The Pitons St Lucia (Part 2)

On the 20 February we decided that we would climb Gros Piton and so we took the dinghy ashore to the southern end of the beach and chained it up to a tree. A ‘helpful local’ offered to be our guide, which we declined, and then he offered to guard our dinghy about which we were non-committal. Expecting to have to pay him a few dollars on our return we set off on our hike and my last view of the beach was of him making a beeline towards our dinghy to check it out.

(Left) Seriously steep hill looking seriously flat!      

The road up from the beach was seriously steep in places; definitely 4x4 territory in anything other than perfectly dry conditions. We made our way up to the saddle in the ridgeline where the trail up Gros Piton started. We had had mixed messages on the trail. Some had advised us that you were expected to take a guide which would cost US$50. Conversely, one of the staff at Sugar Beach had told us that you didn’t need to take a guide. It turns out that both were wrong. At the start of the trail we spoke with one of the park officials and she confirmed that we would need to take a guide and that the fee would be US$50 per person. US$100 plus a tip for the guide was more that we were prepared to pay for a short morning hike and so, instead, we arranged that we would walk part way up the trail but then at La Place Ma Sheil take the path down to the Anse L’Ivrogne beach.

With strict instructions that if we took the wrong turning we’d be spotted by guides with their tour groups and charged $100, we set off towards Anse L’Ivrogne beach. It was actually a really nice walk, initially on a rocky trail and then on a path weaving through rainforest.

Anse L’Ivrogne beach   

We made good time and after less than an hour we popped out on Anse L’Ivrogne beach. This was clearly where many tourists are dropped by boat to start their ascent of Gros Piton and so there was another park office there. We explained who we were and what we were doing and so the ‘system’ knew that our navigation was up to scratch and that we had found the beach.

Anse L’Ivrogne beach   

We took a quick circuit of the buildings on the beach which largely consisted of bars. There were people about but the bars were all closed. Presumably they were all geared towards the arrival of much larger groups of tourists and/or lunchtime meals.

La Place Ma Sheil   

Retracing our steps we returned to La Place Ma Sheil. This was once a family home and the gardens were carefully tended and stocked with fruit trees. Today it is café for tourists stopping for a break on the trail. As well as the drinks that you would expect them to sell, they also have lovely ice cream made there using the fruits collected from the garden. We tried their banana, mango and coconut varieties. All were good but we particularly liked the banana one.

With dinghy guarding dollars in hand ready to pay we returned to the beach but there was no sign of the chap we’d met there first thing. Everything seemed to be in order and so we re-launched the dinghy and returned to BV. With some surf on the beach that was a little trickier manoeuvre than it might seem and so we were pleased that we had done it without the dinghy getting rolled or either of us getting wet. Back on board, when we rolled up the dinghy for our afternoon sail north to Rodney Bay we discovered that the anchor was missing. We presumed that had been pinched by the chap we had seen on the beach which was why he was nowhere to be found on our return.

But there was nothing that we could do about that by that time; the thief would have been long gone and the anchor well hidden. So we chalked that one down to experience, vowing to lock the replacement anchor into the dinghy, and headed north up to Rodney Bay.

The Pitons, St Lucia