Commodore
May 18, 2020

Going land based!

We were up early tidying up after last night’s dinner mess (fatty lamb chops). We then realised we were out of water, which made things a lot harder so we finally decided to make our water, glad that we had chosen to stay much further away from the congestion of boats. Rowan was a little anxious about us mooring on the dock because we knew it was going to be extremely tight, and we would have an audience. He shouldn’t have worried he nailed it like an ace, which was a big relief to everyone. It was very odd packing our bags for a few nights away.

Claire our Airbnb lady (a professional chef) suggested ‘Steeve’ for our car rental as it is quite tricky to find her. Steeve met us outside the marina, the traffic was pretty hectic and plenty of tailbacks – looks very much like lockdown is easing. He took us to his depot on the outskirts of Fort de France, the road became narrower and narrower, feeling more and more remote, until we found a car park with 8 glistening cars of which we could have the pick! It was only Dacias (never seen before) or a tiny Kia. It was 15 Euros a day, a real bargain, and rather lovely picking up the car surrounded by enormous Mango and Cocoa trees. He then very sweetly took us to our. We were amazed at how built up the island is and how much traffic there was, which made keeping up with Steeve a real challenge. Our Airbnb is right out on the end of Roberts Bay, the other side of the island to where we have been. Once we had crossed the island and headed to Hyacinth Point, the road became shabbier and narrower, but very interesting. We passed loads of Brahmin cattle, the grass is very brown and a lot of the cattle looked very skinny sadly. Steeve suddenly pulled over and said our street with the Airbnb was just down there and he was going no further. Very sensibly as we found out, the road is precipitously steep and as we didn’t know which was the house we landed up going to the dead end and having to reverse back up a narrow road in a very under powered car! We finally found it, but because we could only get access after 3pm we decided to go and do a bit of exploring.

We headed north to a big peninsular that is a large reserve and has a few villages on it, which is where I had tried to get an Airbnb without luck. We went towards the end as we knew there were some good walks and a heritage sight, Chateau Dubuc, to see. We wiggled along the peninsular though some cute little villages and finally entered the reserve, which had a long bumpy dirt road leading to the car park. We walked down the steep road to Chateau Dubuc in the blazing early afternoon sunshine only to discover it was closed, of course (still in lockdown)! A steamy hot walk back up to the car, as I did not fancy a three hour loop in this heat without suntan cream or much water. Back at the car we found a trail that looked a good gradient and decided to follow it, and then discovered it was going to an old lighthouse. It was a lovely walk, even if boiling hot and dusty in the dry bush, we had some lovely views when we got there. Rather a charming old lighthouse dated 1861.

Prickly plants and air plants everywhere

This little bird was so grateful for some water from Rowan

The volcano Mount Pelee in the distance under cloud.

We returned to the Airbnb and met Claire who was charming. She showed us around and took us down to her jetty through the mangroves to the water’s edge, where there is a step ladder where you can get in and go for a swim. A couple of big Cats were privately moored just down the way at someone’s jetty. The flat was very comfortable and had a lovely verandah but gets all the afternoon heat which was a bit overwhelming. She is also having a new deck made around her swimming pool, which was pretty noisy until 6pm (very impressed the builders work that late) but she had warned us.

We discovered Clair’s published cookery book which has the most incredible photos and got our saliva juices running as we anticipated dinner. What a treat to be having a restaurant style meal after all this time. It was an amazing meal – aubergine fritters with a beetroot pickle, followed by cock (not chicken!) casserole with a lot of unidentifiable plants. All accompanied by a very strong, very tasty home made fruit rum cocktail. I could not eat it all, it was such a feast!