The day looked like rain but we decided to go for a hike on the Prince Rupert Headland. It is called Cabrits and is home to Fort Shirley and the Douglas Battery. I being British carried my umbrella.
The locals told us that the dock was destroyed in the hurricane so we hiked round from the PAYS dock which had been rebuilt since Maria. As we got close we could see that the dock was indeed ruined and that there would be no electricity with the poles down and the wires touching.
As always we paid our money to one lady and had our tickets punched by a second. Got to keep the employment going. I sat outside while Gaye had a look around the small museum. I marveled that the museum had kept it's roof intact while the adjacent ferry terminal was stripped of it's roof tiles. We started up the cobbled road to the gap in the wall protecting the fort.
I always feel history tapping on my shoulder as I make this hike.
Maybe it is the ghosts of the many hundreds of slaves who toiled to build this place. Cutting the stones by hand and burning the coral to get lime mortar. Look at the perfection of this block made so square with no tools beyond a hammer chisel and a square.
Maybe it is the ghost of the French admiral who was on the losing end of the major sea battle which took place in the channel to the North of Dominica. This battle is reckoned to have decided who controlled the worlds seas for the next 150 years.
Maybe it is the ghosts of all the British soldiers who were sent here to man the batteries and forts. Wearing unsuitable woolen clothes and eating a diet bereft of any fresh fruit or vegetables they succumbed to various fevers or scurvy.
However it seems that we were being escorted and protected from any unfriendly spirits as we were surrounded by clouds of white butterflies as we climbed the overgrown cobbled trail that leads to the parade ground then down to the Douglas battery. When I say clouds I mean clouds, every step seemed to raise another hundred or so. It was a pretty surreal experience.
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The Douglas battery is usually a pretty spooky place as the forest canopy is dense there but Maria had stripped the trees of their leaves and bought in the sun. We both marveled at the stubbornness of remains of the buildings despite the best efforts the trees to reclaim their territory. Also the 200 year old cannon and it's carriage made of some kind of iron that had survived out in the open with only a little surface corrosion. I want a car built of this material.
We made our way to Fort Shirley and saw that the work done to keep the elements out had not been wasted. The shutters had held and the roof was still on.
The giant mahogany tree had suffered some limb losses in the storm as well as all it's leaves but it was coming back. However we both thought it looked like an Ent ready to stride out with Frodo.
On the way back down the damage done to the new hotel that was being built in partnership with some Moroccan interests. More than half the roof is gone. We talked to the night guard and he told us that they are going to rebuild and finish off the development.
As we left Cabrits I stopped to salute and stroke this beautiful marmalade striped cat enjoying the last of the sunset, now I don't know if it was the scent of this cat or maybe something alike to catnip that I had walked through but whatever it was that was attached to my sandals but it drove Dizzy to make a full on attack on my sandals, biting them and getting the back legs going. So funny!
It was a tiring hike for me and I was happy to be back on board with the sun going down and the sundowners going down too.
Life is good.
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