Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine July 2016 | Page 212
La Soufrière Volcano, St. Vincent | Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine
Come Away With Me ... Today, as part of my birthMONTH celebrations (yes – I celebrate the WHOLE MONTH!), we’re hiking up La Soufrière volcano on St. Vincent’s tranquil, untouched north coast. Through dense, green forest, misty-grey, dry riverbeds, and green-gold stretches of mountainside, we’ll clamber up the sometimes single-file leaf-strewn trail to the summit with its wildly majestic views. In roughly 2.5 hours, we’ll be peering 600ft down into the 1.6km-wide crater. It’s going to be an adventure, so get your walking shoes and let’s go!
Access Road - Arriving in the morning
My friend perching on a rock
O
ur drive up the quietly meandering east coast road is showered with golden rays under a blue and white blanket, perfectly accenting the rainbow of tiny doll houses dotting the landscape. Soon, we’re turning onto the narrow access road flanked by 10ft-high walls of greenery that lean slightly towards us, whispering of the day ahead. It’s the start of the trail, and we’re off! On one side, towering, heavenbound trees hovering over a sea of broad, green leaves paint a scene of pristine tranquility; on the other, the shimmering green portrait offers views into a deceptively shallow
Me, posing for a quick snap.
valley. I marvel at the way the path transitions from a neat “staircase” of horizontally-placed path-width logs and branch-strewn earth to a narrow, almost vertical pass that both hands and feet must be used to carefully navigate to an undulation of crisscrossed tree roots. First stop (halfway there!): a dry riverbed with clear, uninterrupted views of the sky! In this little cutout in the trail, we are surrounded by a looming leviathan of gloomycoloured boulders that shrouds us in a protective embrace, as if to shield us from unseen dangers along the trail going forward. A brief glance through 208
the narrow re-entry back onto the trail yields a curtain of dark green rising above the rock wall like an imposing weight, daring us to come forth. My friend perches on one rock to take a quick sip while I pose on another for a quick snap! Onward, the scene changes - the path widens to a grey, rocky, vertically winding course flanked by withering elongated leaves. Then, up another green-grey “staircase”, the dense, overhanging foliage gives way to a sloping plain of dry, green-brown grass interspersed among the rocky mountainside overlooking St. Vincent’sVincent’s east coast. A few more steps, and ...We’ve finally made