Day 7 Thursday April 21, 2005 Mayreau Island
Today we decide to walk over to the lee shore of the island. This isn’t as onerous as one might think as we’re on an ismuthus only a couple of hundred yards wide. Just before the climb to the village a dirt track runs off besides the salt pond. While the ocean smells beautiful stagnant salt water really, really stinks. This is the source of the odour we smelt yesterday. You can see old pond works from when they made salt here. Nowadays it’s much cheaper to mine it. Windsor salt is mined in Windsor, Ontario.
We’re not alone in our hike. One of the village dogs joins us. Lynn nicknames him “Boo” because he scared her when he snuck up on us. Boo joins us as we come to the far side of the island. It’s much wilder here with waves crashing up on the shore. There are a couple of catamarans anchored out and a few fishing boats ashore but we don’t see anyone around. We’ve been told that the diving is good here but the surge is pretty intimidating and we decide just to walk along the beach. Boo finds a cocoanut floating in the surge and commences to thrash it about until most of the fiber is ripped off. Lynn thinks he’s crazy, I think it’s funny.
We head back and turn left up the hill into town. It’s steep and it’s hot. On the way we stop to buy water. Anything to help with the heat. Part way up we’re greeted by Robert who invites us into the shade of his restaurant. Robert and the Righteous Youths is a colourful rasta restaurant and we think it would be a great place to come back to for dinner. We’ve decided to reach the top of the hill though so up we go. On the way what seems to be the only vehicle on the island goes up, taking tourists who don’t want to walk. At the top we find a Catholic church commanding the view. On the other side you can see the Tobago Cays. There is a cache basin here, used to catch the rains and store the water in cisterns. All the houses we’ve passed have giant plastic cisterns outside, many fed by pipes from the eaves of the houses. Lynn spots a young kid (goat) and takes it’s picture. We’re on our way down now and we stop for ice cream and water before heading back to the boat.
Bill and I cook the dorado. The local guys call it dolphin which upsets Lynn who doesn’t want to eat Flipper. We enjoy the fresh fish while Lynn opts for noodles instead. Oh well.
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| Chruch on the Hill | Nice Houses | Playful Kid | Rasta Robbie Restaurant |