Martinique - cont'd...days 4 to 8
Finally I got the best pictures online at http://picasaweb.google.de/wkoestinger. Now its time to write the rest into my blog. This time I'll write about the days four to eight.
I also found a nice website called Zananas Martinique . Since we were guided by Gertsch, we didn't really need that before the trip. However I will again link certain locations, where we have been to, throughout my blog entry to wikipedia or the above website.
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| from Day 4 |
Day Four
On day four we wanted to check out two things. First there is a walk up to the peak of Montagne Pelèe , an active volcano in the North, which destroyed the old capital in 1902 . Therefor we drove to a viewpoint at the bottom of Pelèe. From there it takes you about 1 hour to walk to the crater.
The second thing is a walk along the coast from the beach Anse Couleuvre - where we have been on day 3 - to Grand'Revière, a small village at the most northern end of Martinique.
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| Montagne Pelèe, from Martinique - Day 4 |
Unfortunately we had not the time - may be some of us not the motivation ;-) to do one of these two things on this day respectively during the rest of our trip. May be there will be time at my next visit :-)
On this day we ended in Grand'Rivière taking our lunch very late at 3pm. We went to one of the well known restaurants on the island.
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| Landscape around Grand'Revière, from Martinique - Day 4 |
Day Five
Since we got a mail message from him, we expected to meet Holli on this day. He wrote that he will anchor at Schoelcher - Gertsch village - and wait for us there.
We - Steffi, Gertsch and I decided to do a little walk in the near of Gertsch house and pick up Holli in Schoelcher downtown in the afternoon.
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| from Martinique - Day 5 |
We hiked along a river through the forrest for about 45 minutes but not more than an hour. Sometimes it was a little bit tricky since it is not an official walk and just known by local guides.
In the end we found a waterfall and a little lake where we took a swim and stayed for a while.
Later on the way back I of course could not pass the 8 meters high rock in the middle of the river without jumping down of it.
Imperium Gastunum should go canyoning once, it rocks :-)
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| from Martinique - Day 5 |
After returning to Gertsch house we drove to Schoelcher downtown. Since Gertsch already knew it, he saw Hollis boat anchoring some meters away from the beach. We took a short swim again to reach Hollis boat.
After getting to know his girl friend Sophie from UK he showed us our dinner for this day. During the trip from Domenica - the island northern to Martinique - he catched a Wahoo with a weight of about 15kg.
Beside the fact that it was the best fish I ever ate, it was the biggest too. In the end we had dinner like this one three times and everbody got a fish filet - without bones, just the spine - in the size of a beef steak.
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| Pauline, Cederic, Steffi, Holli, Sophie, myself, from Martinique - Day 5 |
Day Six
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| from Martinique - Day 6 |
On this day we did a walk along the Canal des esclaves all together. Like the walk on the day before you could do this one during hot lunch time too.
It was built by slaves in about 1770 to supply the villages Carbet and the old capital St.Pierre with freshwater. The canal is made of a stone wall on the valley side and is not more than 1 meter in width. The part where you have to walk is thinner than a meter at the most time and at the highest point about 50 meters above ground.
As long as it is not raining and the stone wall is dry, it is no problem to do this walk when you watch your step. Steffi was a little bit concerned before but managed all well as the others did.
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| Holli, Pauline and Cederic, from Martinique - Day 6 |
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| Gertsch, Steffi and Holli "walking", from Martinique - Day 6 |
After our walk we went of course to the beach at Le Carbet looking forward to the sunset. Le Carbet is a village next to St. Pierre on the west coast. Everytime Gertsch and his friends are in the North they go to this beach too for watching the sunset.
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| Palm leafes as towel, from Martinique - Day 6 |
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| Pauline and Gertsch, from Martinique - Day 6 |
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| Trying to catch the green flash, from Martinique - Day 6 |
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| Watching the sunset, from Martinique - Day 6 |
Day Seven
On this day we made a trip to a rhum destillery called Habitation Clément near Le Francois on the east coast. Its the most famous on Martinique because the historical buildings where turned into a museum. In the end there is a "dégustation" where visitors can try several different rhums of Clement. We bought of course a bottle of rhum each to take with us to Austria.
Unfortunately we forgot our camera on this day, so we couldn't make any pictures for ourselves. However I found some on the Zananas Martinique website.
Day Eight
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| Hanging around, from Day 8 |
What I remember is, that we slept very long on day eight.
After waking up we drove to the area of La Trinite at the east coast. We wanted to try wakeboarding there, but we missed to reserve before. When we arrived the wakeboard / surf rental was closed and as we didn't want to wait, we went to the beach hanging around. Always a good option...
These were our days 4 to 8 of our Martinique trip. The rest to come tomorrow.