Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

This country of St Vincent continues to astound us.

Today’s mission was to visit Montreal Gardens nestled high up in the Mesopotamia Valley. There was no direct bus there but from our visit to the Ministry of Tourism earlier this week we knew a bus from Kingstown would get us close with only a ‘walk up the hill’ to get us there. Getting into town was straight forward but finding the right bus to take to get us close to the gardens was not so easy. We eventually discovered we had to take the ‘Mespo’ bus which we did. This one initially took us back along the route we had taken into town but eventually took us up into the mountains offering us some awesome views of the southern end of the island.

The conductor let us know when it was time to get off and which way it was to get to the gardens. Soon we were climbing more and more hills. It was just under two miles from the bus to the gardens. We past plenty of locals who were very friendly, asking us how we were, greeting us good morning (one thought it was the afternoon already – too relaxed) and never asking us for anything. I mention this as St Vincent has a reputation for being unfriendly and pushy. We are seeing none of that.

Soon we were at the gardens. We learned very quickly they were not open at the weekend but we wandered in anyway hoping we would get to see something of them. In the end we managed to see the whole gardens having met the owner and giving him the entrance fee directly.

These gardens were unlike a normal horticultural garden where flowers are laid out almost as specimens. This was more a cross between an English country garden and a nursery. The best way to get a feel for the place is to visit, but second best are the pictures we’ve taken. Play the slideshow below full screen.

The big surprise was getting back. The gardens had one other visitor who was collecting some flowers for a local school holding their graduation ceremony today. He left around the same time we did and offered us a ride. He ended up dropping us off at a supermarket down by the airport where we could pick up some food and catch the bus back to where we are still moored. His name was “Ras-John”. He ran a landscaping business here in St Vincent but has spent time in the US. His 24 year old daughter still studies in Miami. Along the way down out of the hill Ras-John wanted to buy us a lot of fruit from a roadside stand. This is a very pleasant correction to the myths of the grabbing locals of St Vincent.

We are more than pleased we made our way back up to St Vincent before the hurricane season really kicks in. This island is really surprising us.

Tomorrow we’re back on the move round to Buccament Bay where we’ll stay for a few days.

Today has been a bit of a planner – near term and long term. I’ve started the process of mapping out places to go between now and the end of 2010. This is a bit of a task and it’s nowhere near complete. A couple of constraints we’re working to is the central Pacific cyclone season which runs from December through March and the expected total solar eclipse on July 11th next year. The best site I’ve found for eclipse paths is Solar Eclipses – Google Earth Files.  For each past and future eclipse it has a Google Earth download that maps the umbra and penumbra onto the Earth and somehow adds a calculator which allows you to know exact eclipse times for a given spot.  Given that websites change, here is the July 11th file itself.  We’d really like to see this so we’ll have to pick two or three potential rendezvous points.  If you look at the central track you’ll see it passes over French Polynesia although far south of the milk run from Marquesas to Tahiti.  The challenge will be to find atolls with navigable passages into the center that are on the line of the eclipse.  One such place is Amanu approx 500nm east of Tahiti.  Watching an eclipse from a place like this would be memorable to say the least.  Not sure how much interest this is but it gives a glimpse into what has to be considered when planning a trip segment.

Near term planning involved a trip to Kingston, the capital of St Vincent.  Yesterday, on a brief walk, we learned the cost of a taxi and guide to take us north to climb the volcano would be US$140 – far too much – so we wanted to explore options.  We took the bus into town and had a walkabout.  This included a visit to the tourism ministry who were extremely friendly and helpful.  We now know we can do the things we want to by bus at a fraction of the cost and have an idea of where to spend my birthday next Sunday.

If all goes well we’ll take the bus north tomorrow and climb the 3,000 feet to the volcano (Souffriere – no imagination) rim.  One the way down we’ll visit Hell’s Gate Falls which has a pool we can dunk ourselves in.  On saturday we’ll visit Montreal Gardens which are supposed to be quite splending.  Sunday we’ll sail round to Buccement Bay on the west shore where we’ll spend my birthday and base ourselves for west shore exploration.

One big factor is the weather.  Right now it is miserable but getting better than it was just now.  Rain is pouring, hatches are shut and we’re sweating it out.  This may affect any or all of these plans.  Given that Montreal Gardens requires a bus into town and then one out we could just as well do that from the west coast so we’ll try and get the volcano trip in the next 2 days.

Fixing.  Today I put a few hours into figuring out why my scanner (which works (worked) wirelessly) wasn’t working even though it was yesterday morning.  I figured it out in the end.  All fun.