Hello from Les Saintes "15:52.20N 61:35.16W"
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Wed 26 Jan 2011 02:09
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We are now back in France in the small archipelago
of Les Saintes, a part of Guadeloupe. The photo below shows a view over the
biggest island, Terre-de-Haut in this context Haut means not 'high' but 'upwind'
(the bigger, higher downwind island is called Terre-de-Bas). The Saintes (site
of Admiral Rodney's overwhelming naval victory over the French) had no slave
estates; the population were originally French farmers and fishermen from
Normandy & Brittany and remain mostly white to this day. We are anchored in
the bay just out of the picture. Winds remain unseasonally strong with heavy
rain frequent.
The other picture is of a very attractive (it's in
the eye of the beholder) land hermit crab about the size of an adult human fist.
It was taken right at the very top of the highest hill on the island at over
300m. This crab has had to climb all the way up on little legs - and at least
once a year it will have to go right back down to breed in the sea. It's a
big puzzle to me where the shells come from. The sea, obviously, but there are
no big shells like this to be seen on the beaches so how do the crabs
(which drown in water) find them? Like all hermit crabs they need to change to
bigger shells as they themselves grow and there can be fierce competition. I
wonder whether the shells are ancient, perhaps really ancient, handed down from
crab to crab over the generations? I wonder how to tell, and doubt I'll
ever know.
There are also very attractive land
crabs digging burrows in people's gardens. There are about the size and
general shape of the British seashore crabs but with one obvious difference
(apart from the fact that they live on land) - they have evolved shells with no
sharp edges because they have to be able to move through vegetation, and sharp
edges and points snag annoyingly. Clever, eh?
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