Montserrat is one of those places we have all heard of due to the massive volcanic eruption recently, (from 1995 until 2010 - recent in volcano years anyway!) but no-one that we have met so far has visited the island.  One thing that I didn't realise is that prior to the eruption, Monserrat was a playground for the rich and famous, with a lot of wealthy Americans building winter holiday homes here.  Sir George Martin, record producer of Beatles fame, had a recording studio here and many famous singers and songwriters used the island, including Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder who recorded 'Ebony and Ivory' here, and Sting, who recorded 'Don't stand so close to me' among many others.  Sir George Martin has been involved in a new cultural centre, part of the new, and as yet unfinished, capital Little Bay.  Despite grand plans, over the last 5 years, Little Bay is still a long way from being an island capital.

The main tourist attraction, if you can call it that, is the devastation caused by the volcanic eruption in 1995.  Prior to this there had been no significant eruption in 400 years, but there had been some warning signs of volcanic activity during the 1930's and 1960's, when so called 'failed eruptions' caused earthquake type damage to the island.  

At the south west of the island was the main city of Plymouth, with a large cruise ship dock, and the dramatic Soufriere volcano as a back drop.  When the volcano started to erupt on 18 July 1995, the town started to disappear and now the whole town is entirely buried under ash.  The volcano observatory here on the island showed photographs of a man standing level with the top of the church clock tower, this is no longer visible at all.  As the volcano is still active, clouds of ash and steam still spew out of it on a fairly regular basis.  

The island is now divided in to areas which have been graded according to the level of safety, from A and B which are absolute no-go areas, down to G which is where we are currently anchored.  We took an island tour today with a very experienced guide who took us into the devastated areas to give us a real 'feel' of the scale of the disaster.  Once we had been checked into the area by a police guard - they like to know who is in the area at all times - we travelled down what started out as a normal road, but soon became a narrow track, and in places was completely over grown.  The plants have gone wild, and what was originally a two lane road is now virtually impassable. What initially surprised us was what you could see, there were houses, bars, hotels etc, that we largely still standing and hadn't been burned to the ground.  This is because of the type of lava that was expelled from the volcano - it is called pyroclastic ash flow, which means that instead of molten hot lava, as I expected, it was a large cloud of hot ash.  This came down from the volcano and started to bury everything in its path.  In some areas you can see only the top half of a house, or building.  What is left gives you a good indication of the size of the properties and the relative wealth of the island - although the island itself is not rich, the standard of living is very high and the private houses of the local people reflect this.  When you stand looking out over the ruined city of Plymouth and the nearby town of Richmond Hill it is impossible not to be moved by it - it is so still and peaceful, but also eerie and desolate, and when you think of the amount of lives lost or destroyed that day, you can't help but feel very sad at the sheer waste of it all.  Even looking at the photos again when I was writing this brought a tear to my eye, but also it really brings home the sheer power of nature.  This area can't be rebuilt as there is so much ash it would be impossible to clear it and the land is too unstable to build on as it it is.  

So what happened to the people who lost their homes that day? Our taxi guide had previously lived in the south and although there was a certain amount of compensation given out, about $16,000USD, it was in no way enough to build another home.  He has been renting since the disaster whilst building his own new home in the north and hopes to move in by Christmas.  As Montserrat was declared an international disaster, a fund was set up to give out food parcels and then food vouchers to those displaced people, and also to fund flight tickets, free to inhabitants of the whole island, to London, as Monserrat is a British territory.  Ironically, it was mostly the people from the largely unaffected north who left as they felt they were getting a bad deal in that they did not qualify for the free food parcels!!  When we asked Joe, our driver, why he had stayed, he said he was passionate about the island, and wanted to show it to people and help them understand the island and it's culture.  He didn't want to start again in a new country, and a new job. Unfortunately, there are too few tourists here, they badly need an infrastructure to allow people to visit and boost the economy - the only ones making the money seem to be the Antiguans who charge over $200USD per person to have a 45 minute helicopter flight over the island.     

The main industry here is sand production, so much ash is thrown out by the volcano and washed down it has filled the river beds and they are now no longer full of water, we actually drove across one today, The sand is cleaned by the rain and rocks as it is washed down and is then sifted, graded and shipped out to be used to make concrete.

Since the eruption, an island wide PA system has been installed to warn people of any volcanic activity, which when tested today, was a timely reminder of the constant threat posed by the volcano to the people living here.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a selection of the best from today;   

 The Soufriere Volcano - some of what you can see above the volcano is cloud, but some is steam from the gases produced.

 Mud washed down to the the seashore

 A river bed where they are sifting the sand and mud washed down for the volcano for shipping abroad for use in mixing concrete - John is holding a piece of pumice

 The sign where we we checked into the exclusion zone

 Part of the destroyed city of Plymouth - the haze is caused by volcanic gases and steam, which smelt slightly of sulphur when the wind was in the right, (or wrong) direction! 

 This house has been buried under ash  -what you can see is just the top of the gate and the roof

 The Montserrat Springs Hotel pool 

 An area of beach which has increased by 100m since the eruption

 You can just see through the haze on this one - to the left there is a building, the old customs building which was connected to the cruise dock to the right - it is all now buried.

Despite the rolling anchorage, I am really glad we visited here - of all the places we have seen, this was always going to be one of the most interesting and having now been  would recommend it to anyone.  It is a completely different experience than the usual Caribbean one of sun, sea and sand.