Grenada liming

September 23, 2010

Well the past six weeks have been a blur.  Not because of excessive activity or rather the type of activity that involves being up or at some particular place at any particular time ie a schedule.  Yes, I've been living the smooth and relaxing time space continuum of the Lesser Antilles.  I've been mostly hanging around Grenada, getting up when the sun gets up and generally following the same to bed at night.  Grenada is a wonderful place.  I know I have declared in the past that the little piece of paradise that I find myself is the best, but Grenada is defiantly one of the best.  I have been walking, biking, riding the bus all over the island, meeting people, dancing with people, and just going with the flow of this most wonderful spot on the planet. 

The bike has been a great asset.  As you may recall I have my road bike somehow crammed into one of the cockpit lockers.  Since here though, its spent half the time on shore, secured at night is some spot where its reasonably safe (no crime here to speak of, and they don't enjoy gun play like in the USVI), and during the day before its gets too hot, I hit the road.  The strategic placement of numerous watermelon stands makes for re-hydration and meeting new friends.  The roads compare with anywhere that I have lived and biked in the US mainland. Yes there are some serious hills; I'm not saying I've been pulling a Lance Armstrong climbing the Pyrenees, but their doable.  Most of the coastal roads are a reasonable rolling winding band hugging the coast.  The roads are pretty smooth and the traffic where heavy reasonably well behaved.  Even the speeding taxis beep the horn as the come up on you.  I've extensively biked about ¾ of the island and from my new anchorage in St Davids Bay, plan on exploring the north shore and the historical Sauteurs city there.

In the center of the island is the Grand d'Etang forest preserve, which is spectacular in its rainforest and large trees.   On one ride I grinded my way to the 1900 foot elevation and was rewarded with a breathtaking downhill, with ferns and tropical vegetation crowding in on the winding hairpins as I flew onto the other side of the island.  Have to admit I was a little concerned with the condition of my brake shoes on many of the downhills.  I've got new tires and tubes as a blowout would involve a little more than a case of road rash, rather an airborne flight off the deep ravines that line the side of the road in many places.  On one ride I found myself lost, due to some bad information on directions and on the side of a mountain in a small village called New Hampshire.  Seemed everyone was either hanging out in the shade in front of one of the rum huts.  All eyes where locked on me as I shot into town on the heals of a speeding taxi van.  I managed to brake and of course the toe clip jammed once I came to a stop, and I toppled over in front of the crowd.  I didn't say anything, maintaining composer, acting like 'I did that on purpose of course!, out loud I asked "you all have cold beer?".  Everyone laughed and a couple of beers later and some smoke, I sitting with my new friends learning on what was up in New Hampshire.  I rode around this beautiful valley with its flowers and thick trees interspersed with small farm plots.  The soil here is amazing a dark volcanic soil that allows the island to produce most of its food supply.  As a result to don't see stores packed with processed food, and as a result obesity is almost non existent here. 

The small towns are extremely slow paced, you can almost out run them if you are sitting down.  I know there is unemployment but everyone seems to at least being fed.    

Also the island is dotted with several very scenic waterfalls.  On one occasion I did a 8 mile hike with a Scotsman sailor I met in Prickly Bay, like most cruiser very likable and we did the rather grueling hike through the forest on a barely discernable trail along mountain ridges, spectacular overlooks and down into deep and shear river valleys.  After 4 or so hours of scrambling and sliding we were rewarded with a beautiful vision of the Fontainebleau waterfall.  Our navigation was facilitated by my fellow trekker's possession of a British military map of the island that identified almost every turn in not only the roads but the minor roads and trails.  If I have a gripe with the local government is the total absence of any decent map of the island.  Like other several other islands when you ask at customs or the visitors bureau for a map of the island they give you one of those cartoon maps that tell you more on where to buy souvenirs or eat at restaurants then providing any sort of real or accurate geographical information.

We made a couple of turns and found ourselves scrambling up the rocks of a narrow creek bed.  As we rounded several bends and climbed to a vantage point over the numerous boulders that littered the narrow canyon, the sound of falling water and then the beautiful site of a waterfall that came out the lushly vegetated ledge a100 feet above us.  The pool at the bottom was a pretty greenish blue color and these amazing cobalt blue fish flitted about the rocks beneath the surface.  Either side of the water fall was a cliff face with hanging ferns and plants.  The water was around 75 degrees which made the scratches and sore muscles and knees feel relief. 

I was later to hike another water fall with a good friend from the states, called Seven Falls, that stair stepped down through a series of drops in the rainforest.   We were a little disappointed at the efforts of a local to widen the trail so as to enable large crowds to get to the falls, another 'disneyfication' of the island.  This is a frequent criticism I have of the islands.  Either as the result of a large corporate resort or the influx of cruise ships, tourism, especially in its extreme form, taking over the entire economy (not here yet thankfully), turns the island into a whore, but I digress.

 

I've been using the ULI board a lot here, both as a replacement for my rapidly degrading and unreliable dinghy and to play in the wave with.  In Prickly bay I actually have achieved one of my goals of the whole voyage, in the finding of a decent anchorage with a nice break within paddling distance.  Some remnants of Hurricane Igor brought a beautiful and clean 3 foot wave into the shallow reef off the point.  It was perfect for the ULI and for several days, was out playing in the waves.   It was so good to feel the rush of riding a wave again after so many months.