Days Out in St Lucia: En Bas Saut Rainforest Trail

During our stay at Crystals, we asked Monica about guided rainforest walks and she offered one of her staff, Pas, to act as our guide. The next day we set off after breakfast and.... got a flat tyre straight away! Once replaced we continued our journey, through small towns then further in to the countryside, bound for the Edmund Forest Reserve.



Again the road turned to track, we bounced around in the 4x4, which was bouncing around on the dirt tracks. Slithers of concrete slabs changed to rocky, bumpy, holey sections, which occasionally made small offerings of smooth, concrete slabs. The journey took around 40 minutes from the last small town (Fond St Jacques) to our destination, high up in to the rainforest and to the En Bas Saut trail. This same area is home to St Lucia's highest point, Mount Gimie (958 metres above sea level).


Mount Gimie)

The En Bas Trail is deep in the Edmund Rainforest, comfortably protected in a reserve , there are no dwellings or farming allowed by law. The entrance is marked by a small, wooden hut. We ditched the 4x4, donned a big stick and followed Pas in to the green and pristine ecosystem.



I would consider myself fairly fit, and we walked the length of the trail in about an hour. The walkways are well maintained, although a little slippy in parts. Pas was an informative and chilled out guide, he showed us and explained about different trees; like Mahogany, Gomier, Blue Ma Haut and Giant Chatannier.



After a short time it began to rain, and it rained for the rest of our time in the forest, which put a dampener on things, although we could then appreciate why the environment was so green. I was a little surprised about the level of biodiversity; although we were surrounded by trees, the only fauna we saw were fresh water crabs. We heard the St Lucian parrot, but did not see one during our stay in St Lucia. During the journey into the reserve my face had been glued to the windows as I watched a vibrant selection of flowers go by, but there was none of this along the trail in the reserve.



We made our way up and down steps, and along muddy paths, we hopped across stepping stones in small streams and gaped at the texture of the forest; steep slopes and cavernous gulleys. The real treat awaited us, Pas had led us to the En Bas Saut Waterfall. As we walked down some creaky and half rotten steps, the landscape opened up to share with us a magical kingdom. Even though I was soaked through and disappointed that the rain was stopping me taking a million photo's, I managed to hide under a stowed towel and take this:



We didn't stay long and it was too chilly to swim in the fall water; but I'll go back again one day. The hike back up to the car was easy going, I had wrongly presumed that the trail would be harder work, so was pleasantly surprised.

Soaked through but fulfilled and happy, we made our way back down the track to civilisation. We could have picked a better day to go but regardless, it was a beautiful insight in to what make up the lungs of our planet.

Resorts in St Lucia - Crystals

Located a mere 10 miles away from Rendevous, it took us over an hour to drive to Crystals! The road snakes through rainforest and hills, and in some places is in awful condition. However, in my mind this adds to the adventure and the views along the way were stunning.

The sun set around 18.30 and it was quick to get very dark (no lighting along the roads), we found the track that led us to Crystals, and were extremely surprised by its awful condition. It is not a good introduction.

Crystals has a bohemian-chic feel to it; a small number of quirky cottages make up the development, all of which have fantastic views of the Pitons. Artistically decorated inside and out, it is a colourful, interesting and stimulating, yet a relaxing place to rest your head. The owner Monica is a mine of information and so very helpful, an eccentric lady who makes a mean rum punch!



There is no activity programme at Crystals, however, we hired a 4x4 (essential for getting about in St Lucia) from Benny at Red Tiger and explored! The town of Soufrière lies at the bottom of the valley between Crystals and the glorious Pitons, and visiting it was our first excursion out.





Soufrière is a small coastal town; as with many other urban centres on the island, it is poor and most of the people live a simple life. As with many other urban centres across the globe, they have their fair share of problems with drugs. Upon my first visit in to town, it was visible straight away, we came across quite a few hustlers and were frequently approached in the car. I'm not going to lie, it was scary to begin with. But as we needed to get supplies (breakfast only at Crystals,but every cottage has full kitchen facilities), we had to go in nearly every day. By the end of our stay on the island the apprehension had gone and we were fine about going in to town.

The first breakfast we had a Crystals was devine! A mix of sweet breads with cinnamon and coconut, locally grown, fresh papaya, banana, banana bread and omelette. Pity there was no coffee to wash it down with because although we had a machine in our cottage, it had small bugs in it - so we never used it. Unfortunatley after the first breakfast, standards slipped, as did the time it was served, so each day there was a little disappointment.

One thing that never disapointed was Monica's artistic flair, I loved the way she had adorned the property with aesthetic delights. No corner left untouched and I was especially keen on the tree house bar....



Crystals was a great platform from which to reach Anse Chastanet beach, well-known for it's amazing snorkelling and scuba diving opportunities. More on that later.

I enjoyed Crystals, and chatting away in the tree house with Monica; the location is amazing and it's decoration appealed to the hippy in me.

For more information on Crystals check out: http://www.stluciacrystals.com/

To hire a car through Red Tiger check out: http://www.stluciajeeprentals.com/