Cumberland Bay St Vincent (Part 2)

With the weather forecast we hadn’t planned to spend very long in Cumberland Bay. However, we did want to see inland a little and so took a walk up and past Coull’s Hill village. On the day we visited, there was a very lively school sports day taking place in the large playing field just in from the shoreline. It was very well supported by lots of spectators and it all seemed very jolly – probably because there were a lot more rum cocktails and beer being consumed by the spectating parents than I ever remember happening at my school sports days.

As we climbed higher up the steep road towards Coull’s Hill village we had great views down into the bay.

Views in towards the centre of the island (top) and Coull’s Hill (bottom)   

We walked through Coull’s Hill village and chatted briefly to some of the locals. All welcomed us and wished us a pleasant stay in Cumberland. With time to spare we continued on. The concrete road turned into a dirt track but it also climbed higher and cut around onto the inland side of the ridgeline. From here we could look towards the centre of the island picking out more volcanic peaks all covered in dense vegetation. There is a Cumberland Nature Trail which explores much further into the rainforest but we had neither the transport to get to the start of it, nor the hours of daylight left to complete the trail. We planned to leave early the following morning to take advantage of the forecast lull in the winds and so noted down the Cumberland Nature Trail on our list of things to do next time we are here.

Wandering back down was much easier than climbing up and the evening light picked out the yachts in the anchorage very nicely. We had been a little put off visiting St Vincent because of the negative reports that we had read. However, we really enjoyed our stop in Cumberland Bay. It is a really sheltered anchorage and we could have easily stayed longer but we wanted to progress north in the lull in the wind. However, it’s so conveniently placed for breaking up the passage between St Lucia and Bequia that we will definitely stop here again. However, we certainly won’t be visiting Wallilabou Bay: when we met up with Mike and Cate on Kealoha V in Marigot Bay, St Lucia, a few days later, they told us that they had been mobbed by 5 boats when they had arrived at Wallilabou, had been charged 5 time the price we had for a line being run ashore (they’d had to pay all the different boat boys rather than just the one that ran the line ashore!!!) and that they’d had a fuel can and wire strop stolen from their dinghy during the mooring process. Even without hearing of their unpleasant experience we had very much enjoyed our stop in Cumberland Bay; having spoken with them we now know Cumberland to be an infinitely better stop-off.

Cumberland Bay, St Vincent, the St Vincent Grenadines