Tour of Montserrat

Friday 28 December: Road trip around Montserrat.
As predicted, a rolly night on anchor here in Little Bay. And quite a few more rain showers which made us jump to close the hatch several times. And then very early morning three horns are our wake up call: the ferry which was docked overnight is leaving, making his turning maneuver quite close to us. In summary, not much sleep last night.

The sky is still overcast as we sit in the cockpit for our breakfast. These high islands seem to always have a cloud-hat over them. And for today the weather forecast shows strong winds, gusting 25-30kts, likely making the cloud cover on the lee side even worse.

The customs check in formalities are quick, the officers being very friendly. And the paperwork is valid for checkout too, if we leave within 72 hours. Somehow, I have a feeling we won’t be wanting to remain longer than that.
We do find out that the anchorage at the Old Road Bay is now open, but they don’t give us permission to take Cloudy Bay there. “It’s Christmas, a lot is going on with the festival on the island. Better leave your boat here and take a taxi there.” Hm, I guess that’s a very polite way to warn us on safety issues that might arise. We also get a warning about driving, “be very careful when you drive, people are still celebrating Christmas”.

The area where the dock and Port Authority office are located is a fenced off customs bonded area, with a guarded gate. The guy whom we rent the car from waits for us just outside the gate. And he drives us to the Police station, where we need to get a temporary driving license for Montserrat. Which again is a quick affair, with very friendly officers. Like we needed it, we get the same warning: “be careful, people are in party mood, they are not driving the way you are driving”.
We also ask how we get permission to visit the lost town of Plymouth, which was submerged in a clastic lava flow and is now classed as a restricted area. We learn the only way is to apply for a permit via a tour agent one day and visit the next with that tour guide – at a cost of about US$150.

The strong winds and rain start just as we get in the car. We do pick our days with the rental cars, don’t we?!
We start our road trip heading south, to the end of the road at the Richmond Hill where we can get a view of Plymouth – or what’s left of it. It is a pleasant drive on a bendy road, all very lush and vivid green. I guess these high islands don’t really have a dry season. And as we drive we think Montserrat has a Dominica feel to it, but with nicer people.

As we exit Salem, the most southern inhabited village, the road becomes very rough. To the point there isn’t even a road anymore, only a muddy dirt track with very deep ruts. As we get close to Richmond Hill, we are in the outskirts of Plymouth and start seeing abandoned houses everywhere. It is all a bit aerie, and this weather adds to the desolation feeling. All very sad. People still own these houses and the plots of land, but they all moved north or off the island, many relocating to Britain. Nature is reclaiming the area, the houses are overgrown by bushes and climbing plants.

On top of Richmond Hill there is an abandoned Martello tower, which used to be a museum. From a small window at the top of it we have a glimpse of the volcano and the hill side where ruins of Plymouth are, between two lava flows. The view would’ve been better on a clear day, but today it is all in a mist: clouds covering the top of the volcano and misty rain over the hill.

So we carry on driving closer towards Plymouth in search for a better view. And what do you know, we come across a gated entrance to the restricted area, with the gate wide open, a padlock and chain hanging from it and no one in sight. Surely that must be an invitation, “please come in”. And we do drive straight through crossing our fingers that we won’t get locked in!
Soon we are between the ruins of Plymouth, where, judging by the signs still visible on the buildings, a small shopping area must have been: bakery, furniture and appliances, etc. The buildings are partially burned, partially destroyed by boulders. And through the broken windows we see that inside they are full of ash.
Further along, we come across the first lava flow. The road is even muddier here, and our feet sink into the black sand as we try to find a good spot for a video. There are several building semi submerged in the clastic flow, but most seem to have been swiped away forever.
But then we are spotted, and our investigative adventure is cut short by a car that speeds over and shoos us off. Very politely though. We are surprised we didn’t get into trouble! Not yet at least! 🙂 We do click our pictures and then get out of there, before that gate closes, locking us in.

Back out onto the “main road”, we pull over and wait for a downpour to stop. In between the rain showers and gusts there seem to be some lulls. And in one of these moments we would like to fly the drone over the lost town. We are all geared up, rain and wind are the only obstacles.
And as we wait in the car, Glen wants to switch on the air-con. But the engine isn’t starting. Bugger! Have we mentioned lately that we don’t have much luck with these rent-a-wrecks? Phew, at least this happened now that we are back outside the restricted area! There is phone signal and we can call they guy who rented us the car, but how do we explain where we are?

Then a car drives by and luckily the lady driving it has a battery gadget which manages to jump-start the battery of our wreck. An interesting little thing, with USB chargers too. What a contrast from our car! And soon we are back in business, following her towards the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) where she happens to work.
But the Observatory was closed when we arrived, and unfortunately we couldn’t see the exhibits there. The view from their terrace is very nice though, looking down over the lava flow and Plymouth, so we admire that for a while.

And that view sparks us again to return to Plymouth and fly the drone over the ruins. It is still very windy, but what the hell. It lifts ok, but it’s very difficult to fly it in this wind. Even in sports mode it feels like it’s going backwards rather than forward. And when we feel we lose control of it, we decide it’s wise to just land it. So no aerial footage of the ruins or boulders 🙁

A smaller scale exhibition about the volcano is at the National Trust center and we do manage to visit this one. The pictures of the smoking volcano or glowing red after it erupted are quite impressive. What is even more impressive are the before and after pictures of Plymouth (the former capital) – it was a beautiful city before it got destroyed in 1997. And what we didn’t know when we were onsite looking at the ruins this morning, is that what we saw were actually only the top floors of the buildings. The first two levels are now buried. For the cathedral, only the top of the roof pokes out from under the lava.
The villages of St. Patrick and Morris are now completely buried under lava, ash and boulders, with no sign of what used to be there before. All gone. 🙁
After we finish the visit at the National Trust, we chat to the curator, and she tells us stories from the year before the big eruption and then of the aftemarh. Most of the population left the island, they went to England and hardly anybody returned since then.

We drive around Salem and up a few hills, in search for an estate that we could visit, or a panoramic view. Unsuccessful on both. But we do manage to drive all the way down to the Old Road Beach. Quite nice, as black sand beaches go: long, very wide, with creepers and bushes further back.
Waves are violently crashing on the beach, and we have a hard time imagining why this used to be the best anchorage. There’s no way we would beach the dinghy in this surf! But having said that, surprisingly there is a rubber dinghy complete with outboard on the beach, clearly dragged up by somebody. It certainly looks like a dinghy from a yacht, but how on earth could it have washed up on this lee-shore beach? Although it almost looks like new, it clearly has been there for a while and we wonder what the story is. Funny, in St.Lucia locals steal yacht dinghies every day. In Montserrat a perfectly good dinghy washes up on the beach and no one takes it!

From Salem we drive north towards Woodlands, and we come across a food stall on the side of the road. The smells are divine so we give in the temptation and buy our lunches to go. Which we serve few minutes later in the picnic area at Woodlands Beach. Another black sand beach, which I find prettier than Old Road. Because of the cliffs that are bordering it at either end, and the hillside in the backdrop, it makes the bay look dramatic.
It’s such a beautiful setting, so we risk flying the drone again. This time we do manage to record an aerial view with some very nice properties nested on the cliff tops.

From Woodlands we drive across the island, towards the east side, in search for a view over where the old airport used to be. The east coast is drier, the vegetation on the hills is just grass and small bushes which would stand the strong winds. What a contrast from the lush west coast just 2 miles away.
We soon see the lava flow and give in to the temptation to drive on the dirt road as close as possible. But we run into a dead end, so have to drive back to the official viewing point.
At the top of John Boy Hill there is a very nicely done small garden and terrace, with perfect panoramic view. No sign of any remnants from the airport though, it is all gone. All we can see is the eastern clastic lava flow (Plymouth being destroyed by the western flow).

We continue our road trip back north, and we briefly drive through Lookout village. All houses here seem to be a standard design and we comment if this could be a village built for the population who was evacuated from Plymouth before the eruptions started.

We then take up the challenge and drive the very steep road up to Silver Hills. We were told the view from up there it is worth the trouble. Fingers crossed the engine will not die on us again while we push the rent-a-wreck to its very limit. We get up there ok, but there is no look out point. Only some radio masts. One gated, and one which Glen ventures to climb on the ladder one third up.
We do get the view as we slowly drive back down: the new runway which looks like it sits on a hill, a stadium also on top of a hill, Lookout village, and in the far distance the volcano.

We have now officially been on every road on this island. So from here we make our way back towards Cloudy Bay, hoping she is still waiting for us in the anchorage. And we are pleased to see her as we drive down towards Little Bay. What we are not extremely pleased about is to see her rocking. The swell is bigger this evening, and she does indeed roll a lot more than yesterday. Hm, looking forward to having a sheltered anchorage again! Two night rocking at anchor will be enough thanks very much!

As we sip a tea in the cockpit, we comment on today’s conclusion: Montserrat doesn’t really have much to offer to the average tourist, other than the volcano story. Although the island is naturally pretty, with lush forests on the west coast, we couldn’t find any “wow” factor attractions. The tracking up the trails could be good fun, but on a rainy day like today we didn’t venture in the forests.
A few general observations regarding the island: we notice there are no big resorts or hotels. In the few brochures we’ve seen, accommodation for tourists seems to be in apartment villas. Despite no apparent industry to support the economy, you get the feeling that people are generally content here; not well off, but not desperately poor either. And they are all very polite and speaking nicely to you. We haven’t noticed lazy-bones or high-on-pot, behaviors that in most of the previous islands were obvious everywhere. “Well”, Glen says, “it is after all British. We don’t tolerate that sort of behavior, you know!”. To which I smirk, when I think of all the awful drunken behavior I’ve observed, without exception, from the British youth!

Later in the evening we are happily relaxing in the saloon, and we hear a ship coming in. Clearly he needs to reverse up to the dock but he is sitting there, bow to the dock with spot light alternating between the dock and us. His bridge is in shouting distance from us but we get no shouts. Out of politeness Glen switches on the VHF and asks him if everything is OK, to which he politely replies that we need to move! Oh bugger!
So we up-anchor and motor around a bit while he reverses into the dock, then we re-anchor back where we were. We assume that for departure he can simply drive forward.
We then notice that one of the containers he has on board has fallen over! And soon they have a crane on board to lift it upright again. Meanwhile, we hear the loud goings on from ashore, where there is a beauty pageant. Lots of dramas to entertain us this evening 🙂