Saturday, October 19, 2019, Basseterre, St. Kitts
ST. KITTS (BASSETERRE), ST.
KITTS & NEVIS
Saint Kitts and Nevis, also known as the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country in the West Indies. Located in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population. The country is a Commonwealth realm, with Elizabeth II as queen and head of state.
The capital city is Basseterre on the larger island of Saint Kitts. The smaller island of Nevis lies approximately 2 miles to the southeast across a shallow channel called The Narrows.
The British dependency of Anguilla was historically also a part of this union, which was then known collectively as Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, however it chose to secede from the union and remains a British overseas territory. To the north-northwest lie the islands of Sint Eustatius, Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten, and Anguilla. To the east and northeast are Antigua and Barbuda, and to the southeast is the small uninhabited island of Redonda (part of Antigua and Barbuda) and the island of Montserrat.
Saint Kitts and Nevis were among the first islands in the Caribbean to be colon-ized by Europeans. Saint Kitts was home to the first British and French colonies in the Caribbean, and thus has also been titled "The Mother Colony of the West Indies."
Once a sugar-powerhouse, St. Kitts is
lush with unspoiled vistas and old sugarcane fields. Today, mangoes dominate the harvests instead
of sugar. Home to vervet monkeys, banana
trees, and coconut palms, St. Kitts’ coastal perimeter road leads to white-sand
beaches and calm bays. The island averages 5 miles wide and 18 miles long, about 68 square miles. The compact capital and main port, Basseterre, is one
of the oldest towns in the eastern Caribbean, dotted with Victorian and
Georgian architecture. The grassy patch
of Independence Square, in the heart of town, is where locals gather to
exchange gossip in the shade of stately 18th-century buildings and
Basseterre’s English-style cathedral.
National flag (St. Kitts + Nevis).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Kitts_and_Nevis#/media/File:Flag_of_Saint_Kitts_and_Nevis.svg
We started our "Sail and Railway" morning excursion with an hour and a half catamaran sail a quarter way around the island of St. Kitts.
Views from our catamaran.
Public school.
Caribbean Sea on SW side of St. Kitts.
Nevis Island in the foreground. Alexander Hamilton was born out of wedlock in Charlestown, Nevis. He was orphaned as a child and taken in by a prosper-ous merchant. When he reached his teens, he was sent to New York to pursue his education. He took an early role in the militia as the American Revolutionary War began. In 1777, he became a senior aide to General Washington in running the new Continental Army. After the war, he was elected as a representative from New York to the Congress of the Confederation. He resigned to practice law and founded the Bank of New York.
Two fisted drinker.
Our very experienced captain (yellow shirt). Skilled in history and sailing.
Island's volcano in foreground.
Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a well-preserved fortress on a hill on the island of St. Kitts in the Federation of St. Christopher (St. Kitts) and Nevis in the Eastern Caribbean. It was designed by British military engineers, and was built and maintained by African slaves. It is one of the best preserved historical fortifications in the Americas. The complex of fortifications were constructed on Brimstone Hill, a very steeply sloping hill situated close to the sea on the Western, Caribbean coast of St. Kitts.
Very jolly and agile crew.
Another school.
Yellow house believed to near site where Samuel Jefferson (grandfather of Thomas Jefferson) is buried.
Skeleton of old sugar mill.
Sugar cane was introduced in St. Kitts in 1643, and it became as valuable as oil is today. Control of the Caribbean sugar islands sent European armies and navies to war, and sugar built empires. By 1775, with 200 estates producing sugar, St. Kitts was the wealthiest of the British possessions. But the introduction of the sugar beet and international market competition drove prices steadily downward, and by the beginning of the 20th Century the local industry was on its last legs.
Believing that profitability could be achieved with economies of scale, in 1912 a group of investors built a modern central sugar factory near Basseterre and began construction of a narrow gauge railway around the island to bring in cane from the outlying estates for processing. Completed in 1926, the railway ran seasonally from February to June for the annual sugar harvest, called “Crop”.
The new system allowed sugar production to continue on St. Kitts much longer than on other islands. The island of Nevis stopped growing cane in the mid–1930s. Antigua ended sugar production in 1971. But with a now antiquated factory and railway, diminishing acreage, and intense international competition, losses mounted. Finally, Prime Minister Denzil L. Douglas announced that the industry would be closed at the end of the 2005 Crop. The last “sugar train” rattled into the yard and the factory machinery was shut down on July 31, 2005, bringing an end to over 350 years of sugar production on the island.
But the “Sugar Train” survived. In a unique partnership between Government and private enterprise, the privately–owned St. Kitts Scenic Railway started running tourist excursions on January 28, 2003. It now proudly carries the national flag as the “Last Railway in the West Indies”, a living link to a past when sugar ruled the island's economy.
On our train you can hear this story from our own people, hear the songs we sing, have a cool drink with us, and wave at our children as we pass through the villages where many of us live. This is the real Caribbean, the way it has always been, on an island that most people have never seen or heard about. Our story is told in the warm trade winds, and in the clickety–clack of the wheels on the rail joints. Come with us on an amazing journey of beauty and discovery. It is our pleasure to show you our home.
Closer view of Brimstone Fortress.
Small boat harbor where we got off the catamaran and took a short bus ride to the train.
The Last Railway in the West Indies. We relaxed and took in the view on a scenic and historic train ride into the magnificent heart of an unspoiled country. We transferred with your guide to the island’s Needsmust Station, where we will boarded the only rail cars of their kind in the world. The “Island Series” of the St. Kitts Scenic Railway are double-decked, with an open air observation platform on top that puts you high above sugarcane and island vegetation. We also watched the lush countryside pass by from the lower air-conditioned parlor, featuring huge six-foot vaulted windows, colorful artwork by local artists and charming rattan furnishings. We skirted the volcanic slopes of Mt. Liamuiga, crossed numerous tall steel-girder bridges, saw dramatic black-sand beaches, and passed crumbling plantations. Along the way, we gazed upon sweeping vistas of nearby Nevis, St. Bart’s, St. Martin, Sana, and St. Eustatius. We enjoyed complimentary drinks and an engaging and fascinating narration throughout the trip.
St. Kitts Scenic Railway is an 18-mile long narrow gauge railway line along the coastline of the island of St. Kitts in the eastern Caribbean, with a track gauge of 30 inches.
The original track was laid from 1912 to 1926, to deliver sugar cane from the plantations to the new centralized sugar mill in Basseterre. The sugar mill was built by a group of investors in 1912, to reduce processing costs and increase profitability by applying the principle of economies of scale, due to a sugar price drop caused by the worldwide introduction of sugar beets. Previously, each plantation had its own sugar mill. The first section of the railway line, from the Factory Pier to the St. Kitts Basseterre Sugar Factory, with a West Line branch running 4 miles to Palmetto Point at Trinity and a North Line branch running out to Mills's at Bourryeau Estate, was completed on 28 February 1912. It was celebrated with a special train carrying invited dignitaries. The railway was then operated seasonally from February to June for the annual sugar harvest.
The privately owned St. Kitts Scenic Railway commenced running tourist trains on 28 January 2003. The scheme is run in an unusual partnership between the government and a private enterprise. The slogan “Last Railway in the West Indies” demonstrates its objective to preserve a link to the past, when sugar ruled the island's economy.
Views along the 18 miles to Basseterre sugar mill.
Train crew "choir" serenading.
Old cane fields.
Another sugar mill skeleton.
Church made of squared volcano stones.
Safari truck with another Viking excursion group.
Black rock pile.
Goats.
Rocks painted with national flag.
Atlantic Ocean on NE side of St. Kitts.
Our train moderator. Excellent "American English" and very thorough.
See the dates?
Mountain side rock quarry.
End of the of the line.
Historic Basseterre & Fairview Great House. We enjoyed an overview of the capital of St. Kitts and Nevis and got an up-close look at the island’s colonial splendor. We rode with our guide into Basseterre, one of the oldest towns in the eastern Caribbean. We admired impressive Victorian and Georgian architecture and viewed important landmarks such as the Berkeley Memorial Clock Tower and Independence Square, once a slave market and today host to a picturesque fountain and a centuries-old church. Later, we stopped at the Fairview Great House and Botanical Garden. At this 300-year-old colonial property, we explored perfectly preserved rooms, including the original kitchen with its volcanic stone and brick oven and the bathing room with its sun-warmed bath. We followed the stone bridge to the lush tropical botanical garden, where many of the plants, such as palms and fruit trees, date back as far as the 1700s.
Berkeley Memorial Clock Tower.
Brown pelican, the national bird.
Carib brewery.
Egrets that lost their way from Africa to Canada; now residents.
There are four universities on St. Kitts.
Linen keep.
Kitchen in separate building so house would not burn down if a kitchen fire.
Work building in botanical garden.
Separate cafe.
Dining room in main house.
Toilet room in MBR.
Views off second floor MBR porch.
Office.
Nope! No AC.
Crotons. Used in Hawaii for ti-leaf sliding on mud slopes - good fun!
A mild beer brewed on St. Kitts; it is distributed to most Caribbean islands. Larry had one the next day at St. Martin; a mild and good beer.
This evening at 6 we will sail for St. Martin, arriving at 7 in the morning. We are scheduled to go on a chair lift excursion to the top of the tallest mountain.
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