FORT DE FRANCE, MARTINIQUE

The island of Martinique is French. This means we can connect our phones to 4G and use our own inclusive data and minutes without having to worry about excessive roaming charges. They also take Euros.

Our day began with a walk around the town in the morning to see what’s what. It was windy on the quayside, but once ashore it wasn’t too bad. There were a lot of dark clouds around, though, so even from the off, it looked like it was going to be a dodgy weather day. We walked along the promenade to a small beach overlooked by St Louis Fort, which didn’t appear to be open to the public (it is also the St Louis Naval base).

From here, our next stop was the library, which is a grand, quite fancy building. Inside, it was even more fascinating, and there was a rather marvellous art exhibition on, which we enjoyed looking at. We followed this up by dropping into the cathedral to take a look; inside, it was airy and spacious.

Throughout the morning, the rain was on and off. Nothing serious, and easy to avoid or take shelter from, but the land across the bay kept disappearing in the squalls, and I started to have doubts in my mind as to whether a planned ferry trip over there – which is where the beaches are – would be such a good idea.

We went back to ship for lunch, then headed ashore again, to catch the ferry. Unfortunately, we missed it by only a couple of minutes; it was casting off as we approached.

Return ferry tickets are a very reasonable €7 each and the next ferry would be in an hour, so we purchased tickets and went to the quayside to wait. It soon started raining again – really raining quite hard – and the brolly came out. As we sat huddled under the ferry stop, my doubts as to whether this was a good idea at all, returned. It felt like a wet weekend in Skeggy… just a bit warmer. I fought back thoughts of returning to the ship… Was this all going to be worth it?

Eventually, the ferry returned and we boarded. The trip only took about 15 minutes, tops, and then we were there – on the opposite side of the bay. It didn’t take us long to find the nearest beach, about 5 minutes walk away; a small beach in a secluded bay that appeared to belong to a hotel. Whilst the best facilities were out of bounds to non-residents, we were able to make use of a couple of loungers and a sun canopy to dump our stuff and keep it out of the rain, without anyone pouncing upon us telling us to leg it, or charging an arm and a leg for the privilege.

We swam for about an hour with our snorkels and goggles, and managed to get some good underwater footage of interesting fish. Unfortunately, I grazed my knee against some rocks, which was painful but not life-threatening, and fortunately there were no sharks in the water otherwise they would have been attracted to the blood like a magnet. Other than that… it was brilliant!

An hour later, at 4.30pm, we caught the return ferry. We were still wet from swimming, with no place to change, so getting drenched was no longer an issue – we couldn’t get any more wet.

Looking back; the swimming was short and sweet and the weather had been a little bit disappointing, but we still enjoyed ourselves, and despite my reservations, I’m pleased we did it.

In the evening, after dinner, we watched the juggler, Luke Burrage, perform in the playhouse. He was good, but seemed not to be having his best ever gig. It happens.