Exploring Martinique by car … the northern highlands Tues 6th March 2018
For day 2 of Peewee’s big adventure we took the car up route
N3 directly north of Fort de France to Le Morne-Rouge. This turned out to be an
absolutely spectacular road that winds it’s way up a ridge and then through
impressive mountains and rain forest for about 20 miles. We stopped numerous
times for short walks and to take a little time to appreciate the views. At one
point we came to a small river flowing down through the steep and lush
hillsides. We got chatting to three girls from Ft Pierce Florida (where Paul
and Fran used to have a winter home) who were doing an impromptu photo-shoot. I
would have loved to spend some time taking portraits in this idyllic setting,
but it seemed a bit weird barging in, so after helping them with a group shot,
Gloria and I wandered up a short trail through the woods – beautiful. A little
further on as the road swept round some bends with precipitous drops, we
stopped by some houses with outstanding views over the mountains. We were
amazed to see all sorts of “house-plants” (orchids, poinsettia, begonias)
growing wild.
After a picnic lunch below the Pitons du Carbet we carried
on north through Morne-Rouge and up the steep narrow road to the trail-head
below Mount Pelee. This infamous volcano is 1395m high and erupted violently on the 8th May 1902 when it sent a blast wave of super-hot gas down the valley to Saint-Pierre
killing all 30,000 residents within a couple of minutes. Only two men survived
– one was locked underground in a prison at the time. The volcano was also
active from 1929-32 but has since been dormant. It looks spectacular, but
unfortunately when we got to the car park the whole mountain was socked in by
cloud. We did hike up the trail for about half and hour and the clouds
partially cleared a couple of times to give glimpses of the top, but the hike
is about 3 hours up and down, plus another 2 hours if you walk round the caldera.
We didn’t have time and it’s not clear that it would have been worth the effort
under those conditions, but I did feel disappointed not to go to the top. Maybe
another time.
Mike
Sacre Coeur church north of Fort de France
View from the N3 road through the mountainous rainforest in northern Martinique
Stream in the Martinique rainforest
Impromptu photoshoot - girls from Ft Pierce, Florida
The rainforest vegetation is incredibly lush - every tree seems to have many other plants growing on it
I love these flowers!
The view - or lack of view- from the Mt Pelee car park
The rail up Mt Pelee
Flowers on Mt Pelee
Swells south of Saint Pierre on the west coast of Martinique
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