Grown Ups Gap Year

Carricou is all you would expect from your mental images of a Caribbean island with white sandy beaches, mangroves ending at the water's edge, lush vegetation all over the island and wonderful friendly people. With a population of just over 8000 people the island is not yet spoilt by mass tourism as it has no major airport and is not suitable for cruise liners. The 'capital city' is Hillsborough, and this is the only town on the island as the rest of the island the settlements are very small villages.

We anchored in a beautiful bay called Tyrell Bay amongst nearly 60 other yachts and boats in clear water that was 6m deep and so you could easily see the anchor. Fortunately we had arrived just before lunch so were able to ensure we had a secure anchor by diving and checking before heading ashore to clear immigration and customs. They were conveniently located adjacent to a bar as when we arrived, 1:10pm, they were still on their 12-1pm lunch hour! Once clear we had a quick look around the beach area of the bay where there were quite a few different bars as well as a very new modern supermarket, probably sited here because of the many yachts that pass through each year. The remainder of the first day was spent sorting Mirage from a sailing boat back to a home at anchor. Jim treated us to a meal at a small shore side restaurant, Jim and I both had pizza and Sally had half a locally caught lobster but we did share so we could taste each others meal!

Day 2 we walked to Hillsborough, around 4 miles each way, which enabled to to sample the real island and the people we met on the way. Passing the local school we saw the children in their very smart uniform sitting outside having their lessons in the brightly decorated building. Our route also took us via Paradise beach and it's views of Sandy Island and Mabouya. Sandy Island is a small reef based island with white sand and very few trees/shrubs whilst Mabouya is covered in trees with one sandy beach but is not able to be visited as it is now a nature reserve. Needless to say we swam in the sea in Paradise Beach on our walk back to the boat. Hillsborough, as mentioned, is the only town on the island and this is where most of the shops are as well as the usual market stalls etc. as well as tourist information. After the visit to the tourist information we were armed to the information to plan for the rest of the stay. The lady in tourist information certainly sold us the island, telling us about the buses, the marked walks up to two highest peaks, the boat building area on the north east coast as well as the more usual beach type information and details of the nature reserves.

Day 3 we sampled the buses to discover other parts of the island, there are three routes , 10, 11 and 12. Not sure where the first 9 went! Each route is a circular route covering a different area of the island and they even do a door-to-door service to the residents whos don't live on the actual route. The buses were far less frentic than the ones on Barbados and no loud music in them. Our plan for the day was to initially climb the second highest peak on the island, followed by the bus trip to the north east of the island where the local wooden boats were made after a wonderful description of the area by the lady in the tourist office. We did manage to start the climb to the top of the mountain but the route just disappeared and we ended running out of path but even so we did have some amazing views looking towards Paradise beach, the anchorage and Sandy Island. There are loads of free roaming goats on the island and this walk was no exception, however we did also see cows tethered in a small meadow along way up the walk as well as tortoises enjoying the sun. The tortoises ranged from small babies through to larger adults and had a golden colour to their shells. After our walk that we couldn't find the path, and even the locals we asked didn't know about the path, we caught two buses to the boat building area of the island. The surprise of our request from the bus driver should have put a bit of doubt into our minds! Expecting to find local craft in build, repair and a large wooden boat under construction we arrived and what could simply be described as a dumping area for old boats, bottles, engines, sails, masts and spars and no evidence of any building or repair really showing. I guess most of the local fishermen have now moved to fibre glass boats and these old wooden hulls are simply left to rot and get washed away by the next storm. Sally did however find a huge pile on Conch shells to look through to add to her shell collection. After a quick drink at the local bar we returned to Mirage using the buses via Hillsborough and the supermarket in Tyrell Bay for a well deserved container of ice cream, banana with chocolate chips!

The fourth day on Carricou was a complete wash and wind out as were not able to leave the boat due to very strong winds. They did eventually relent just after dark, however during the day we planned the next step of our trip to Grenada as well as perform a small amount of maintenance and boat clearing between the showers so not a completely wasted day!

There are supposed to be more than 100 rum shops in Carriacou making it easier to get hold of rum than petrol and the speciality of the island is Jack Iron Rum at over 60% proof. It comes in reused bottles so we must get some for my father, ex-Navy, to see how it compares with his tot from the days in the Royal Navy!