14:28.079N 060:51.913W

Whisper
Noel Dilly
Sat 19 Jan 2013 01:22
Marin - 19th January

I am writing this blog feeling utterly exhausted!  We have had a most wonderful and varied coastal walk, which took longer than expected and indeed turned out to be longer than expected.  We left Whisper at 8:15am and caught the Number 1 minibus from Marin to St Anne's.  It arrived spot on time and whistled us along stopping to let people on and off.  Payment was made at the end of the passenger's journey, the electrically operated door not opening until payment was received.  The driver on the bus was most helpful when we reached our destination, calling one of the passengers back to enquire exactly where the trail started.  We were soon on our way and what a diverse walk it was.  The trail was clearly marked the whole way with sign posts pointing in the right direction but mainly the yellow bars painted on the tree trunks showed the way, where there were no trees, or the path so rocky that you had to watch where you were putting your feet, the yellow bars were painted on the rocks at your feet. 

We walked through mangroves, avoiding the numerous land crabs, came upon beautiful white sandy beaches with turquoise waters, walked through shaded woods of West Indian Beeches, their dry leaves crackling under our feet just lie Autumn at home.  We heard and saw the Atlantic Ocean crashing into the reefs surrounding the typical palm lined beaches.  We came across beaches which stretched for miles, the mud track to them lined with parked cars and colourful cafes and bars created out of old buses, all with tables covered in brightly covered tablecloths.  Here we enjoyed a break and a cold drink, I thought maybe we could have lunch, but was reminded that it was only 10:30am!  We walked over wide open desert areas with tall cacti growing and cliffs of mudstone of various colours.  It was quite lunar in appearance, cairns built of many small rocks marked the route so that the trail was not lost at this point.  We even walked through long grassy areas. The paths through the mangroves sometimes had board walks over the wet areas or even "stepping stones " of sawn up logs place vertically on end.  We passed by a huge lagoon used to produce salt, the entrance from the sea was about 5 metres across and dammed with a stone bridge and sluice gates.  There was also a bird sanctuary along the way, we didn't go into this as it would have delayed us too long.  The whole walk was of interest, we saw several classes of small school children in their brightly coloured uniforms on a field trip, learning about the salt production, long since abandoned, and the interesting nature of their surroundings.

We saw land crabs varying in size from the size of my finger nail to larger ones of about six inches.  We also saw many Hermit crabs scurrying about with their multi shaped coloured shells.  We even saw one trying to exchange his now too small home for a more spacious one, I hope it wasn't already occupied, always a danger!  We saw several Humming birds, so tiny, about thumb sized, Martins flying over the fields, numerous Blackbirds with blue eyes and best of all a Peregrine Falcon hunting for its dinner. 

We did not see any civilisation apart from the two frequented beaches, the remainder were deserted, no towns or houses until near the end of our walk.  We assumed that we would have a very late lunch and then catch a bus or taxi from Cap du Chavalier, so we're only carrying water with us.  How wrong we were.  We had been walking since 9am and as we approached Cap du Chavalier on a dirt road we realised that it did not look anything like a town and it was now 4pm.  There were a couple of 'restaurants' near the water and several huts and houses and a quay with a Ticket Office for a Glass Bottomed Tourist Trip etc.  The idea of a sea trip back was stifled as the last boat had already departed, the restaurants could perhaps call a cab for us if we ate there, but we didn't feel too optimistic.  We then saw two people walking to their car and asked them if there was a bus back to Marin, they did not know as they were French tourists, but they kindly offered to give us a lift in their hire car as they were returning to St Anne's.  We have never been so relieved as we were both exhausted, they delivered us right to the marina gate.  How lucky we were and what a great day.  I just hope we both can move tomorrow!