Our cruise ship dropped anchor shortly before 8:00am this morning. I decided months ago that we should do our own thing today. As a result, Garry and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before catching a tender into Gustavia, the capital of Saint Barthelemy. I timed our tender transfer so that we'd reach the airport lookout in time to see the largest scheduled aircraft arriving.
It took us about 15 minutes to walk from the port up to the island’s infamous hilltop traffic circle. A tour guide waiting on the roadside kindly directed us to a hidden lookout on the hillside. Within minutes of reaching the lookout, we were treated to the most extraordinary feat of flying I’ve ever seen. The experience was every bit as breathtaking as the photos and videos you see online.
We watched a 19-seater Winair DHC-6 Twin Otter descend steeply towards our advantage point, swoop mere metres above the traffic below us, and fly dramatically down slope to nail a perfect landing. None of us who witnessed the spectacle could believe our eyes. The video I captured tells the story better than words ever could.
Garry and I spent an hour at the roundabout on Route D212 watching smaller aircraft come into land. We also watched them take off from the short, sloping runway and climb steeply to clear the beach beyond the threshold. We couldn’t get enough of it. That’s another tick on the bucket list. Now I want to experience landing here as a passenger!
Afterwards, Garry and I walked back down the hill to Gustavia to explore the town. Along the way, we stopped to check out the view from Gustavia Lighthouse. And what a view it was. Saint Barthélemy is renowned as a playground for the rich and famous. As a result, the harbour was filled with a fleet of shiny super yachts, while even larger, mega yachts were anchored offshore. Apparently, it costs thousands of dollars a day to moor along the wharf.
We walked about two-thirds of the waterfront, but decided against visiting Fort Oscar on the opposite headland, or For Karl overlooking nearby Shell Beach. The wealth and opulence on display everywhere we walked were simply mind-blowing. If you ever want to feel poor and destitute, just take a walk through the streets of Gustavia!
The history of St Barts mirrors that of so many islands in the Caribbean. Christopher Columbus was the first European to discover it in 1493. He named it in honour of his younger brother, Bartolomeo. Sporadic visits continued for the next hundred years until formal colonisation began to take shape under the French. It subsequently became a Swedish colony after the French exchanged it for better trading rights elsewhere in 1784.
We watched a 19-seater Winair DHC-6 Twin Otter descend steeply towards our advantage point, swoop mere metres above the traffic below us, and fly dramatically down slope to nail a perfect landing. None of us who witnessed the spectacle could believe our eyes. The video I captured tells the story better than words ever could.
Afterwards, Garry and I walked back down the hill to Gustavia to explore the town. Along the way, we stopped to check out the view from Gustavia Lighthouse. And what a view it was. Saint Barthélemy is renowned as a playground for the rich and famous. As a result, the harbour was filled with a fleet of shiny super yachts, while even larger, mega yachts were anchored offshore. Apparently, it costs thousands of dollars a day to moor along the wharf.
There’s absolutely no doubt that St Barts is for the rich and famous. The township was immaculate with beautifully finished buildings along a spotlessly clean waterfront. Flawlessly curated shop windows were touting all manner of designer goods, including Rolex watches, Hermes scarves and Burberry handbags. Gustavia couldn’t be more different to the cluttered and ramshackle streets we’ve witnessed on every other island so far. Unlike St Lucia last week, it lived up to its reputation.
We walked about two-thirds of the waterfront, but decided against visiting Fort Oscar on the opposite headland, or For Karl overlooking nearby Shell Beach. The wealth and opulence on display everywhere we walked were simply mind-blowing. If you ever want to feel poor and destitute, just take a walk through the streets of Gustavia!
The history of St Barts mirrors that of so many islands in the Caribbean. Christopher Columbus was the first European to discover it in 1493. He named it in honour of his younger brother, Bartolomeo. Sporadic visits continued for the next hundred years until formal colonisation began to take shape under the French. It subsequently became a Swedish colony after the French exchanged it for better trading rights elsewhere in 1784.
The Swedes renamed St Barts largest town Gustavia, after the Swedish King Gustav III, and transformed the island into a free port. They did quite well out of it. France took notice and promptly repurchased it in 1877. Today, the island is an autonomous French territory, known formerly as a French Overseas Collectivity.
One final highlight from this morning's excursion. We encountered a tortoise on the sidewalk as we made our way to the airport lookout. This lonely creature was wandering along a footpath bordered on one side by a high concrete retaining wall and on the other by a concrete-curbed roadway. How on earth did it end up in such an unfriendly location? When we walked back down the hill an hour later, it was nowhere to be seen.
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