Day 7 on Statia - Charlie Brown and Gibraltar

I woke up this morning with the exciting prospect of diving one of the biggest wrecks in the Caribbean, I was also excited at the prospect of borrowing Hannah's GoPro to get some underwater footage of the wreck and practice my underwater photography.

I set off for the dive school - a short walk downhill from where I am staying, about a mile or so. One thing that is really hard for an Englishman in Statia to get used to is that absolutely everybody you see in the street says hello or 'Good morning', even car drivers wave or gesture while driving in acknowledgement. I now also wave and say 'Good morning', 'Good afternoon' to everyone I pass. I'm sure it's part politeness and part curiousness about who I am (there are only 3000 or so people on the island so I probably stand out as a visitor) but I have to say it feels good.

My walk passes through the old part of Oranjestad, and there are plenty of photo opportunities of colonial style architecture, some extremely well maintained and others not.

Kerkweg, Oranjestad, St Eustatius

Passing through the town, the steep descent down to the shore takes me along the Old Slave Road, a very steep cobbled (and very hot) path from the Upper Town to the Lower Town, one of the many reminders that Statia was one of the largest slave trading ports in the Caribbean.

The Old Slave Road, looking down on to Oranjestad Bay

After a blunderous start to the morning (regulator dropped into the dock and instructor had to rescue it, forgot boots, instructor had to drive back to get them) we made our way out to the Charles L Brown (or Charlie Brown). It's a huge wreck, purposely sunk just over ten years ago, sitting about 30m at the bottom. I was excited - this was going to be my deepest dive to date.

The Charles L Brown seen from above

This is an amazing dive site the scale of the wreck is phenomenal. Words can't describe it, so I hope you get a taste of it from these photos and video.

Me with a big smile on my face!

This was my deepest dive to date at 29.9m, managing 36 minutes in total.

Cruising above the deck of Charlie Brown

For the afternoon dive, I was joined by Hannah, we had to revert to 'Plan B' due to algal blooms at the original dive site 'The Aquarium'. Instead we headed for 'Gibraltar', a bumpy ride to the north of the island, passing steep cliff faces where Red-billed Tropicbirds were nesting, and a Brown Booby passed by in the distance.

This dive site was very different to those at the other end of the island, being a much older volcano, in stead of lava flows, the sea bed was covered with giant boulders from the volcano's landslide, including the huge boulder shaped in a way that gives the site its name. The current was also strong here in places, and the water colder as it was almost on the Atlantic side rather than the warm Caribbean side.

We were immediately greeted by an enormous hawksbill turtle, several lionfish (unfortunately), a barracuda lurking in a rock crevice and the usual plethora of fish species.

Hawksbill turtle (photo: Hannah Madden)

As we headed for our final ascent, we encountered a school of barracuda in the near distance, a perfect end to a perfect day diving! It seems that focussing on my breathing paid off, this time I was down for 56 minutes instead of 48 the previous day, and had a deeper dive.

A happy day indeed...

Day 6 on Statia - The Quill

We'd designated Sunday as our day to hiking up and into the Quill, intending to set off early to avoid hiking in the midday heat. Luckily the day was cloudy with rainy patches which meant it was going to be less hot, but more slippery on the trails.

The trail up the Quill starts at the end of the road I am staying in, so we set off on foot.

The Quill, as viewed from Rosemary Avenue, Statia

The Quill is a dormant volcano, and inside the crater is a lush damp tropical rainforest, inhabited by some of the island's more interesting wildlife, including the elusive Bridled Quail Dove, which on Statia is only found in the Quill. The highest point on the crater rim is Mazinga, at around 600m, but we were hiking up to 400m and then down again to 200m into the bottom of the crater itself.

The lower slopes of the volcano are covered in dense undergrowth, and secondary forest, once you leave the (invasive) coralita zone. The slopes were cultivated in the 18th century to grow sugar, cocoa and bananas among other commodities. On the lower slopes we were greeted by the beautiful zebra longwing butterfly,  as well as the striking red flash of the tropical dead leaf butterfly, seen here while at rest and camouflaged well as a leaf.

Tropical Dead Leaf Butterfly (resting with wings closed)

Here I also managed to spot Caribbean Elaenia and Yellow-crowned Night Heron, although I was far from being able to get a decent photo of either. In fact the only bird I got a clear photo of was the hicken that followed us up to the top in hope of being fed!

I was only able to identify these courtesy of Hannah's knowledge of the Quill's birdlife. Also seen were a metre long red-bellied racer snake and numerous hermit crabs of varying sizes.

The final part of the climb to the rim was a little steeper although wetter and cooler, and even though I had seen the view down into the crater before it still took my breath away when I got to the top. Photos don't really do it justice, the scale of the crater and the distance across just can't be captured well enough, you really have to be there.

Inside the Quill crater as seen from the rim

The climb down into the crater was much harder than the climb up. The well-maintained but steeply descending trail was at times little more than a hinted path over volcanic boulders of all sizes. The rain had made the rocks slippery, and the mud wet and slippery too, I only slipped a few times and was thankful to be wearing walking boots. Celie navigated the rocks with the sure footedness of the goats that scale the near-vertical cliff down by the harbour, and even four-year old Lalia put me to shame with her stamina and determination.

Heading down into the crater

On our way down, Hannah spotted another first for me - the scaly-naped pigeon (also known as the red-necked pigeon). The vegetation inside the crater was completely different to that on the outside slopes, we saw cocoa, wild banana, silk cotton (which produces kapok), Gum Tree (the tourist tree - as it has red flaky bark), trumpet tree (with enormous lobed leaves) as well as a myriad of epiphytes such as bromeliads growing on the trees and a lot of other flora, too many species to mention here.

In the end there was no bridled quail dove, but that was only a slight disappointment in the scheme of things. Five and a half hours later we arrived home happy, tired and hungry.

We snapped up some lunch then headed down to the black volcanic sandy beach for the rest of the afternoon to cool off and de-sweat. By the time we left the beach our bodies were carb-hungry, so we rounded the day off with home-made macaroni cheese with turkey sausage, spiced rum for the adults and a well-deserved early night