Yesterday, Bees Knees found the mooring balls between the Pitons all taken so they ended up near us. We had a brief get together to discuss plans over the next week. Largely based on an ‘off the beaten track’ article in Cruising World, the general idea is once we leave this area we’ll first go to Laborie on the south side of St Lucia. Next we’ll head round the corner to the Marie Islands and the reefs there. We’ll then check out of Vieux Fort which boasts the cheapest lobster in the eastern Caribbean. Heading south we’ll bypass St Vincent to the east and sail straight to Baliceaux, a set of rarely frequented islands. From there we’ll sail south to Mustique where we’ll check into the Grenadines before finally heading off to Bequia. That’s the plan for now. After that we may part as we have different timetables south but who knows.
Our plan for today was to find a guide and climb to the top of Gros Piton, the larger and most southerly of the two Pitons. Jim and I first dinghied ashore to see if we could rustle up a guide. The only one at the dock wanted to charge US$75 each with another $100 for the taxi there and back. This was far too much so we formed our own plan. First, we aimed to get out boats around the corner into Jalousie Bay in between the two Pitons. Then we’d look to see if we could find a guide there to take us up. Returning to the boats we took a detour to the bay to see if any balls were free. There weren’t any so the plan was to wait for boats to depart and head over in turn. We agreed Dignity should head over first as being right on top of the Bat Cave we also had the pleasure of the smell of guano all night long.
We weren’t on the boat long before we saw someone heading out so we slipped our mooring and headed over. We just managed to hook up when we heard from Jim that they’d received an offer to take us up Gros Piton for US$50 each including the taxi fare. This was more in line with our expectations so we agreed to do this.
Soon we were picked up by a water taxi with Anne and Jim already aboard. We were taken around to the south side of Gros Piton to a local beach and dropped off with our guide Marlon. 
Marlon was really nice and we would recommend him to anyone. All you need do is ask for him at Soufriere and don’t believe anyone if they say he is dead. It’s a competitive business and folks often have preferred relationships and have been known to say things like this to deter folks from their recommended guides. Marlon actually did the entire hike in bare feet which was quite a feat in of itself. We were also accompanied by a dog which seemed keen to make the entire climb on the off chance a bit of lunch was going spare (which she did get).
The climb was hard work but worth it. Fortunately the path was dry most of the time so the going was firm. The overall climb of 2,600 feet was made worthwhile by the views from the top. Our first 
stopping point was on the north side looking at Petit Piton and the island to the north. We could see all the way to Pigeon Island off which we were anchored for the last week or so. We ate our lunch at this view point before heading over to the other side of the summit to see a clearing to the east. The rest of the summit was overgrown so apart from these two views, 
the majority of the climb up and down had limited views. Apparently, Petit Piton offers a lot more views. For another time. Nevertheless – we all had a good time and burnt off some of the fat recently gained. I took my handheld GPS and here is a record of our trip. It’s a bit jumpy and will be inaccurate in places but it’s fun to see anyway.
View Gros Piton in a larger map
Once back aboard Dignity Helen and I went for a swim on the reef next to where we were moored. That’s not before we knocked back a celebratory beer and a couple of chocolate digestives. The reef was pretty good but we both got stung by unseen critters. We’re now hoping a mooring ball goes free so we can call Anne and Jim over. We’ve just missed one ball going free as I was typing this blog. There was someone else in bound so I reckon even if we’d seen it earlier it would have been difficult to snag it in time.