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!
