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Guadaloupe - Basse-Terre
Another short hop to Basse-Terre the capital of Guadeloupe. Again we anchored just down the coast about 2 miles away. Basse-Terre itself was not very exciting and we couldn't get internet access, hence the delay in updating the web site. We hired a car and did a lightening tour of the island. We went to the national park up in the mountains, the car really struggled to get up the steep road then broke down at the top and refused to start. We left the car to recover, hoping it would start after a rest and went for a 3 hour walk in the rainforest to a waterfall called Chute de Galion. The rainforest lived up to its name and it rained. Luckily the car had recovered by the time we returned and started first time.
We continued with the tour going to Pounte-a-Pitre, Guadeoupe's largest and supposedly most impressive town. There were lots of shops and traffic congestion!! Alex managed to find a pair of fins to fit him, they are truly enormous, about a metre long. He can swim very fast indeed with them.
5th - 7th JanuaryGuadaloupe - Pigeon Island
We sailed 10 miles to Pigeon Island and anchored again. This is a marine reserve, (Reserve Cousteau) famous for its scuba diving and snorkelling and named after the famous Jaques Cousteau. Alex did a novice scuba dive and has been well and truly hooked. He said it was amazing and even got to sit on Jaques Cousteau's head. There is an under sea statue of him.
3rd - 5th JanuaryGuadeoupe - Deshaise
We anchored in Deshaise and cleared customs into Guadeloupe. It was far easier than Antigua, just one simple form instead of everything in triplicate. Guadeloupe is in the French West Indies, so it is back to euros and attempting to speak French.
We went for a walk up a river, which consisted of leaping from boulder to boulder for two and a half hours. I found it rather strenuous but William (the mountain goat) loved it as did Alex, who was incidentally the only one to get his feet wet. Paul didn't come and remained on the boat resting an injured big toe. Paul had a really bad toe day, he stubbed his little toe when we were anchoring, then a floorboard fell on his foot badly bruising his big toe. Just when his previously injured leg was getting better. Next day we went to the local botanical gardens, which was more in my line. We have seen lots of humming birds but so far they have been too quick to get a photograph. Alex had fun with the parrots.
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