18/12/219: Brimstone Hill Fort

Our friends Margaret, Nigel and Martyn flew in last night.  They are staying in Birdrock and we hope to meet up with them a couple of times whilst we are out here.

 The days are already falling into a habit of slow breakfasts, watching the waves and browsing the news.  The brown pelicans keep flying past and we have learnt that they are the Federations national bird.

The day started of quite stormy.  It had rained over night and the morning skies were quite moody.

Kevin found some beautiful shells on the black sand beachand I took some more photos of the interior of the house.





We decided today to complete the circuit of the island.  Just past Dieppe Bay we discovered a huge, new Ramada Resort, nearly finished but no work going on.  

 As well as looking at the western coastline our main aim was to visit Brimstone Hill Fort, a garrison with a chequered history that links the Empire to the slave trade and the almost total annihilation of the Amerindians who live here before the Brits and the French turned up.

 It's certainly an imposing building built on a volcanic outcrop over looking the Caribbean sea.  Mt Liamiuga is behind, head in the clouds.

 The scale of the fort is impressive with the workmanship and scale resembling Japanese Shogunate castles or even the temples of South America.

 The site is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and there is little point in describing its history and features when it is best done here: 

 https://brimstonehillfortress.org/

 The British forces don't come well out of the story.  Whilst forced labour built the fort and kept in maintained, the British allegedly stayed out the sun, gambled, drank and fought.  There were some pretty painful punishments meted out to soldiers unfit for duty, such as the wooden horse.  (Ouch!)

 One thing that was impressive was the complex arrangements for water catchment to supply the fort daily and particularly during siege.  This reminded us of the Cathar Castles in Southern France that had similar arrangements.



















After the fort we continued around the rest of the island, stopping off at the Rams Superstore by the University to buy a few bits.

Back at Dieppe Bay, it was dinner on the decking and staring at the stars.

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