Guadeloupe - And Happy New Year to all!
Salamander
Thu 31 Dec 2009 18:23
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A Christmas lunch of the most expensive chicken
ever @ 27.90 Euros. The plus side being it was the tastiest bird we have ever
had. The wing bones were humungeous and we both think it must have been capable
of flight.
Guadeloupe seems a long way from home with its
exotic plants and unrecognisable sea birds. The pelicans stalk the fish market
each morning waiting for scraps.
 Our neighbours blotted out the view of the palm
trees as you can see
 Having a super yacht parked 8 feet awayperhaps
gives a hint of why prices are so high. The marina has some high priced
boutiques so Caroline looked to the local town centre to see what clothes were
available. The shops were stuffed full of clothes designed to emphasise bums and
boobs. A streetwalker would not be disappointed with the choice.
Twice walking to town we have seen young girls with
very tight clothing and full make up sitting singularly on chairs by the
roadside or standing at the road edge, tottering on high heels.
The tourist office is a magnificent colonial relic
and gave none of the usual problems. All over Europe we have had to push to one
side literature in numerous languages; Italian, German, and so on. Here there
was no such problem as all the information was in French. From the back room the
staff kindly provided maps showing English and French flags, hinting at the
possibility of information in English. Still it was all a tease and the maps and
info were still in French. In the same way, this is the first place with a
choice of languages coming up on card readers in shops. They tantalisilingly ask
'Langage Prefere?' The choice is, however limited to 'Francaise'.
At the end of the Atlantic crossing we knew we had
arrived at civilisation, and French at that as an empty fag packet floated
past.
Our worries over being in a French marina from
previous experience of being near French boats, were allayed, however, as apart
from a brief attempt to sing Christmas carols, quickly abandoned as no-one knew
the words, the festive season passed unsullied by any French displays of
musicality. One night we worryingly heard the dismal cacophony of badly plucked
guitar strings, but thankfully after a few minutes the night sank back into its
usual incredible insect orchestra of whizzes, whirrs and clicks.
We have been at Bas du Fort Marina for 10 days now.
Murray has cleaned all the fuel system, moved the Autohelm computer and made it
easier to drain the fridge into a bucket, which seems to be the only way to get
it going sometimes. Caroline has hand-washed for England, the laundrette she
dreamed of being only available to long stay boats. All of the interior has been
cleaned and we are about ready to move on. Just the touristy bits to
do.
Murray had the idea of walking to see the nearby
fort the marina is named after. We hit a number of dead ends and followed the
only route we could find which included walking next to a motorway (it's
amazing this island has a motorway).
We walked past a car hire office, which belied all
our internet searching and would have been a fraction of the price of the Hertz
hut in the marina, if we hadn't already booked a day!
Anyway, we walked for 2 hours, to find ourselves at
the fuel berth on the opposite of the water from our boat. There is no footpath
round the marina as such to take us back by way of shortcut. Fortunately Murray
had enough French to blag a lift of 2 minutes from a refuelling
boat.
We used the hire car to go to the Chutes du
Carberet (waterfalls).
  We also wanted to climb La Soufriere, the volcano
at the heart of Basse-Terre.
  The volcano is still active.
  The scenery is green and lush with mosses and ferns
unique in appearance. The walk was hard work upwards in beautiful sunshine, but
we were rewarded with spectacular views. The car hire man had told us that this
was the first time for a year that the peak (gets 30-40 feet of rain per year)
had been clear of clouds. After he had said we were lucky for the twentieth time
we started to get the message.
 A great walk with smoke and fumes and the sulphur
eggy smell we all remember from school science. The walk began at a volcano
heated pool and slowly wound its way to the peak. Even better, the clouds
descended after we had finished at the top, giving a cooler walk down. So we
have finally climbed a volcano, and an active one - sorry the Hellie missed it
as she spent the first part of the trip trying to find a volcano to look
into.
The volcano has not erupted since 1976 and is now
permanently monitored.
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