St.Vincent, day 4 – La Soufriere Trail

Thursday 22-March: Equinox today – the sun is at the equator, just 13deg to the south of us. No wonder the days are warming up.

Glen wakes early to check the fridge that was re-gassed last evening, but disappointingly it’s back to room temperature. Oh dear, that means we have a serious leak in the system somewhere. We’ll have Selwin the technician back again this evening. Like most of the systems on the boat, fridges are something we cannot do without. Good job we have 3 of them, but losing even one challenges us for refrigerated space.

The other reason for being up early is to climb the La Soufriere volcano before it gets shrouded in cloud. So before 8am we are in the car heading north, up the east coast again. We arrive at the start of the trail, about 300m up in the jungle, by 8:45. There are a few locals waiting around and we fear they will tell us we cannot trek alone without a guide. But we need not have worried and set off into the tropical forest on the very nicely made trail. To start with, it runs along a very narrow ridge with shear drops down into deep gulleys each side, and we need to concentrate not to place a wrong foot. The sun is hot but we are completely shaded by the wilds of the jungle. And by ourselves it’s a wonderful place to be.

But then it starts going up …. and up …. and up. On the steepest parts, there are neatly laid steps made from thick bamboo and each time we turn a corner there seems to be an endless procession of them, forever upwards. The trail comes to a wide rocky dry river bed and we wonder where the trail goes next. Maybe we should have had a guide! Pretty quickly we pickup the trail again on the opposite side of the river, then it’s on-up again.

After one hour, the front of one of Glen’s shoes is coming apart. Not good. We debate about going back to get another pair from the car, but instead Glen does a quick repair with string from the GoPro handle. It lasts for about 200m then needs retying again. And before not long, the sole of the other shoe is also coming off. Not good timing for shoes to die! With more repairs, using the laces to hold them together, we continue. “I’ll walk barefoot if I have to” he says.

We come across another river, smaller this time, with running water. Two locals are resting there. They say we are 3/4 of the way, which re-boosts our energy. The jungle fauna has gone now, replaced by lower trees which look prehistoric. And closer to the crater edge, as clouds start to descend on us, there is just low grass and heather. And with our cloths soaked in sweat, it’s cold in the wind at 1200m altitude, so we put on wind proof tops. We could be hiking in the Lake District!

Suddenly, the trail ends at a sharply defined edge. It’s the rim of the crater. Within a 50cm distance the steady slope we have been hiking up transforms to a shear drop of over 100m down into the crater! Not an edge that you would want to stumble across in thick cloud. The view into the crater is amazing. Mostly green, but in the middle is what looks like a pile of fresh coal – it’s the new cooled lava from the most recent eruption in 1979. To one side of it there is a grey burnt looking patch that is still smoking sulphuric rich fumes. A real reward to see all this after a tough accent.

We walk around the rim with Glen’s shoes barely holding together now. Oana is much amused. Yesterday it was Glen’s terrible hair cut that kept her giggling. Today it’s the shoes! On the other side of the rim, out of the wind, through the swirling clouds we occasionally get a glimpse of west coast, and we can clear identify where we were yesterday. Oana gets out a picnic. Full 3-course: for starters a bag of plantain chips, main, plantain chips and for desert …. plantain chips! During our break the clouds come in and the conditions turn to grey and damn. Looks like we were up there just in time to get a view before the cloud really settled in on top of the volcano.

As we start our descent, it rains and we look forward to the warmth of the jungle below. Going down is easier, but still needs several stops to readjust the various repairs to hold Glen’s shoes together. Occasionally, we stop to just listen to the jungle. So many sounds: bamboo creaking as they touch one another, birds singing and a the sound of humming bird wings beating, but only once do we actually see one. Back at the car Glen removes his Sketcher shoes piece by piece and ceremoniously places them in a bag for disposal, while complaining that they are only 12 years old. But it has been a really wonderful hike and we are actually sad that’s it’s over. Definitely this is the highlight of our time in St.Vincent.

On the drive down, we give a local a lift. He is in charge of maintaining the trail, and clearly proud of it, as he should be. He then proceeds to vividly describe to us about the day when the volcano last erupted, when he was 14 years old in 1979. He is very local and we can hardly understand his strong accent and poor grammar. But it’s a great tale of hot mud then ash raining down and how they had to evacuate, returning 4 months later to clear up ash off the house and relocate their animals.

We have a few more hours of hire car, so we go to Kingstown to get fruit and veg at the market. But we are disappointed about the lack of variety. It seems the other islands, where there are more tourists, must get the better fruit. Oana also tries to get her hair done, but the salon is very rough and the lady clearly not too interested in our business, so we defer that one to St.Lucia. In general we really don’t  like this grubby capital town.

Back at Cloudy Bay, Selwin comes back on board with his gear. He and Glen try to locate the leak but without success. Glen even dives under the boat, in the dark, with a torch, to see if he can see any bubbles coming from the through hull fitting where the refrigeration gas is cooled. Selwin departs, leaving the system pressurized to see how quickly it drops off overnight. He will return tomorrow. So looks like we will be here for another day or so.

In the evening Glen’s mood is not good as he faffs around in the galley wondering about the fridge. Then he starts a bit of a cleaning session in the bilge and ends up cleaning the cooker too. Oana thinks it’s so clean now that she won’t be able to cook on it again!

Even though the swell is banging strongly on the stern under our beds, with our hike today we both fall asleep the instant our heads are on the pillow.