St Kitts Volcano Hike
May 19th, 2007, 05:41 AM
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St Kitts Volcano Hike
I'm travelling to St. Kitts the end of June. Has anyone done the volcano hike. What sort of clothing is recommended? Is the end of June too hot for this hike? How difficult is the hike? How much time should we allow? What about mosquitos and other critters? We would also like to do some biking. Any suggestions for where to ride. I'm really anxious, 5 weeks and counting! Thanks for your help.
May 19th, 2007, 05:52 AM
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You need to go with a guide for the volcano hike. I have never done it, but Royston Stevens is highly recommended by St. Kitts visitors.
http://www.roystontours.com/index.htm
He has information on his web site about the hike.
Another company is Greg's Safaris.
There are also mountain bike tours.
CW
http://www.roystontours.com/index.htm
He has information on his web site about the hike.
Another company is Greg's Safaris.
There are also mountain bike tours.
CW
May 19th, 2007, 06:32 AM
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My husband and 14 year old son hiked up with Royston in April. They made it up in less than 1.5 hours and it was quite a workout. Royston is a triathelete and the 4 in the group were all in good shape. Usually, the hike takes longer. There were no bugs. Royston also does bike tours.
May 20th, 2007, 04:29 AM
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My husband and I (mid 50's and so-so shape) hiked the volcano a couple years ago. It was tougher than I thought it would be. More places where you actually had to climb rather than hike than I was expecting.
That said it was great fun. I bought some Salomon, mesh hiking shoes. Lightwieght, good tread. They were perfect.
It was chilly at the top, I was glad to have a jacket along.
That said it was great fun. I bought some Salomon, mesh hiking shoes. Lightwieght, good tread. They were perfect.
It was chilly at the top, I was glad to have a jacket along.
May 21st, 2007, 01:17 PM
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My husband and son enjoyed the hike. They just wore sneakers. They ended up climbing further up than many others up the "tooth." I don't think my husband would do that part of the hike again.
There are not many cyclists on the island.
There are not many cyclists on the island.
May 21st, 2007, 01:29 PM
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Try this St. Kitts web-site. There was a recent question about biking on the forum.
http://myeyez.net/cgi-bin/stkitts/YaBB.pl
http://myeyez.net/cgi-bin/stkitts/YaBB.pl
May 23rd, 2007, 08:00 PM
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My sister and I did the volcano hike with a local guide named O'Neal a few years ago. The Marriott booked him for us, I don't think he was associated with Greg's Safari even though we asked for that company. But it worked out wonderfully. We were picked up at 8:30 in the morning (really loaded up on a buffet breakfast first thank goodness) and got back to the hotel around 3 I believe. Our hotel was on the opposite of the island from the volcano, so part of that span is driving, with great commentary by our guide!
We parked at the edge of a cane field to start the hike and made sure to heed any "calls of nature" at that point. But our rookie move of passing up the offer of walking sticks would be later regretted!
There was another guide going up the mountain at the same time as our group, he was South African, I'm not sure if that is Royston. We loved O'Neal's local flair and turns of phrase he used. "Rain is God's blessing, but this is too much of a blessing." Yes it poured down rain and I think we were glad because it probably could have been pretty hot otherwise (we were there in July.) Of course it WAS a rain forest and there is a lot of shade. The travel lady at the hotel had downplayed the "strenuous" aspect of the trip. It was tough, muddy, roots to navigate over, steep at times and O'Neal kept us moving. I think he might have wanted to get us to the top before the next storm so we could see the crater. Since we got completely and entirely soaked, I wish we had some dry clothes in Ziplock and a zip lock for our cameras. My sister's digital didn't survive and I had to wrap large leaves around my film camera! We all had on tee-shirts and shorts, the lady wearing only a sports bra and similar pants got really chilled. We had running shoes on that got pretty muddy. Hat with a tie for around the neck was great idea. O'Neal had a simple lunch for us in his backpack, it was delicious. He was great about pointing out flora and fauna and area history.
We were disappointed to learn that the group hiking about 1/2 hour ahead of us would probably scare the monkeys with the noise they made, so we didn't see any animals. O'Neal explained that on the side of the island where our hotel is (drier terrain) the monkeys are protected, but on the volcano side, they aren't so the animals are much more shy.
It was no stroll in the park, but it was so much fun, beautiful and we had a blast.
I don't know about bike rides, but I know that the roads are narrow, and closer to the towns you would often encounter "obstacles" of vehicles making use of the "park wherever" policy. No one drives very fast, but there are some narrow bits - so I never saw any bikes on the road.
We parked at the edge of a cane field to start the hike and made sure to heed any "calls of nature" at that point. But our rookie move of passing up the offer of walking sticks would be later regretted!
There was another guide going up the mountain at the same time as our group, he was South African, I'm not sure if that is Royston. We loved O'Neal's local flair and turns of phrase he used. "Rain is God's blessing, but this is too much of a blessing." Yes it poured down rain and I think we were glad because it probably could have been pretty hot otherwise (we were there in July.) Of course it WAS a rain forest and there is a lot of shade. The travel lady at the hotel had downplayed the "strenuous" aspect of the trip. It was tough, muddy, roots to navigate over, steep at times and O'Neal kept us moving. I think he might have wanted to get us to the top before the next storm so we could see the crater. Since we got completely and entirely soaked, I wish we had some dry clothes in Ziplock and a zip lock for our cameras. My sister's digital didn't survive and I had to wrap large leaves around my film camera! We all had on tee-shirts and shorts, the lady wearing only a sports bra and similar pants got really chilled. We had running shoes on that got pretty muddy. Hat with a tie for around the neck was great idea. O'Neal had a simple lunch for us in his backpack, it was delicious. He was great about pointing out flora and fauna and area history.
We were disappointed to learn that the group hiking about 1/2 hour ahead of us would probably scare the monkeys with the noise they made, so we didn't see any animals. O'Neal explained that on the side of the island where our hotel is (drier terrain) the monkeys are protected, but on the volcano side, they aren't so the animals are much more shy.
It was no stroll in the park, but it was so much fun, beautiful and we had a blast.
I don't know about bike rides, but I know that the roads are narrow, and closer to the towns you would often encounter "obstacles" of vehicles making use of the "park wherever" policy. No one drives very fast, but there are some narrow bits - so I never saw any bikes on the road.
