Montserrat - The volcano!

Montserrat loomed in the distance. Not more than 30 miles away from Deshaies in Guadeloupe, was this ticking time bomb of a volcano that has erupted with major consequences quite a few times in our lifetime and due another big blow. Not more than 2 weeks ago did the infamous volcano belch a little ash.

With most of the island still off limits to both residents and visitors, only a fraction of the pre-1995 (eruption) residents remain on the island (about 4500). Plymouth, the old capital was wiped out by a sprinkle of ash that is (in parts) 50 ft deep. The stoical Montserratians built a new capital, complete with court house, fire station, police, cultural centre etc in Little Bay (on the north of the island) far from the exclusion zone and upwind might I add.

As Montserrat came into view, you could clearly see the pyroclastic flows down from the cloud capped peak of the volcano. It is quite a spectacular view from the sea as we headed up the windward side (east coast). We arrived in Little Bay in the mid afternoon. Wind funnels through the island and what was 15knots on the windward side becomes 25 knots on the leeward side. Go figure!

Little Bay, although quite unprotected from swells, was a nice enough well...little bay. There was only one other yacht in the anchorage and we felt a little bad anchoring relatively near him (probably about 100m away). In what seemed like an attempt to “encourage” us to anchor much further away, the skipper of this 40ft hard chined steel boat stood in his cockpit stark bollock naked. Funny looking old fellow with a beard who we affectionately nick named Grandpa Willy.

We were overjoyed to be one of only 2 boats in the bay. We quickly got our dinghy down from the foredeck and went ashore to clear in. One of the quite novel things in Montserrat is that there is some fierce Irish heritage with St Patricks Day actually celebrated for an entire week. They stamp your passport with an Irish Shamrock! The coolest stamp we have in our passports to date!

A local tour guide (also mentioned in the Doyle Guide) offered to take us on a 4 hour tour of the island. The only problem was this would have been a $140 USD trip. A little rich for our blood, so we decided hire a car instead and arranged for it to be delivered to us at 9am the next day. Unfortunately you have to have a police license to drive in Montserrat so had to take a tour to the local office ($20 USD)

The wind was still strong that evening and to my horror, 3 yachts pulled into Little Bay. A lovely French yacht moored in front of us but off to starboard so out of our way. A catamaran moored in front of us but to port so no threat. Another cat moored behind us. With our anchor secure and no way able to clang into us, we were comfortable and we settled in for the night.

Around midnight I did my usual 'meercat' routine to check the anchorage only to see the cat that moored in front of us (to port) no longer in front, but well behind. Tsk tsk... They spent a good few minutes sorting themselves out, tried to re-anchor a few times but I guess gave up and headed out to sea on to their next destination. This seems to be common practise for yachts to use Montserrat as an over night stop as in the morning, both the other vessels upped and left. And then there were two...

We picked up the car from the same lady who had served us at the customs counter. Apparently Montserratians moonlight with multiple jobs. Suppose you would have to if there are only 4500 people for a whole island. It had rained the night before. Gage from Gage Car Rental swapped our cheap and cheerful car, for a 4 wheel drive jeep. And did not charge us extra! Turned out to be the best decision and would recommend that anyone hiring a car in Montserrat hire a jeep!

Our first stop was Rams which is a supermarket. Hard to find as none of the shops or attractions here seem to have road signs or even a sign above the door! Figured the building with baskets in the doorway must be it. Found a huge box of 'Munch' the peanut bar we loved back in Grenada so treated ourselves to a box of 36 of the bad boys!

We drove to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory which was quite tricky to find. In the building we watched a video on Montserrat then and now, along with footage of the destruction.

From there we drove to Garibaldi Hill (well we thought it was but turned out to be Cork Hill) which has a good lookout over Plymouth – the modern day 'Pompeii'. There was a policeman at a gate that had to give us written permission to enter 'Zone V' and warned us that the roads were all narrow and windy and it was very easy to get lost. We drove on into the exclusion zone and it was like a ghost town. House after house standing abandoned for almost 20 years. Plants had overgrown into the road making for very narrow lanes and we didn't see one person in the area for the hour or so that we were there.

We stopped in the road and checked out an abandoned house – it was if the occupants had just gone out to the shop. All their belongings were still there except for the obvious looting in some areas. The rooms were in serious decay with the roof missing in several parts and Dylan saw a big rat living in a wardrobe. Very very eerie with open suitcases still on the bed and clothing still hanging in the closets.

Garibaldi Hill was our next stop. You get a great view of the volcano from the other side of the island. To get here you need to pass over the pyroclastic flow which is just layers of ash in a valley. We stopped at a house that looked normal until you realised you were looking only at the second storey – the first level completely covered in ash. The roads here were barely passable but with it being a jeep (and a rental!) we continued on and were rewarded with a fantastic view. Nature is an awesome thing. We could not help but marvel at the power and extent of the destruction. Where there was once a thriving community with a rich heritage there is now a bunch of roofs floating in a sea of ash. But there is always some one who can make a purse from a sows ear. Sand mining is now a large industry. Trucks cart the ash to the dock where it is sent off to other countries to make cement and other mineral rich compounds.

We sat on the top of the hill and ate our lunch overlooking this incredible feat of nature. Quite some picnic spot. I will tell you that!

The next stop on our adventure was Runaway Ghaut (pronounced gut). This is a natural spring on the side of the road where if you drink from it you apparently come back to Montserrat again. There is a cute poem that goes with the stream... “if you drink the waters from this burn, to Montserrat you will return.” It was very cold, fresh water. The water here tastes amazing, the best I have ever tasted, so pure and clean.

Jack Boy Hill is the other side of the island where it offers views of the volcano from the windward side which we had seen from the sea. Nobody up there but us, well we had encountered very few people wherever we went which was great!! This place was jacked up for tourists though with a viewing platform, binoculars, picnic benches and toilets. No people probably because the roads put them off, the pot holes were awful and getting there was made easy with a jeep.

We bought some tamarind balls from a shop to try them. It is hard to describe the flavour – sour with many seeds, sweet from sugar as well as spicy from the tamarind. They were good and we will get them again.

After a hard day of driving and sight seeing, we decided to grab a bite to eat. JJ's restaurant had been recommended for good local food at local prices. With no menu in sight, the proprietor, a lady of few words, informed us it was a 20 min wait and we had a choice of curried chicken or stewed goat. We chose one of each and sat down to watch Judge Judy whilst we waited. Food was good, big portions and we paid the equivalent of £15 for 2 mains, 2 beers and a soft drink!

Great way to spend a day.