The strange man commanding the sea!

Still sunning ourselves on the Caribbean isle of St Lucia, we had two days left with the hire car. Keen to grab every opportunity to get out and about and see as much of the Island as possible, we grabbed our caching bag, car keys and headed South.

Our destination was the key reason I had chosen St Lucia as our holiday destination - the drive-in Volcano! In fact the world’s only drive-in Volcano! 

The distance to it hadn’t looked that far on the map, just 28km as the crow flies. However, it actually took nearly an hour and a half to drive as the roads in the south west twist and turn through the mountains. Numerous steep hills and hairpin bends elongated the journey, as the little white automatic hire car struggled along, barely getting beyond first gear most of the time.

We stopped a couple of times on the way to snap some photos of the stunning Pitons. They really are quite something, and a big part of what is left of the island’s volcanic origins.

Eventually, much to our relief we spotted the sign for the Sulphur Springs nature reserve, home of the Qualibou volcano crater. Pulling into the car park we were greeted by a throng of islanders all keen to sell their wares. Politely declining each of their offers, we made it to the ticket office and were soon driving into the volcano.

It was incredibly exciting, we could smell the waft of rotten eggs the second we opened the car doors, it really was quite over powering. The crater was rather different to other volcanoes I’ve seen. No great big hole deep in the ground, instead mounds of earth varying from light orangey brown to darker colours, were piled up and steam poured out from beneath the rocks. There were also a number of small pools of dark grey bubbling mud, steaming away.

Once we were on the guided walk around the wooden platforms I set about finding the answers to the earthcache. It was good fun and the guide helped answer a couple of the questions. 

Next up was the botanical gardens a short drive away in Soufriere. However, we hadn’t realised how early it closed, so sadly we didn’t have long for our wander, but it was nice to pick up two more earthcaches here. 

The first was the beautiful waterfall, made all the more impressive due to the iron and other mineral deposits on its rock wall. It really was quite something, and made all the more beautiful surrounded by lush rainforest like vegetation. There were also lots of beautiful trees, many of which produce the useful products that we use in everyday life, from coco to castor oils. 

As we walked back from the waterfall we collected the other information linked to the very unique mineral mud baths, which are also located in the gardens. We decided not to take a dip ourselves, but it’s a very interesting place and is frequented by so many tourists every year. I’m sure they must all go home with beautiful skin! 

The following day we had a few hours to kill before our plane trip home so once again headed to the capital Castries. This time we made our way down a long straight road, along the northern side of the town's airport, to a beautiful beach. 

Parking was good, and after declining the offer of a discounted coconut from a local seller, we made our way to a cafe. 

Whilst chatting away I noticed an elderly gentleman in the sea, who at first appeared to be doing Tai chi. I watched him for a couple of minutes curious as to how you do such a thing in the sea. Every time a big wave came crashing in he almost fell over and did actually disappear under the waves several times. A bit concerned he might drown, I kept an eye on him and soon realised that he actually seemed to be commanding the sea!

As each wave hit him, he furiously flung his arms up in the air, threw back his head, gestured upwards with his hands and appeared to be telling the sea off. 

It was rather amusing to watch and it wasn’t long before quite a crowd of onlookers had gathered along the cafe’s veranda to watch and laugh at him. It carried on for quite some time, until presumably exhausted from being knocked over so many times, he gave up and plodded out of the water. I can only presume he had completely lost his marbles or thought he was Poseidon! No sign of a trident though. 

Later that afternoon we headed for the airport on the other side of the island. We had just enough time for one last geocache stop, at the clifftop viewpoint overlooking the little town of Dennery. It’s not a tourist town, so no hotels or sun beds, but it does have a nice beach front location, albeit some what spoilt at the moment by the seaweed that seems to be engulfing some of the Caribbean isles. 

After snapping a few pictures and getting a much needed ice cold bottle of water from the bar nearby, we started making our way along the roadside verge to the ‘Paradise Isle’ cache. 

When I was about 12 metres from GZ a large 4x4 white truck pulled up on the road beside us and the driver wound down his window and shouted, “beware of the snakes”. Now to be honest I wasn’t sure if he was just having a laugh at us silly tourists walking along a busy roadside verge or whether it was a genuine warning. Either way, as I own a number of caches on the well known Adder habitat at Cavenham Heath back home, so I just smiled, nodded, and turned back towards the thicket of trees to look for the cache. 

But he was persistent in his warning and shouted even more loudly, “large snakes...huge...be careful”. The words ‘large’ and ‘huge’ stopped me in my tracks and rather alarmed me. In a second I’d gone from being excited at the prospect of finding another rare, physical geocache on the island, to rather horrified and keen to leg it back to the car. 

We thanked him again and bid farewell. As I stood contemplating what to do, I suddenly spotted the bright yellow tube in the next tree and decided it must to be the cache. I just had to go for it, giant snakes or not!

As the other half chided me that I was an idiot and that he would be getting on the plane with or without me, I stomped my way forward, in a bid to frighten off any nearby slithery things, and grabbed the tube. Inside...a crisp log sheet. It was the cache! Delighted, I quickly signed the log and then hot footed it back to the car as fast as my legs would carry me. 

I never actually saw one of the ‘huge snakes’, but I reckon they are probably there. Maybe the next geocacher will see one. 

So that’s it for our caching tales in St Lucia. But no doubt we’ll have plenty more back in the UK next week.