I know it is cold and snowing up north, but it is 80 degrees and sunny here in Grenada and perfect weather for a hike. Ever since we hiked to Fontainebleau Falls (also called Upper Concord Falls) in July Hunter and I have been anxious to share this lovely walk with our friends. Ann and Steve from Receta, Barb and Chuck from Tusen Takk II and Anna and Håkan from Unicorn joined us on this expedition.
We took the bus into St. Georges and then took another bus to Grand Etang Park. The small development of Grand Etang on the road is at 1,740 feet; it is almost always cool, cloudy and often misty at this elevation. The trail to Concord Falls branches off of the Mt Qua Qua trail about ¾ of the way up to the Mt Qua Qua summit. We have hiked this trail many times and know that in the wet season it can be very slippery and overgrown with razor grass. On this trip the trail was well cleared and very dry. The cool clouds gave us a welcome break from the heat and sun that we have become accustomed to. The vegetation at this elevation is markedly different from the tropical lowland vegetation that we walk through on a daily basis and we enjoyed the lush ferns and. Some hikes are about the destination, and don't get me wrong, Fontainebleau Falls is gorgeous destination, but the walk was grand.
After a while we reached a creek bed and boulder hopped in a mostly dry creek bed, then took a side trail to Fontainebleau Falls. We stripped down to our swimsuits (or what would pass as a swim suit) and washed off the trail mud and sweat. It was really refreshing. For me the big surprise of the trip was the walk through Concord valley. I thought the relatively flat walk to the road would be uninteresting- I was wrong. The valley was chock full of fields growing all sorts of vegetables and fruit trees. We passed cabbage, carrots, callaloo, peas, peppers, limes, oranges and nutmeg. We said hi to farmers as we walked and many were surprised and impressed to hear that we had gotten to the falls from the top. We were looking at a nutmeg when a lady came walking down the trail. We chatted and she fell in line with us, or more correctly, we hustled to keep up with her. She introduced herself as Dora and told us that she is 75 and half years old and that she tends her fields in the hills everyday except on Friday when she takes the bus into St Georges to the market to sell vegetables. Dora was wearing a cotton dress, irrigation boots and a black sun hat and was toting a sac of dasheen on her back. It took Hunter two tries to get Dora to allow him to carry her burden. Unburdened she walked even faster, chatting along the way.
Concord Falls is at the start of the road from our perspective- or the end of the road if you are driving. It is a tourist destination with little shops selling handy crafts and spices. These falls are pretty, but not nearly as nice as Fontainebleau Falls. We did stop to eat lunch at Concord Falls and thought that surely Dora would head down the hill, but she waited. Hunter picked up her bag of dasheen and we all trotted to keep up.