Big news! It’s our 50^th blog! Thank you so much for reading so far and I hope you’ll follow our travels throughout our Senior Gap Year.

Our last day in Tartane, and we ventured down to the only beach we haven’t been to yet. Anse Bonneville is reached by a steep, narrow lane with a makeshift car park at the bottom. Finding no space, we parked half way up the hill and walked down. Already, there were clues to what kind of beach we were going to find – a couple of surf schools and a notice board advertising guitar lessons, yoga classes and surf boards. Martinique is not yet well known for its surf but Anse Bonneville is its most popular surf beach.

A pretty path lead us through palm trees to the beach, which looked beautiful with impressive rollers breaking on the sand. There were a great many kids of all shapes and sizes, all busy enjoying the beach while their parents lounged about and chatted under the palms. The under fives were bobbing about in a natural shallow pool formed by the reef. The five to ten year olds were taking advantage of a relatively safe strip of surf to body board at tremendous speech in to a natural cove. The ten year olds were out on the waves on half size surf boards, shepherded by super cool surf dudes.

Meanwhile, David and I floundered about in the shallows trying not to lose our swimming costumes.  It was fun to watch the learners trying to catch the waves and the Pros showing them how it’s done. If the water in the UK were this warm, perhaps I would have learned to surf.

After Anse Bonneville, we popped round the corner to Anse L’Etang, which I’ve mentioned before and had lunch at Cocoa beach café , a hip café serving interesting Asian/Caribbean fusion food. We had to eat at the bar as all the other tables were booked.

In the evening, we walked down the hill to our nearest beach for a valedictory swim, making it a round three beaches in one day.  I was just thinking what a lovely peaceful swim it was when a pelican dropped out of the sky, hitting the sea a few feet away from my head. And then it did it again. And again. Other pelicans soon joined and then I saw something big moving in the water. Actually, not just moving but seeming to leap out. My , irrational thought was ‘SHARK’. By now, I was swimming fairly rapidly but with no sign of panic at all towards the shore. David followed, but seeming more excited than nervous – as I’ve mentioned before, he does love his fish.

Once on the beach, it was easier to look out to sea. There were lots of fish jumping out the water.  They were big, but definitely not ‘SHARK’ big – perhaps a foot long. David thought that a shoal of big fish – perhaps Bonito –  were chasing small fish and the herons were taking advantage of the situation to pick off a few of the tiddlers. It was quite a sight, watching the pelicans dive bombing and the fish jumping out of the water as the sun set. A fitting end to a wonderous week on the Presqu’il de la Caravelle.