Svein Elias

3.50 Norway - 22-Oct-24 -

During our easter holiday this year we visited some islands in the Lesser Antilles. The French Island of Martinique was one of them and naturally we visited this new WHS. We arrived at Fort-de-France, the islands main city, by ferry from Castries St Lucia, a ferry trip of 1 ½ hour. After a bus ride to the airport for picking up the rental car we were on our way to our next WHS.

The buffer zone of this site covers a major part of the northern part of the island, but the core zone is divided into two smaller areas. Our route took us through the southern WHS area which contains The Pitons du Carbet, but we opted for passing through the green and lush lower areas as it was already afternoon. Even though the drive is beautiful the main site for us would be the Mount Pelèe with its 1397 mas in the norther core zone. The mountain area is visible from a distance – if there’s any visibility. We were lucky.

We went for the parking on the southeastern side which is about 800 mas to figure out how to “attack” this mountain the following day. From the parking there is little to see. The visibility was good enough, but you only see the first bit of the climb. The better view was from a distance. Our survey did nothing for us other than we could see that the hike starts with a steep climb up the mountain side.

We spent the night on the northern tip of the island, in Grand'Rivière, a small, nice and quiet town (more like a village). Along the shore from the beach, we could look into the core zone which runs all the way down to the sea in this area.

The following morning, we returned to the parking and started the ascend. There were more clouds than the day before, but this was the day for us. The first part, about 300 hm, took about 45-50 minutes. In another 30 minutes we were at the first rim and from then on it is a view to the top. This rim is not the one closest to the peak, but it is a rim. As you ascend further you leave the rim and head towards the peak, but only the reach the second rim some 15 minutes later. This rim is the caldera around the peak. The recommended path is to follow the rim around to the other side and then ascend to the top from there, so we hiked that “flat part”. Hiking the caldera took us 40 minutes. The fog was on and off, so the view was coming and going, but we enjoyed it all. Between the clouds we could see the ocean in any direction but to the south. The green slopes with its gorges and valleys are pleasing to the eye. You need to spend some time just to enjoy it.

We decided to skip the summit because of some bad knees and poor visibility. The climb of 100 to 150 hm would be steep, and the clouds had gathered around the top. We assumed that we would not be able to enjoy the view up there. The return around the caldera was still enjoyable and the decent is (of course) much easier – even though the fog was surrounding us more and more.

In total we spent almost 5 hours on this hike and every minute of it was worth it. The Caribbean vegetation is special. There are very few trees and no high ones up here but there are lots of lower vegetation, especially flowers. This scenery is just awesome. Back at the car we were happy with our visit to this WHS.

We left the area by car at 2 o’clock and at 4 we were back in Fort-de-France. The following morning, we boarded the ferry to the island of Dominica.

Zoë Sheng

4.00 Chinese-Canadian - 27-Sep-19 -

I'm typically biased towards nature site but this one is really nice and worth a visit. An hour's drive from FdF at the most through beautiful scenery already (although the roads can be narrow yet in good condition) you arrive at the parking lot for Mount/Montagne Pelée. The lookout is nice too but the mountain is obviously what you came for - yes, ignore that ugly power station at the start of the hike /cough cough.

The hike is roughly 6-7km depending where you actually go. The goal is Le Chinois, should I be offended here? The peak doesn't really look like a "Chinaman" at all. You do not necessarily get to the top to enjoy this place. The start of the hike is steep and you may be wondering why the path is so tiny. The mist can make this also a very wet hike and the top is often covered with clouds as you can still make out in my picture, this was the best one I got before it was covered up again. This also meant that some of the hiking is frustrating because the view is not that great sometimes. Don't let it stop you from circling around this lovely and once deadly volcano.

The nature here is just outstanding and fresh. So green. There are other places that want to be inscribed such as Caravelle à Trinité but I stopped there and wasn't that impressed. There are many places on Martinique worth visiting maybe 3 days minimum.