Botanical Gardens, Guadeloupe, Tree Walk!

Illustration by Nicolette Morgan

We drove on to the Botanical gardens, situated within the rain forest. They had beautiful open areas with Raccoons, Monkeys, Parrots, Tortoises, Otters and many other wild creatures.
Edi and I stopped to watch an old, blind extremely overweight raccoon eating his lunch. He sat reaching around with his paws to locate the food that he was sitting in the middle of, obviously thoroughly enjoying every mouthful, until all the food was gone, content with having eaten it all he toppled over, lay with his legs in the air and fell asleep. It was hysterically funny, Edi and I laughed so much it brought tears to our eyes.
High above the gardens strung through the trees was a series of walkways, just two planks wide. Precarious looking bridge's 60 feet above us. Without giving it any thought (one of my blond moments) I followed along behind Bob and Edi, and before I knew what was happening found myself being fitted into a full body harness, which proved to be a somewhat awkward procedure as I was wearing a dress!
I removed my shoes and climbed cautiously up the ladder behind Edi onto the first platform. I felt really silly with my dress all gathered up between my legs, although my daft appearance for once was not my main concern, "what the bloody hell did I think I was doing up here?"
I followed Edi's lead and hooked my safety line's on, and started the walk out onto the swinging bridges high above the gardens, feeling my way cautiously along with my eyes squeezed tightly shut. Concerns about my appearance were quickly forgotten as I slowly made my way precariously along the narrow, swinging walkways, I couldn't help but wonder how I had allowed myself to do this.
Bob and Edi both seemed quite at ease and for a second or two that gave me confidence, although I had to question their intelligence as memories of Garibaldi Hill came flooding back.
As you proceed the bridges get higher and higher, and as frightening as it was, it was exhilarating. Some of the bridges were quite long, causing them to creak, groan and sway as we carefully made our way along. By the time we came to the end of the walk and had to climb down the platforms I was wanting to do it all again. I wish I had been allowed to take my camera, because no one would believe I had done this without some sort of photographic evidence.

The St.Kitts Botanical Gardens

Day out in St.Kitts

Saturday 8th June
The herbal tea obviously did the trick because I woke feeling bright as a button. Juni arrived as scheduled, bang on time at 9am, and we set off on our tour of the island.
St.Kitts is a 68 sq mile island, and was once the wealthiest island in the Caribbean due to the sugar and tobacco it produced, but over the years competition from other larger countries forced them to close their plantations one by one, as they could no longer compete. Today many of the previous fields of sugar cane lie neglected, leaving them to grow wild and uncontrolled. I thought it a very sad state of affairs.
As so many of the islands throughout the Caribbean St. Kitts thrives today on its tourist industry. Many Cruise ships stop here, and the island has built a beautiful dock and shopping area in Porte Zante, catering to the needs of the visiting tourists. The port boasts many new elaborate high end stores, selling all the unnecessary, (to my mind) useless artifacts that tourists seem to crave, especially jewelery stores. So much paraphernalia, totally unrelated to the island or its history but always in high demand by cruise ship folk. Luckily there were no cruise ships in while we were there, so the town was blissfully quiet.
We drove out through Basseterre, the island capital, stopping along the way to take photographs, while Juni gave us a detailed account of the towns history, and pointed out interesting and historical buildings.
It was a scorching hot day as we continued our drive out through the local villages following the coastline around the island, I was very grateful for the air conditioning in the car. We stopped to look at some local ruins that were gradually crumbling back to nature and covered with magnificent flora and fauna. Hummingbirds flew overhead feeding on all the wild hibiscus, and other tropical flowers which grew everywhere in colorful profusion.
From the ruins we drove up to the botanical gardens which were bursting with rich, lush green foliage. Magnificent trees included Flamboyant, Breadfruit, Mango, Coconut Palm, White Cedar, and Sour Sop, to name but a few. The floral display was spectacular, including some of the most amazing orchids.
The gardens were so beautifully manicured and maintained, wonderful to walk around and explore. The setting right there in the rain forest with walk paths snaking through the foliage, and man made balconies perched high in the grounds added to the overall beauty of the place. We picked mango's from the trees and ate them, they were warm from the sun and very sweet,the sweetness of the fruit combined with the scent from all the flowers was intoxicating. I would have happily stayed there all day, but the heat was so intense I felt as though I was melting, and had to make a hasty retreat back to our cool air conditioned car.