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This was quite a treat of a day. I took the boat tour round to the south of the island to see what devastation the volcano had wreaked on Plymouth. The boat trip is the only way you can really get to see Plymouth. As you'll see from the pictures it's quite incredible.
Plymouth was the capital of Montserrat and also the area where most of the island's population (then about 12,000) lived and worked. The north of the island was only very sparsely populated. Now the city is still visible though the buildings peep through the from the second floor up as the entire city was deluged initially in ash after the first eruptions in 1995 then by the pyroclastic flows which engulfed the city over the next couple of years. The whole southern part of the island is now an exclusion zone so there are many villages which have not been damage but the inhabitants forced to leave as the area is seen as potentially in danger from further volcanic activity.
The boat tour was given by Troy who runs the Green Monkey Diving Club who do Scuba training, diving trips, boat trips and hire diving gear.
Jetty with truck
There is a constant stream of big trucks taking ash from the volcano across the island to this jetty for export as useful building material I was with 5 other tourists including Gary who is staying at Olveston House and was once a student at the Medical School in Plymouth. Troy was able to point out all of the houses of the various rock stars who came and lived on the island and recorded at AIR studios. He also gave another angle to the story of why the studios closed. The studios were severely damaged in 1989 when Hurricane Hugo struck and much of the equipment was unusable. However the other reason was that during the 80s there was a loophole in the system that meant the musicians avoided taxes on the recording work they did out there. However, by the time the hurricane hit this loophole had been investigate by the authorities and the costs for artists to come and record suddenly became too great so together with the hurricane damage, it was no longer financially viable to keep the place going.
Seeing Plymouth really put things into perspective in terms of understanding the trauma the island has been through. Tomorrow I hope to go to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory where there is a film showing what happened to the volcano and the
island as a whole over the last 15 years.
After the boat trip Gary and I had a taxi ride back to the house with Thomas, then after a quick sandwich for lunch I was collected by Scriber, the nature guide who'd been recommended by several people. Scriber is renowned for being able to call the Montserrat Orioles out of the trees to the delight of onlooking nature trailers. On the way to the trail start I told him that I was interested in birdwatching and that as a child growing up in Suffolk I frequently went to visit Minsmere nature reserve with my family. It turns out that Scriber had spent time there with the RSPB keeping tabs on the booming Bitterns. Small world. On the trail we were joined by another guide (I've forgotten his name, I'm afraid) so I felt very privileged. Pretty much all the plants and creatures here are alien to me so it was great to have someone who could point out what the different trees and bugs and birds were.
The highlights were:
- The Hermit crab who lives in a sea shell which he carries on his back all the
way up the mountain and then heaves it up the biggest Bunion tree where he hangs out until he outgrows his shell so has to trek down the mountain to the sea to find himself a new residence.
- The hummingbird fledgling calmly (I hope) sitting in it's nest letting me take a close range photo, its mother whirring around protectively
- The gold breasted Montserrat Oriole who made an appearance in the final part of the trail after much whistling and calling from Scriber
Less enjoyable was stopping to take a picture and feeling a tingling sensation on my feet and looking down to discover I was standing in an ants nest and the darling things were all over my sandaled feet nipping me. Thankfully the bites weren't too serious and the stings wore off within a few minutes, but it was a bit alarming.
There are plenty of photos, but I've selected a few of the best ones for your pleasure...
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