Montserrat Volcano Observatory
Former capital city of Montserrat
We arrived in Montserrat from Nevis and anchored in Little Bay.
Nice waterfront in Little Bay. This is the new capital of Montserrat, the previous being destroyed by volcanic eruption in 2010:
Completed the formalities:
On our way up to the tourist office we walked by the museum but it’s only open in the morning, two days a week so we missed it.
Little Bay, Dea Latis on the left:
Carr’s Bay right next door:
We got a great map from the tourist office and caught the bus south stopping at places along the way.
We ate chicken rotis here, awesome:
We met the owner of the Hilltop Coffee House and arranged a tour of the island for the next day. We caught the bus back to little bay, dinghied around the corner to this beautiful beach, and enjoyed a wonderful sunset.
We arranged a tour of the island with Sonny Lea of Island Tours . He took us all around the habitable parts of the island, our first stop is an old sugar mill. Most of the machinery and equipment is still intact, a rare find. A lady from the UK restored this mill and has a small apartment on the property next to the boiling pots:
Boiling pots:
East coast of the island:
A government built community housing some of the citizens that were displaced by the volcanic eruptions. Two thirds of the island is now uninhabitable:
The new airport, the old one having been wiped out:
That land in the distance was created by the pyroclastic flow from the volcano:
The original airport is under that flow down there:
Terrible day for a tour. The volcano is in those clouds:
Then on to the government area:
Her Majesties Prison. Monterrat is a UK territory. There are eleven guests:
Nice view from the government area down to Carr and Little Bay. Dea Latis down there somewhere:
MVO:
Helo pad and cloud covered volcano is the distance
After a quick tour of the MVO and a short movie Sonny took us as close as you’re allowed to the destroyed cities in the south. The previous capitol, Plymouth, is actually gone but there is a town just to the east that has some buildings standing.
This is from a road in an abandoned town looking east. The former capitol, Plymouth, is buried under a pyroclastic flow just on the other side of that tree line. The buildings in the distance are from a town just to the east of Plymouth.
Then onto The Montserrat Springs Hotel just west of Plymouth:
Huge swimming pool, I’ll bet it was nice:
Front desk:
Rooms, ash half way up the door:
All the towns in the southern two thirds of the island are abandoned. From the hotel he took us through another town stopping at this church, which has not been used since 1997:
I took a quick run through the house next door:
Then on to Air Studios. Created by the late Sir George Martin, some of the biggest names in music recorded their songs here. The short list: The Beatles, Dire Straits, The Police, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones.
Into the recording studio. The control room. It was quite a feeling just standing in the same room where so much music history was made.
The recording studio:
Then I took a quick look upstairs in the living quarters. The building is getting quite damaged from water and the floors upstairs were starting to fall through so I just snapped a few pictures and left:
Then our tour took us through a few more communities, mostly very wealthy expats with huge homes on the ocean. Then past Olveston House, owned by late Sir George Martin:
Which of course sits on:
We both loved Montserrat so we had no problem drinking from this stream:
Then back to Little Bay for a couple of beers before heading back to the boat:
Montserrat was amazing and we hope to return someday!
