River Trekking in Guadeloupe

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Mon 14 Nov 2011 12:32
After an early start this morning - by 8.30am we had drunk our first cup of tea, been for a swim, showered, changed and had breakfast - we went ashore for a few provisions.  We had seen a small but closed market and fish stall when we arrived on Saturday and decided to see what was available.  The fish stall was a chiller in the middle of a car park with an elderly lady selling marlin at €10 per kilo.  Marlin is a huge, solid meaty fish and the kilo will probably do at least two meals for two people.  We then got our fresh fruit and veg and also bought 4 jars of delicious home made jam - the stallholder had insisted we try each flavour so we felt we could not refuse her special offer of the day, and bought all four flavours, pineapple, mango, guava and banana, which strangely is pink. 

 Gorgeous bougainvillea outside the internet cafe in town

 The beach in Deshaies town

After lunch we set off for what the guide book described as a 'cool shady scramble' - however it turned out to be a 2 and a half hour scramble over rocks, criss crossing the river back and forth, there were no more than 10 very short stretches where there was anything that could reasonably be called a path  - not quite what we expected.  That said the scenery was beautiful - there was no-one else anywhere and we had a really nice if tiring walk.  The water as you can see from the pictures was a cloudy, opaque colour but very clear.  We had taken lunch with us and sat on a huge rock in the middle of the river to eat it watching the sun shine through the trees - idyllic.  The only downside was the stinging grass which was in big clumps all over the place.  It looked harmless enough but when you brushed past it - and the chances of avoiding it were slim as there was so much and the rest of the plants were so overgrown it raked your skin with it's razor like edges leaving nice long welts all over our legs - ouch!!  
On the 15 minute (read 35 minute) walk back to town the heavens opened and we got soaked - the water was running down the drains in the road but surprisingly it was hot - almost too hot for your feet in places. 


 

Having arrived back on board and changed into dry clothes we did a few jobs on the boat and then chilled out for the evening drinking beer under the stars and preparing the marlin for dinner.  Tomorrow we head about 8 miles south to another anchorage near Pigeon Island to go diving for a couple of days.

 Our afternoon visitor - a pelican!