Grenada Part 5 - Waterfalls, Last Stand of the Caribs and our last few days before departure for Tobago

Friday 23/2 was Mum's 90th Birthday with a big family celebration hosted by my brother Basty and his wife Gill, on the Saturday, which I of course missed, but it was a great success.

We got up early (for us) and walked to Saint George's Bus Sation to catch a bus, initially to the centre of the island to visit the Seven Falls or as they have more recently become known, the Seven Sisters falls.

We found our bus, half full, and waited another ten minutes whilst every seat was filled and then set off across the isaland at a rapid pace with music blaring.

Fortunately, like so much else on the island, the roads are in pretty good shape, so despite the enthusiastic driving along the mountain roads, we were only occasionally, in fear of our lives!

The Falls are located on private property and so we had to pay a small fee to enter and then took a treck of about half an hour initially down a track and then through lush vegetation which was surprisingly free of any obvious insect life...

We passed a steady stream of people returning up the path with many looking quite done in!

Finally we arrived at the lower two Falls, which it turned out were the only ones that were accessible. I went for a swim which was a little chilly but most refreshing.

After my swim it was time to head back up the path and appreciate why all those people we passed going up, whilst we were on our way down, looked so knackered!

We stopped for a beer at a little run down shack on the path and discovered to my surprise that it was run by the daughter of the land owner. It was probably the most delapidated drinking place we had come across. I was relieved when she reached into a large scruffy chest freezer for our beers, only to be extremely disappointed when I took one - it was not at all cold. 

We chatted to the propriettess while we drank our warm beer and she gave us a rather confusing account of the family history, which seemed to include a great grandfather from Sweden being enslaved. No doubt the real meaning of her words were 'lost in translation'!

Then it was back up to the bus stop and the bus for the lively town of Grenville on the east coast where we had a great value lunch in a caffateria style restaurant followed by a wander around, an ice cream and then another bus up to Sauteurs at the very north of the island.

"Sauteur" is the word for "jumper" in French and it turns out that the town of Sauteurs is named after a very tragic event of the 17th Century.

The cathlic church's graveyard at the top of the hill - Leepers Hill -  overlooking the town, backs on to a sheer drop down to the sea. This is the place where the Carib indians fought their last battle against the French occupiers of the island. Hopelessly outgunned and outnumberd the remaining Caribs threw themselves off the cliff into the sea below rather than be captured.

We learned of this history from the delightful Church warden/Tourist Information lady. 

The brick in the photo is from Glasgow and was thought to have been part of a ship's ballast from the period after the French ceded the island to the British in the late 17the Century.

We only went up to the Church at the insistence of two cousins we got chatting to in the town who said their relatives were up there!

He must have been in his late 70s but very fit and she was perhaps ten years younger. He ran a very low key bar/shop near the bus station where, surprise, surprise, we found ourselves after the bus journey. It turned out he had spent his young adult years in the swinging London of the 1960s and he seemed to have been a regular at many of the London clubs of that era. He clearly loved his time there. His cousin was visiting from the USA and they were in the middle of planning their next trip to Europe.

A long ride back to Saint George's on an

another bus got us back to the boat around 7pm.

Over the following few days we explored some more including a walk down the beautiful Grand Anse Beach and had an expensive lunch.

After that we took the boat round to the South East Coasts and explored a few of the bays there whilst we waited for the winds to shift round to the North East, so that we could untertake the passage to Tobago.

First stop was True Blue Bay where we found a lovely spot for a Rum Punch...

Then the strangely named "Clarkes Court Bay" that we explored by Dinghy over a couple of days

Our last stop before leaving for Tobago was Prickly Bay.  We spent a delightful evening with Gary over a pizza at the Spice Land Marina Restaurant and then back on his very impressive and incredibly roomy Hans Christian 41. It is though his home as well and so we decided his sumptuous surroundings were fully justified!

Next stop Tobago!