Wednesday 25 April : The days seem to start earlier each day, as we tune to Darius’ waking up time! Today was again before 7am.
After breakfast, Teo and Glen set off in the car to pick up the new Suzuki DF20AS outboard from the dealer, 10 minutes away from Marina Etang. The outboard has arrived, apparently the last one that Guadeloupe had in stock, but Glen notes on the stand a 15HP 2-stroke for about 60% of the price of the 20HP 4-stroke. Hmm, very tempting, especially that the tiller and gear controls are much further aft and would be better for the davit lift. But in the end he choses to stay with the fuel injected 4-stroke. The one we lost was so very fuel efficient, and prior to damaging the prop, it gave us good speed.
Back at Cloudy Bay we get the outboard to the bow of the yacht and get it onboard with the spinnaker halyard, including safety strops. We don’t want to lose another one in the sea! Once on the outboard bracket we leave it there and set off in the car.
Today we take the N3 northwards, past the central volcanic Pitons and up to Mount Pelle, the large volcanic peak in the north, which last erupted, catastrophically, in 1902. We have to pass through Fort de France town, but it has a very good highway bypass, including tunnels through the town. Again we are amazed by the development in Martinique. The population is only 400,000 but the infrastructure, shops and services are all first rate, as you would expect in any large French city. In fact, we again really feel we are in mainland France. Such a huge contrast to the other Caribbean islands.
Once we are out of Fort de France town we are immediately climbing hard and the little Renault Clio is struggling, even in 2nd gear, up the hills. Very soon the road is winding its way through really beautiful and unspoiled rain forest and we think this is how Dominica must have been prior to hurricane Maria. Half way up the road we stop to explore a waterfall, but it’s not that spectacular and they have over done the lead up to it, including concreting in the splash pool at its base to make it easier to swim under the fall.
Further on, we go up as far as we can (850m) on the slopes of Mount Pelle, to where the hiking trail to the 1400m summit starts. It’s wet, raining and cloudy up here and there is not much of a view. We wonder why people would do the 4 hour hike to the top knowing it would surely be in cloud all the way.
As we descend Pelle to the NE coast the sun comes out, as it usually does on the windward side of these islands, and spirits rise.
Eventually we get to almost the most northerly point of the island, where there is M.J Rhum factory, which we take a tour of. It’s set in a very pretty valley and is a very different affair compared to other distilleries we have visited. Although they have retained the original steam engine for crushing the cane, its not actually connected to the 3 modern crushers that are all electric operated. And the cane is being loaded into the crushers from huge trailers that have come from the plantations. It’s really interesting to walk through this modern facility that is doing the same basic things as they were hundreds of years ago, only much more efficiently. One key change is they run the cane through the crusher 3 times, not just once and the pulp is dried and reused as fertilizer, not just left in heaps to rot. This is all too much for Darius who apparently finds the noise frightening. He has found himself a small water feature to play in. He is so happy wherever there is water to splash in. As he gets soaked, parents join Glen for some rum tasting.
After the distillery, we head south down the east coast towards Trinity, in search of a calm beach for Darius to play on. But they are all with large waves and the horrible Atlantic sea weed. So we end up at almost the same beach we were at yesterday and a few hours are spent playing happily in the water, until the sun has almost gone.
Back at Cloudy Bay we are all rather exhausted by our long day in the car. But as a treat, Glen cracks open a bottle of Spanish wine left for us on the boat by the previous owner. We didn’t realise that it is actually a 1981 Rioja! The cork disintegrates as Glen tries to open it, but once aired, the wine has a delicious taste. It even rates 8/10 for Teo, which means it’s very good!
After the wine we are all sleepy, so early to bed to ready ourselves for those happy and wining sounds once Mr.D. wakes up in the (early) morning!