Martinique and St Lucia

Bondi Tram
Peter Colquhoun and Sandra Colquhoun
Mon 21 Feb 2011 16:48
Approaching Marin on the south coast of Martinique, we passed Diamond Rock.  In the Napoleonic wars,
the Royal Navy hauled cannon to the top of the rock and closed the port of Marin to French ships.
 
 
 
The town of Marin
 
 
Floating docks to antifoul yachts and catamarans are popular in the French islands.
 
 
Club Med
 
 
We hired a car and toured the island
 
 
This is the market at St. Pierre.....
 
 
....which was destroyed in 1904 by a fireball from the eruption of Mt. Pelee in the background.  The
town was incinerated along with 28,000 people.  The only known survivor was a prisoner in an
underground cell.  8 ships were burnt and sunk, their wrecks still lying on the bottom of the bay.
A second eruption 2 days later killed 1,500 people in Morne Rouge on the other side of the mountain.
 
 
The church, rebult after being almost totally destroyed.
 
 
The fort survived better than most of the buildings.
 
 
 
Another view of Mt. Pelee
 
 
There is extensive farming on Martinique, with cattle, sugar cane, bananas and coconuts.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Moving south from Martinique, we had an overnight stop at the Deux Pitons on St. Lucia
 
 
 
 
The Jalousie Plantation resort..we spent a few days here in 1985.
 
 
 
We took a mooring for the night in this very pretty bay.  Parts of the movie Dr. Doolittle were filmed
in this area.
 
 
 
The boat boy who helped us moor.....
 
 
....and took the line ashore, as the moorings were too close to allow boats to swing freely.  We had
to join 5 ropes together!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fishermen hauling their net.