Guadeloupe

 

We had another lovely sail up from Dominica to Guadeloupe – a fast close haul across the channel and then a very picturesque potter through the islands of Les Saintes to our anchorage at Terre de Haut. Les Saintes are a group of tiny little islands between Dominica and Guadeloupe that belong to Guadeloupe (and hence are part of France). They were hotly contested back in the day because of their strategic importance – the French in Guadeloupe and the English in Dominica could both use the islands to ensure a safe entry to their respective islands. Because the English and French owned every second island up the chain no channel between islands was safe but if you managed to nab Les Saintes you would then control a safe channel. Anyway, back in 1782 the naval Battle of the Saintes was a major victory for the English and the start of their domination of the seas. Now Terre de Haut is an adorable little island with a cute little village and some lovely restaurants for lingering over long french lunches. And of course it has an impressive fort.

The anchorage at Terre-de-Haut

Downtown Terre-de-Haut

Reading up on history at Fort Napoleon.

Excellent upcycling.

After Les Saintes we sailed up to Deshaies (dey-hay) in the northwest of “mainland” Guadeloupe. A terrible sail with no wind all the way up the lee of the island, some rain for good measure, loads of crab pots all over the place and then a super busy anchorage with hardly any room left for us and boats swinging in all sorts of directions in the absence of a consistent wind. I've never driven around an anchorage so much before finding a spot – we had to abandon our first two attempts but did finally get a spot. But in fairness Deshaies was worth it. A quiet little village, regular church bells and more opportunities for long lunches.

Round and round and round the anchorage we went.

Phew.

Now that's one crowded anchorage.

We wanted to hire a car to explore the island and after much googling, asking random strangers on the street and facebooking we finally tracked down someone who was willing to hire us their car (rental agencies being non-existent in this neck of the woods). “El Scorchio” was an aged vehicle with no functioning aircon but he got us around. Guadeloupe is shaped like a butterfly with Basse Terre on the western wing and Grande Terre making up the eastern wing. First we explored the resort areas on the south coast of Grande Terre and then came back to complete a circumnavigation of Basse Terre (not to be confused with Terre-de-Bas in Les Saintes) which includes the capital of Basseterre, though the biggest town on the island is actually Pointe a Pitre right in the middle of the butterfly. There's a lot of cane and bananas. Lots and lots and lots. And some beautiful lush rainforest.

Some wild scenery down in the southeast corner of Grande Terre.

There are several pretty resorts on the south coast.

And of course our days of tourism also involved a great game of Hunt for a PCR Test. After managing to book a test online we turned up at the lab to see a sign on the door saying they no longer do covid testing. Great. So we tried a pharmacy – they only do antigen tests. After going through a list of all the other labs Google suggested the consensus was that the airport at Pointe a Pitre was the only spot you could still get a PCR. After a bit more detective work we found an old, now disused, charter terminal that had been set up for mass testing and long lines of travellers. Now it's empty with just a couple of bored employees so we got tested pretty quickly!

The rainforest on Grande Terre smelt beautifully just like Lamington in Queensland.

And a waterfall for good measure. Quite a good one too.

Now that our time in the French Antilles has come to an end there are a few things, mostly gastronomic, that we'll miss. Good French cheese and wine of course but also the delicious creole treats of accras (fish fritters, or sometimes samosas), boudin (black pudding), poulet colombo (chicken curry), poulet coco (heavenly coconut chicken) and for dessert – flan coco. If you can get your hands on recipes for any of these I highly recommend trying them. Also a highlight is the Ti Punch (creole for petit punch). A simple but perfect concoction of muddled lime, rhum agricole and sugar syrup with optional ice. Rhum agricole is a revelation, it's made from cane juice rather than molasses and tastes as different from rum as rum does from vodka or tequila.

The toughest decision of the day - where to have lunch.

Flickr Photo Album