News & Weather

Two and a half weeks on from the jubilee recital, it is now getting coverage on local papers and newsletters. Click on the above image to enlarge the photo and to read the article.

And now I am back in Montserrat after a blazingly quick week in London - only once more will I have to transit through the chaotic mess that is Antigua's airport! I always breathe a sigh of slight relief when the FlyMontserrat plane lifts off from Antigua's tarmac, leaving behind the throngs of American tourists and Boeing 777 jets, making the intrepid 20-minute flight across azure waters before Montserrat looms into view. Peaceful, relaxed, tranquil and everything it's been made out to be - all visible from the sky.

But this is it now - slightly less than three weeks left of paradise isle before it's back to the big smoke. On some good news, however - the job interview back in London was a success and I will be accepting the offer to start in St John's Prep School in September.

Montserrat is at it's hottest I've ever experienced so far, and with no A/C in my house the fan has become my closest friend and companion. The weather now is significantly hotter than what I first remembered when I got here in January, and I'm slightly surprised by how varied the temperature can get given this island's close proximity to the equator.

Things have slightly taken a lull at school as well, with exam period now in full swing. The end of term is nigh!

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.

Ash & Pyroclastics

Yesterday I decided that my free time (so far) would be best spent driving around the island and orientating myself to the island. Montserrat itself isn't big; at 10 miles long and 6.8 miles wide, and more than half of it in the exclusion zone, it is significantly smaller than Singapore. However, it is extremely hilly - most of the populated areas are not along the coast, as there seems to be much less accessible shoreline that I first expected. Therefore a journey from Olveston (where I am, the southern part of the habitable area) to Brades (the de facto capital up north) takes at least twenty minutes.

With it being a tropical island with very little seasonal temperature variation, it is very much like being back in Singapore, except with the climate generally being a couple deg C lower and certainly less humidity levels. A lot of Montserrat does resemble Singapore sixty years ago - very rustic, rural and colonial in some ways.

One of the stops I made during my little island road trip was Jack Boy Hill, a secluded lookout spot in the northeast where I had a partial but picturesque view of the exclusion zone as well as the former airport which was abandoned during the last major eruption. It was quite surreal to see vast portions of land completely covered with hardened pyroclastic flow, rendering the entire landscape a dull grey - very much like a modern-day Pompeii.

A house completely destroyed by pyroclastic flow.

Coastline of the exclusion zone.

I also visited some of the (undestroyed) beaches along the west coast, with a popular one being Little Bay. This area is being redeveloped as the new capital town, with it being one of the more popular areas on weekends where bars and nightclubs open for business. The island's diving shops and facilities are also located here, so I hope to be spending some time there in the future when I decide to take up diving again!

Other practical considerations which I managed to suss out were the exact locations of the only two petrol stations on the island (they must be making a fortune!) as well as where some of the island's schools are located. At present I'm staying very near the only secondary school on the island, where I will be mostly based at. It seems I'll be starting work on Monday - can't wait. There are only so many free afternoons where I can sit on my porch all afternoon drinking beer and enjoying the sun.

View of the beach from Little Bay

You can tell from just exploring the island that Montserrat has come a long way since more than half the population were made refugees from volcanic activity in 1995. Everyone here seems to share a spirit of solidarity, spurred further on by a thoroughly friendly and amicable attitude. When I got out of my car at the supermarket and locked it, a local came up to me and said, "This is Montserrat, no need to lock your car!" Okay, maybe that will take some time getting used to.

Antigua & Mini-planes

So, here we go. Day 1 on this tropical paradise isle that is Montserrat. Well, I say paradise - that's from what I've seen so far when the Britten-Norman Islander I was in flew above Montserrat as it approached landing. The day started early yesterday with a delayed & packed flight to Antigua from London Gatwick, brought on by terrible gales lashing the runway. By then I was quite grateful to be leaving such foul weather to sunnier lands.

After a very quick & hectic layover in Antigua, I found myself onboard a six-seater Islander aircraft - the only type of aircraft that FlyMontserrat operates - heading towards the Emerald Isle, pop. 4,822, along with three other fellow passengers. Whilst en-route I got to know another passenger who was also starting a new job in Montserrat - the new customs head, who himself also travelled from London. There was indeed a moment of hilarity which ensued when he, having arrived without making himself known to customs that he was their new boss, was asked to step behind the yellow line and wait his turn.

There are currently only two ways to get to and from Montserrat. The first is either a 40-minute long ferry ride or a 20-minute long flight, both from Antigua. Montserrat's former airport, along with the former capital Plymouth, were destroyed in the 1997 eruption of Soufriere Hills volcano. For several years afterwards, Montserrat had been only accessible by helicopters or boats until July 2005 when the new John A. Osborne Airport was completed on the north end of the island, prompting flight services to resume.

The pilot & stewardess. Talk about cosy.

Upon landing, I was picked up by representatives from Montserrat Enterprises, then driven to the police station to obtain my local temporary driver's license before being shown to my accommodation. For the next seven-months I'll be put up in the lower half of a colonial-era styled house which has been divided into two apartments, one on the ground floor and the other on the first. I still have yet to meet my neighbour(s), but let's hope they weren't too put off with me blasting the local radio belting out hits from Enrique Igleasis and Westlife (I like this place already!) whilst I was doing my unpacking.

Day One has thus kicked off in the most relaxed manner possible. Last night I sent out a deluge of emails checking-in with the various powers-that-be that I would be working with, but I still have yet to get any response regarding official meetings or school tours. Perhaps I'm just still stuck in hectic big city mode and need to take time to calm down and adapt to the Montserratian way of life.

I have been invited to dinner with the governor of Montserrat, Sir George Martin and their respective families tomorrow. Time to start all that ironing!