Yesterday was glorious sunshine. Today we have heavy rain and it's our last day with the car. We headed east to Presqu'ile de la Caravelle peninsula. The peninsula is a national park jutting into the Atlantic ocean. It has a lighthouse, a 17th century ruined castle and a protected colony of red throat birds.
Château Dubuc is way out on the east end of the peninsula. There's a tarmacked road most of the way and then it turns to a rutted, dirt track. As we reached the end of the tarmac we saw numerous rental cars parked along the edge. My ex rally champ driver had no intention of wimping out and took us, steadily picking a way between the ravines a mile further along the track to the car park at the entrance to the château. Never say 'do you think we can make it?' to the man who drove a VW Polo at high speed along rutted dirt roads in Namibia. On that occasion we only burst one tyre and lost a wheel trim in 300 miles. So where's the challenge in a mile?
Château Dubuc was once a sugar plantation and a coffee estate with a dock to load goods onto ships. The owner is alleged to have lit guiding lights for passing foreign vessels to guide them onto the rocks before pillaging the contents. It's now a ruin; great views across the Atlantic and a very good audio tour to illustrate how it would have been.
We need to return the car to the airport this afternoon so it was a shorter day of exploring, but well worth having a car to the see the interior of the island. The highlight? Walking the wall of Canal des Esclaves.
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