Pigeon Island.
Pigeon Island is a national park and is visible from the marina, so we decided to walk there. We walked through the village of Gros Islet first which is a locals area except fro Friday nights and you can see by the quality of the housing that not everyone in the Caribbean is living in the large villas you can see on the hillsides. We walked through though without any real interest and arrived at the beach on the edge of Gros Islet which is now been taken over by a new development called Discovery estate which to me looked more like a city centre harbourside development that something that should be beachfront on the Caribbean. It encompasses a marina and pools and I’m sure will be nice when it’s finished though there is still a large building site to one side now and those resident apparently there on holiday didn’t look to be enjoying the noise and dust.
View from Fort Rodney
The causeway to Pigeon island is dominated by the Sandals resort with it’s bright red tin-style roof which seemed more in keeping with the area to me. There are lovely light sand beaches all along this northwest cost and you can look across the causeway to the east coast of St Lucia were the surf is breaking. We paid our EC$27 (£6.25) for entry fee and went to wonder around. The main site are the views from Fort Rodney and Signal point to two highest points on the island. We visited all of the sites which are mostly ruins but with information boards to explain the original usage like the steep-sided bay on the east side used as a gunslide to relay the canons to the fleet using over head wires from the mastheads ashore to run them down, various look out posts, the CO’s residence, the lime kiln, powder stores and drinking water systems. There was an area set aside for passengers from a cruiseship anchored in the bay who were having a barbeque complete with live steelband who could be heard through the island playing Christmas tunes as well as some local favourites.
Musical accompaniment to our tour
It is a lovely peaceful area, very green with lots of native birds including quite a brightly coloured dove in large quantities which we assumed must be one of the Pigeon island pigeons. We walked up to Fort Rodney and enjoyed the view there but by the time we got to Signal Point it was the full heat of the day, so we decided to head to the Jambe de Bois restaurant on the beachfront on the west coast. It’s a lovely wooden built, previously thatched though that is now covered in the local red tin roof. It has lots of local art work on sale covering the walls, a great local menu and lots of local cocktails and beers to try. We managed to time arriving at the same time as a bus tour who had a free rum punch to collect, so our lunch was eventually served much later in true Caribbean time. However, the grilled Dorado and vegetable roti (Caribean version of a Cornish pasty made with a sort of pancake instead of pastry) were worth the wait. They are well set up for cruisers who anchor in the bay with Wifi and a book swap and we may well head that way when we leave the marina. Though there is also the St Lucia Yacht Club and Chesterton’s steakhouse and another great beach on the other side of the bay… decisions, decisions!
Kevin enjoying the military history aka Big Guns
We headed back to the boat after our large and late lunch to walk off the food, this time via the highway. We were back at the boat by about 4pm and after a short afternoon nap for me we headed out for a shower and a couple of beers in Scuttlebutts that evening over looking the marina.
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