The highlight of my holiday was the helicopter trip that we took to Montserrat to see at first hand the damage done by the Soufriere Hills volcano since it became active in 1995.
The trip is organised by Caribbean Helicopters on Antigua. I only found it because I was idly flicking through my copy of The Rough Guide to the Caribbean and looked at some of the islands that we weren’t visiting. The tour costs $220, which seems expensive, but it’s worth every cent.
We almost didn’t make it though. We arrived at the arranged time, got into the helicopter and set off. But halfway across the sea, the pilot decided that the clouds were too low and we wouldn’t be able to see anything so he turned back. As this was our only day on the island, the company did all they could to rearrange the rest of their day so that we could try again later. We wandered off to have some lunch and then set off again.
And I’m so glad that we didn’t just give up and get a refund. The trip was fantastic. I’ve put up a set of photos, but they can’t convey the effect of actually being there. It’s incredible seeing busy towns completely destroyed and covered in metres of volcanic ash.
We were there on December 22nd and our pilot, Greg, was taking photos too as he said that there were some changes that the scientists at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory would be interested in. Seems that he was right as two days later the MVO raised the volcanic activity level to 4 (on a scale of five) and early in January a village was evacuated as the volcano was getting a bit feisty. This bout of activity is still continuing. I wouldn’t be suprised if flights over the island are restricted at the moment, so we’re lucky to have gone when we did.
If you’re ever in Antigua and have an hour to spare, then I strongly recommend that you contact the nice people at Caribbean Helicopters and arrange a trip. You won’t regret it.