We had never stopped at Schoelcher before so it was a nice diversion for us. It is a small town just before Fort de France and is named after Victor Schoelcher who was an anti slavery advocate. It was a bit of a coincidence we were here over emancipation day, a local holiday, which celebrates the abolition of slavery. Unfortunately some misguided folks decided to disfigure the statue of Victor Schoelcher on this day, a film crew was there to capture the damage and interviewed John and Devin in the process. Now most folks will know our French is very limited so we doubt they will show us on the evening news.
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| Victor Schoelcher |
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| Our interview |
There is a local sailing school here which is reputed to be the best in the French West Indies. We saw large numbers of students from kids to adults going out every day. They have prams, sunfish, lasers and windsurfers for people to learn on. It was great fun to watch folks struggle in gusty conditions.
We walked to the local hardware store and grocery store on one of our first outings. It is a lot further up to Terreville via the steep hills surrounding the bay than it looks and made for an energetic day shopping.
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| A view of the anchorage from Terreville walk |
After this we decided to walk around the coast and up the valley to the waterfall at An bo so. It was almost 2 hours each way and the valley is lush and very pretty so it made a really nice place to go.
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| A nice stop by the river |
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| A small ford on the road to the trail head |
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| Surprised to find any in France |
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| Now the trail begins |
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| Some English on the signage...wonderful |
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| A very shaded trail |
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| Beautiful flowers in the rain forest |
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| The scramble to the waterfall |
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| Nice crabs in the pools |
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| A relaxing place for lunch |
We also took a walk into the Cinema complex behind Schoelcher, it was closed on Sunday morning when we went but as we don't speak French very well there was nothing for us to watch anyway. It seems a nice place to visit on the days they have English language films and there were some fast food places to eat if you need them.
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| A very modern cinema complex with food court |
The walk back through Schoelcher was interesting and the locals make good use of the beach at weekends with swimming and parties. We stopped for fresh French bread at the 8-til-8 store and also enjoyed some ice cream.
Our next stop was Fort de France for a quick stop at Decathlon for some sports gear. David and Tryna on Haymead arrived so we had a get together Out of Africa and took the local bus to the shopping mall together the next day.
We then took a short diversion and sailed across to Trois Islets and walked into the village to see John and Jo's old cruising buddies Samuel and Corrine who now run a very successful bakery here. It was a nice walk and great to catch up with them again.
Our next stop was Grand Anse D'Arlet, a very nice little fishing village with nice beaches. We met up with Freebooter Anne-Marie and Steve, again friends of John and Jo. We all had drinks on Out of Africa that evening and had some great stories and catching up.
Well somewhere in all of this Devin had too much fun as his filling in a rear tooth decided to fall out. It was the one he had in Grenada a year or so ago. So with this he wanted to move quickly on to Le Marin where we knew of a dentist a fellow cruiser had used. We said goodbye to Out of Sfrica, Haymead and Freebooter and left for Le Marin.
s/v Moosetracks
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