Island Tour with Sackville

Since we arrived on St. Kitts, our orientation group has been lucky enough to have been driven around by Mr. Sackville Grey.  Sackville owns a taxi and gives incredible island tours. Also, he's a really nice and funny guy.

Today Sackville treated the group to an island tour. We began at Ross' campus, and drove west north west along the Caribbean side of the island, around the "fat" part of the island to the Atlantic Coast, and cut across the island to Basseterre, and then back to campus. There were so many beautiful things to see and A LOT Of history to learn about.

I was most excited to see the petroglyphs found on the island. We did a drive by of the petroglyph representing fertility, and I was really upset to see that the carving had been painted over in white so that they could be seen easily. Ugh. I hope that I get another chance to see them... even if they are painted.

Fertility Petroglyph

Our first stop was Wingfield Estates, originally owned by Samuel Jefferson, the great great great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson (the 3rd US President). At some point Sammy sold a portion of his estate to the Earl of Romney, so it is also known as Romney Manor.

The old bell tower at Romney Manor

Currently the estate has a beautiful garden, and it is home to Caribelle Batik. They make different products using the batik dying process; it involves using wax and multiple dying to create a multicolored, layered design. Their products (clothing, pillow covers, placemats, oven mits... actually, there are WAY too many to list), are amazing. I will be doing some Christmas shopping there!

Our next stop was Brimstone Hill Fortress.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is known as the Gibralter of the West Indies. the fortress was built on a hill made up of lava and limestone that had been thrust up from the ocean, reaching about 800ft. There are sulfurous vents- these vents (and their smell) is how the hill got it's name of Brimstone. The fortress was started in the 1690s and construction continued intermittently until the 1790s.

Rob at Brimstone HIll Fortress

The fortress itself is amazing, but the views it offers are mind blowing. You can see for miles, and we were able to see the islands of Saba and St. Eustatius (both belonging to The Netherlands). It was a bit rainy while we were there, and we could see the rain pass between St. Kitts and St. Eustatius.

View from Brimstone Hill Fortress

we continued our driving tour around the fat part of the island, and made our third and fourth stops along the Atlantic Coast. Our third stop was along the coast, and we could see the islands of St. Barth's and St. Martin/St. Maarten. Our forth stop showed evidence of St. Kitts' volcanic past (many other islands in the Caribbean are volcanic). We were able to see the Black Rocks- volcanic rocks that once poured out of Mt. Liamuiga (Liamuiga means fertile earth, and was the name the Carib Indians originally gave St. Kitts).  The Black Rocks have cooled and hardened into a variety of shapes and a multitude of sizes. The waves crash and swirl around them, it's hypnotizing.
We continued along the Atlantic coast, cutting across the island to Basseterre, the capital, past the harbor, and back to Ross.

Black Rocks on the Atlantic coast

One sad note to its history involves the massacre of the native Carib Indians, known as the Kalinago, by the French and British in 1626. There is an area on the southern part of the island called Bloody Point; this is said to be where the extermination of the natives took place. Sackville said that legends holds that the nearby river turned red with blood so many lives were lost.

St. Kitts was the first colony in the West Indies, and it was from here that other colonies were settled. Due to this, it is known as the mother colony (or according to A TSHIRT I SPOTTED- THE HISTORIC CAPITAL OF THE WEST INDIES).

I love St. Kitts. It is rich in beauty and history.

***For more pictures (there are TONS more) please go to these two links: St. Kitts I and St. Kitts II***