High atop Mt. Nevis

Well, this was my last trip for awhile to Nevis. I arrived Saturday evening and we went out for a wonderful meal at the Gallipot followed by drinks and music by a local string band at Oualie Beach. Sunday we were up bright and early to climb Mt. Nevis. This is the one adventure we hadn't accomplished in the last two summers. Our friends, Bob and Andrew, who also teach at MUA were our guides. It was a muddy, wet and hilarious adventure. When you look at Mt. Nevis from the water, you think "Oh, nice hill".

We started from the point pictured here, which is just outside the trailhead.

I was thinking "Oh, this is a nice hike" in the picture above. Well, Nevis peak is 3,232 feet high. So, this is a mountain and the trail at times is narrow and winding and extremely slippery and muddy. At the lower elevations one walks through forest, but about half-way up, the transition to rainforest is apparent as you hike through the ferns. That's the picture below at the transition point between forest and rain-forest. The foliage is magnificant and the views from certain points is stunning. I had to fight a sense of vertigo several times. We hiked all the way up to a particularly scary point for me called the "Big Rock". That's were the picture right above was taken from. That is Charlestown (the capital city) below. I think we got muddier on the way down.

We made it though - although my new manicure was definitely worse for the wear!!