And should you see a mountain looming on the horizon, sort of like the one in this photo on the right, are you the type to say, "Hey, let's go climb it!!??"
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This is the story of how we set out to climb a mountain. One of the two highest mountains in Carriacou, this one 945 feet high, called Chapeau Carre.
It'd been a rainy few days here in Carriacou. The rains would start, we'd rush below to close the hatches, and then the rains (of course) would immediately stop, and then we'd run below to open the hatches. That, in of itself, isn't quite the type of exercise we had in mind.
So when our walk scheduled for noon was rained out (go figure!) we really only had to wait another 20 minutes or so, and the skies were once again almost clear and blue, and ready of the hiking.
"It's not far of a walk" we told our friends, Jeff and Izzy. "But it is a tad uphill" we confirmed as we set out. "We think we remember how to get to the top of Chapeau Carre"
The first half an hour was a steady gentle uphill mode, enough to have us warmed up within minutes, and our hearts, not used to all our recent inactivity, and with this (admittedly sort of gentle) uphill grade, beating out a sweat.
Somewhere along the way, we zigged by the twisty tree,
followed the path uphill and around the corner,
where we turned right by the big brown cow. Perhaps we should have turned left instead and although the scenery at the top confirmed that we'd reached some sort of elevated heights,
and further along, views like this,
had us confirming that perhaps we sucked at being trail leaders, as somehow, we weren't quite where we should've been, by now.
"We seem to be going around the mountain, not UP the mountain" we said, to which they replied, "That's quite alright".
Along the way we noticed lots of Stinging Nettles/Devil's Nettle along the path,
and altho green and pretty-ish, you really wouldn't want to touch them as you can see the pricklies (on this badly taken photo) on the leaves.
The many dark brown and large termite nests built in the shade of the tree trunks,
and even some bees were buzzing around their home of a hollowed out tree,
and ruins of what-once-were-homes homes overgrown by the lushness of the landscape
made it all a smell the roses type of walk.
The Devil's Nettle had nothing on these cactii, growing like soldiers along the path,
or just to add some colour to our life.
Every corner we turned, every step we took, the hill of a mountain, still as high as ever, taunted us, called out to us, "Look at me, I'm up here, and you're down there!"
We kept on going, persevering, knowing that somehow, some-way, we'd get someWHERE, but the elevation always and forever, stayed the same,.
By the Six Corners intersection we could see the town of Hillsborough, and knew we had to go LEFT to bring us back to Tyrell Bay, a road that took us downhill,
and the mountain once again, from the other side, taunted us and called out to us. See, here I am, why aren't you up here?
Another left turn and we passed the school and the stadium, and then we heard a definite thump and thock... look what fell from overhead and landed within feet from us,
By this point we'd been walking for a steady two hours, and felt a little like joining this little guy,
but instead we stopped by Paradise Beach and enjoyed an ice-cold one.
and that, dear Reader, is how we didn't climb a mountain, but instead walked all the way AROUND the tallest peak of a mountain in Carriacou, called Chapeau Carre.