Thursday morning rolled around and our last minute calls to Cutty to arrange an island tour yesterday worked out as we met Trish and Robert (Bristol Rose) and Diana and Gerald (Whiskers) at the marina where Cutty was waiting with taxi for our first ever island tour. Already on board were Kerry and Mal (Hasta La Vista). This made the tour a complete Southern Hemisphere tour with 6 Aussies and 2 token S.Africans.

From 4.River Antoine Rum Distillery

Cutty gave us a brief overview of what we were going to see and we were off up the west coast of Grenada. Now what Cutty didn't say was that  he had very good knowledge of the history of the island, vegetation and crops and general information about the island. He would often stop and show us samples of the different spices growing and plantations (as seen below) and make sure we enjoyed the experience. With this we got more than I expected to from the tour. 

From Cutty's Tour

The first planned stop was the Annadale Falls, a nice medium sized waterfall surrounded by beautiful gardens. I waited for Karen to change into her swimmers before we headed down to the falls, but Robert was the only one to brave the cold (I suppose everything is relative) water and jump into pool. Robert was outdone, however by a local lad - "Mr Super Fantastic" who jumped from the top (for a small donation of course.)

From 1.Annadale Falls

We then headed to Grand Etang Lake and as we drew near, Cutty beeped the horn and...

From 2.Grand Etang Lake

Karen and I then strolled over to catch a view of Grand Etang Crater Lake which was quite eerie with mist covering the mountain tops. We then stopped  at the souvenir shop and bought some local organic chocolate which was very enjoyable (at the time of writing it had been devoured) and some spicy perfume for Karen.

From Grand Etang it was onto San Bras to the Carlton Cocoa Station where the local cocoa is processed. On the way we stopped and picked a cocoa pod and sampled the wet cocoa which was delicious. Walking into the cocoa plant was my first real time travel back to the industrial revolution...

From 3.Carlton Cocoa

After the cocoa plant we started heading up north to the River Antoine Estate. On our way we passed through small villages and the abandoned airport which is now used as a drag strip. When the Americans invaded in the 80's no Cuban assets were allowed to leave the island, so the president's and government planes were left abandoned and are still there. 

From Cutty's Tour

 People were still living happily in "Janice Houses" in the villages. These prefab houses were provided by the Venezuelan government as aid in rebuilding from the first of the recent Grenadian hurricanes. Venezuela also provided similar aid following Ivan, and these Ivan Houses can be seen throughout the island  

From Cutty's Tour

We arrived at the River Antoine Estate, the home of the Rivers Rum Distillery and enjoyed lunch and a beer at the restaurant before stepping back in time once again to a fully operational rum distillery run on power from a water wheel and wood gathered from the estate for the furnaces. Karen felt that you would walk around the corner and there would be the real distillery and this was just a museum with "the things we used to do". But it wasn't! This was evidenced by the customs officer there testing alcohol content and production volume. This was real. The product was definitely real based on the feeling in my throat and the look on Trish's face as she sampled the rum under Diana's instruction to swallow it in one go.

From 4.River Antoine Rum Distillery

Before we could get over the sample of the real rum, both Trish and I had purchased a bottle of Lime Rum Punch and Diana had a bottle of the real stuff tucked under her arm (but only after the guide made sure that Diana was not planning on taking the bottle on a plane!)

We then headed of to Grenville for a tour of the nutmeg processing station. Here we were not allowed to take photos to protect their IP on processes. It was much the same as the cocoa plant and Robert made note of the wooden?? polishing machinery.

Next stop was La Segesse Bay with the classical palmed Caribbean beach were I was able to get my classical palmed Caribbean beach photos!

From 5.La Sagesse Bay

This beach also has a bit of history. The owner of the resort had tried to exclude the public from the beach when the resort was built. The citizen's took the owner to court and the decision ensured all Grenadian beaches have public access. Interesting to note that the owner sold and left the country after the result...

From here it was off past Cutty's favorite watering hole where he "limes" after work with his mates and sips the Rivers Rum that Trish was so fond of before dropping us back to the marina.

It was a full day with everyone being so tired they did not even stop at the bar for a drink on the way to the dock. I would recommend Cutty's tours. He can be contacted on 407 5153.