Martinique

December 2017

Monday December 11th – Martinique

Captain’s Log: “In the early hours of the morning, Azura approached Martinique at a gentle pace of eight knots. ‘Stand By Below’ was rung to the Engine Control Room at 06:45 and the local pilot boarded from the pilot launch shortly before 06:57. Azura approached the berth, reducing her speed all the time and once in a position parallel with the birth, the Captain set the engines astern to stop the ship and hold position before thrusting the vessel alongside using the ship’s thrusters. The mooring teams then sent the lines ashore and made the ship fast to the berth and the gangways were landed, allowing the first guest to make their way ashore.”

As we had approached Fort-de-France, it looked a lot less attractive than the previous ports we had visited. This maybe because of the 10 story office building that stuck up like a sore thumb in front of the town and was not in character with the rest of the place. In search of a car rental company, I left Wendy to wait while I walked along the street that faced the sea. No rats this time.

There was a Eurocar office which said it was open at 7.45am. It was 8am and not open. I continued to walk until I reached the end of the shops. There was a tourist office, but since it was a Monday, it was closed. I asked a man waiting for a bus if there were any car rental offices. He said ‘Eurocar’ and pointed back along the street. “It’s closed. Any others in town?” He shrugged his shoulders. Not his problem. So I walked back to Eurocar and it was still closed with no activity inside. I started walking down side streets in a vague attempt to find somewhere else. As I did, I learnt that the town was not as bad as I had feared. I came across the Cathedral of Saint Louis which was built in 1895 in a Romanesque-Byzantine style. It had a very distinctive metallic spire. Down the road was the fruit and vegetable market. I found nothing and went back to Eurocar. It was now open (8.45) and two girls were renting a car.

The paperwork part was relatively straight forward. But the cars were parked outside the centre and we were driven to it 10 minutes away. At the east end of the town jutting out into the bay was Fort Saint Louis which has a long history linked to the Franco-British rivalry in the colonial period. We were driven past the fort and to a car park. It was a decent car which I then had to drive back to the port via the one way system. A jobsworth woman wouldn’t let me enter the taxi rank car park so I went round the one way system again and dumped the car by the side of the road. By the time, I reached Wendy, she had been waiting over an hour, dehydrated from the heat and about to give up and get back on the ship.

The P&O Guide said “Martinique combines an exotic mix of France and Africa with a wonderful laid back Caribbean feel and is a delight to explore. Delve into the fascinating history of the town of Saint Pierre, visit the charming fishing villages or take to the waters to explore its wonderful tropical marine life.”

Martinique is a French island situated in the heart of the Caribbean archipelago midway between St Lucia and Dominica. It is called the ‘Island of Flowers’ apparently a constantly changing panorama of lush and luxuriant vegetation. The island is 40 miles long and 19 miles wide with an area of 427 sq miles. Mont Pelee (4430 ft) is the highest of the volcanic mountains, which are found mainly in the north of the island. In the mountainous area, the deep ravines and escarpments are covered in tropical rainforest. The coastline is indented with numerous streams, many of which become destructive torrents in the rainy season. The plains, mostly in the northeast and south, make up about one-third of the island and sugar is grown here upon which the economy was founded.

First sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1493, the French eventually moved in and exterminated the indigenous ‘Caribs’ to grow sugar. Apart from a few brief periods, the French have been in possession of Martinique for the last 300 years. Slavery (60,000 in 1736) was abolished in 1848.

The ship’s excursions seemed to concentrate on taking the passengers to the decent beaches in the south. We decided to tour the north first and then do the beaches. As we left town and headed along the twisty N2 coastal road, it became apparent that Martinique was a lot scruffier than Guadeloupe and there were no sandy beaches – just collections of grey volcanic rock in the bays. It looked very underwhelming.

Twenty-four miles from Fort-de-France, St Pierre was until May 8th 1902, one of the prettiest and attractive towns in the West Indies (I’ll take that description with a pinch of salt) and the chief commercial centre of Martinique. In the early hours of that morning, a mass of fiery vapour burst from the sides of Mont Pelee and enveloped the town bringing death and destruction. Not a building escaped and the fire destroyed all but one of seventeen ships in the harbour. After the fire died down, masses of molten lava, ashes and dense sulphurous gases erupted from the volcano asphyxiating those who had escaped the fire. It is estimated that 30,000 people lost their lives.

We were expecting a nice new gleaming town completely rebuilt since the eruption 115 years before, and were shocked by what we found. St Pierre was a grimy, dark shell of a place. The road was just about wide enough for a car but not the volume and we sat in one lane stop-start driving. Rather than flattening everything and starting again, they appeared to have dug all the ash out of the buildings, kept the walls and just re-roofed the buildings. I was staggered by how unappealing this was. We couldn’t wait to escape and passed on the museum about the event. In the distance we could see Mount Pelee, now covered in vegetation.

Turning inland on N2 to another non-descript town called Le Morne Rouge, we joined the N3 which transverses the centre of the island heading south through the jungle and tropical rain forests. This was more like it. It wasn’t as impressive as Guadeloupe’s ‘Route de la Traversee’ but it was the best thing we saw on Martinique. En route, we took a very narrow side road heading for the village of Fonds St Dennis. This was a series of twisting switch back turns through lush jungle. As with St Pierre, the promise of an attractive village did not materialise but we were glad to have done the detour. On the way back to the N3, we climbed down to the ‘Saut du Gendarme’ waterfall. Small (30ft) but perfectly formed, the fun bit was getting to it. Once you descended the steep concrete staircase (with the steps larger than normal so your knees felt every step), we had to cross a stream by balancing on rocks, a car wheel rim etc. But we had the waterfall to ourselves for most of the time.

Approaching Fort-de-France, we passed the Sacre Coeur Catholic Church. This was a smaller version than the one in Paris. I think it was built by the same architect. Maybe this one was his practise run.

Fort-de-France on the north shore of a bay in the southwest of the island is the commercial and administrative capital with 120,000 people, one third of the total population. The roads seemed to be gridlocked and I was under the impression that the other 240,000 people on the island had decided to drive into town today. The skies were overcast and we were stuck in traffic.

We eventually saw the A1 road which would take us to the southern beaches. The two lanes heading south were backed up with miles of traffic. Did everyone go to the beach on a Monday? This was not our idea of being on holiday. Pulling into a large Carrefour, we stopped for a drink and debated our options. Outside, the traffic hadn’t moved. Option 1 was to return the car early. So we drove to the Eurocar office to find it closed. No surprise there. I had been told to return it around 4pm to the car park where I had picked it up.

Option 2: Let’s drive back up the N2 coastal road and see if we can find a sandy beach to relax on. So we retraced our morning route and every bay seemed to be the same. Just rocks. About 20 minutes north, about to give up, we found a wide bay with the usual rock beach but a grassy ledge above. We chilled out there for 30 minutes and then went back to tackle the Fort-de-France traffic.Negotiating the one way system again, I dropped Wendy back at the Azura and then drove east back to the car park where my man was waiting. He then gave me a lift back to the ship.

I think we were rather underwhelmed by Martinique. Maybe it was the hassle of getting a car, or the horrendous traffic, or the lack of really scenic beauty (maybe it was better in the south), or that it looked like Guadeloupe but not as good. Maybe it was just too ‘French’. I didn’t feel the need to ever come back here and we rated the island along with the Dominican Republic as the least appealing on the cruise. For future P&O blurb, maybe the ‘Island of Flowers’ just lacked, er, flowers….and it most definitely wasn’t ‘laid back’.

Captain’s Log: “By 1730, with all of Azura’s guests and crew on board, the ship’s gangways were struck. Captain Hoyt delegated the departure manoeuvre to Second Office Craig Thompson and with the gangways safely inboard, he gave the order for the ship’s mooring lines to be let go. With the mooring lines all clear from the water, Second Officer Thompson used Azura’s thrusters to push the vessel away from the berth. Once the vessel was a safe distance from the berth, he stopped the thrusters and set the engines astern. With Azura’s bow clear of the end of the berth, engines and thrusters were then set to swing the bow around to Port. Once the swing was complete, Second Officer Thompson set the engines ahead and drove the vessel out into open water, disembarking the pilot at 18:10. The vessel then set Southerly courses into the night on her passage towards St Lucia. Weather: Sunny with scattered cloud. Temperature: 31’C. Wind: Easterly, Force 3.”

To make up for the disappointing day, we were lucky to have a hectic evening. Our meal at the Oriental was a favourite - Atlantic Prawn cocktail, followed by Salmon, Swordfish & King Prawn Stew, Rice & Quinoa and the palate soothed by Pina Colada Cake & rum and raisin ice cream. We made the 7.30pm performance in the Playhouse of ‘Blame it on the Boogie’ which was an 1970s homage to disco by the every energetic Azura youngsters, jumping around, changing costumes, and impressing the audience with their singing and dancing. Wendy loved it. I hate disco music and but my tongue.

Rudi West was in the Manhatten Bar around 8.45. A comedian from Sunderland, he was obviously at ease with the cruise audience and must hop between cruise liners. After a first song that got me worried that he was more a singer than comedian, he then set off on an excellent set of observational gags about being a passenger on the cruise ship. Everyone could relate to it. The ‘Lift lottery’, getting lost all the time, the cabin steward that seemed to live in your room, the toilets that ‘sucked’ when you flushed (“with a sign saying ‘Don’t flush while sitting down’ but you have to try it once don’t you?” and the mountainous food. “You come aboard as a passenger and leave as cargo.” He brought the house down. Wendy was crying with laughter.

Finally, we sat in on the 10.30pm Jazz Night in the Malabou bar. This was an excellent Hungarian band who had done the ‘Glenn Miller Tribute’ earlier in the cruise (except we didn’t know they were Hungarian then). They played songs that allowed various band members to solo their instrument, but the outstanding pianist seemed to dominate the songs. I’d give my right hand to play like that!