This post is about our adventure up Mount Pelee, the (active) volcano at the south end of Martinique!
We got up at about 6:00 am (it was still dark!!!!) to leave. I have told Dad over and over that teenagers are NOT supposed to get up early but I don't think the message has got through yet! Anyway, we got up at an unearthly hour of the morning and went ashore. Then we waited in the bus stop for ages for a guy who had assured us he would be on time with his bus to take us to the walk. He eventually arrived and Dad and I lugged our heavy packs into the bus and sat down with mum and sam. He took us up to a village called Mont Rouge and dropped us off on the outskirts of town, about 6 km from the walk!! So, we began to walk........and walk..............and walk........until a friendly farmer in a pickup truck gave us a lift with his vegetables on the back of the truck!! At the start of the walk the fog was very thick and by this time it was quarter to eight so we set off again. The start of the trail was almost vertical!! AND I had this enormous heavy rucksack on my back and NO leg muscles! Eventually we got to a little bothy at the bottom of 'the chinese peak' which is the highest part. The fog was a real peasouper and we couldn't see the magnificent view of the valley. We left our packs there (phew!) and climbed up the peak, hoping for a better view but the fog was just as thick there and mum and I had loads of water in our hair from it! Disappointed, we walked back down to the bothy and used our camping stove to make some tea and ate some food. Afterwards, Mum and Sam left to go back to the boat and Dad and I set up camp, pitching our tent. We spent the rest of the sfternoon playing card games and climbing back up the peak around 4:30 when the fog cleared a bit and we had an AMAZING view of the north of the island. When we got back to camp we found that some other people had camped right on the other side of the bothy! Can you imagine how many people camp up there through the year and then on the day we go someone else does too!
The next morning we were up and off down the other side of the volcano early and it was a steep descent with aching muscles from the day before although our packs were much lighter. We hitched a lift back St. Pierre only to discover that Sea Warrior wasn't quite in the same place we left her! Luckily Mum said she had only just started dragging so we arrived just in time.!!
