Dec 1 - Island Tour

We used Henry's Safari Tours (473 444 5313) for a full day tour of the island, along with Paul and Gina of sv Solace. Rawl, our driver, was a font of information, and a great driver to boot. We had considered a car hire, but after about an hour on the narrow roads, all decided we had made a good choice going the tour route and leaving the driving to the professionals. Each tour is customized according to the wishes of the passengers. We left Spice Island Marina and traveled the road around the town of St George, missing the traffic but getting great views of everything. Our destination was the Concord Waterfalls, where we stretched our legs and also learned about nutmeg harvesting. We continued north to Gouyave, where we went into one of the few nutmeg processing facilities on the island, the GCNA Nutmeg Processing Plant. Although Hurricane Ivan decimated about 90% of the nutmeg industry here, Grenada still provides about a third of the world's nutmeg production, so it was quite interesting to take the short tour of the plant. After, we went north to the Jouvray chocolate farm, where we learned a bit about making chocolate. Of course, we bought a few bars to take back. Lunch was at a restaurant at the top of the island in the small town of Sauteurs. After, it was off to the River Antoine Rum Distillery. We all had high hopes of a hidden gem here, as it is the oldest working, non-automated rum mill on island. Got to say, it was like sipping moonshine and not to our palates; there were no purchases made. We chose to make the Grand Etang Forest Reserve our last stop, as it was getting on in the afternoon and we wanted to make a brief detour to the IGA supermarket. Overall, we had an enjoyable day and felt the price of the excursion, although a bit on the high side, worthwhile. The scenery was beautiful, the stops informative, and the driver very accommodating; a good experience, and we returned to our boats before sunset.
Pic: View from the hillside road of the Carenage, St. George's Harbor.