopter in from Antigua to access monitoring equipment near the volcano, and I hear it might be possible to hitch a lift on one of those rides.

And I shall leave you with a scenic view of the northern part of Montserrat seen from the summit of Silver Hill. On the leftmost edge of the picture, with the row of houses curving out, is part of Lookout - a recent housing development area. The thin strip of 'road' at the right-hand side is actually the airport runway, with Glendon hospital slightly towards the back. Soufrière Hills is in the background, covered by clouds.