Sunday was Heather's birthday and we wanted to do something different to celebrate. Last year we were in Denmark and we spent the day at Tivoli World's Christmas festival in Copenhagen with snow on the ground and freezing cold. Obviously this year would be very different.
St Lucia is famous for its Pitons, twin peaks that rise majestically out of the sea. So along with our ship family and a group of others we drove to climb the Gros Piton. As well as Heather, one of our ship sons, Rob, celebrates his birthday on the same day. Although both the Gros Piton and Petit Piton are similar heights, Gros Piton is much larger and more accessible.
It was a challenging climb in the heat, despite being shaded by trees the whole way up. Unlike Scottish or Welsh mountains where the path snakes its way up a gradual incline, the second half of this trail was nearly straight up.
We had several guides, that we are required to take to show us the way. After 1 hour and 40 mins, we reached the first summit. Liam and Kara were about the first ones up, despite the concerns some had about whether they would even make it. After 10mins enjoying the view and some lunch, we headed through what can only be described as jungle, on the top of the Piton, to the other look out point with its amazing view of the Petit Piton.
The climb down was as hard as the way up as it was slippy and very uneven. Several of our group sustained twisted ankles. Kara got very tired part way down and one of our guides actually put Kara on her back and ran down the rest of the way with her. These guides are incredible, doing this climb several times a day - one of them had done it over 2000 times.
After the climb, we drove down the hill in between the 2 Pitons to one of the most incredible beach locations in the world. There is a hotel there which must rank as having some of the best views on earth. We were able to spend a few hours there, soaking our weary limbs in the sea and enjoying a nice drink before heading back to the ship. It was dark by the time we left and the drive back out on pitch black, windy roads up very steep gradients was not something I would want to do very often.
Early the next morning, we left St Lucia at the end of our Sabbath week and headed for Guyana. We had a fairly bumpy 2 day voyage before arriving here in our first ever South American port.
We'll tell you about Guyana very soon.
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