Martinique Hiking – A French Caribbean Island Paradise
With Dominica to the north, and St. Lucia to the south, Martinique is pretty much the centre of the West Indies’ Lesser Antilles. As an “over-seas region” of France and the 3rd largest of the Windward Islands, Martinique is a very unique Caribbean island, and that holds true for its hiking trails as well. The island offers a variety of easy relaxing walks as well as some very challenging/mountainous hikes. Having stopped there as part of a cruise, we were only there for the day – We decided to try an easy and fun looking coastal trail known as the Circuit de la Caravelle.
The day started off by renting a car in Fort-de-France, which was a bit of an adventure in itself, but we’ll leave that for another day… Once we finally got our car, the drive from the Capital to the Presqu’Île de la Caravelle Peninsula took just under an hour, as the traffic was fairly heavy. The main roads on Martinique are large multi-lane highways, however they can get quite crowded. This made for a fairly uninteresting drive, as I had to keep my eyes on the road and all the traffic. Once we reached the peninsula however, the views and my mood started to improve. For a short stretch, the road followed the shoreline through a quaint tourist town. It had a laid-back atmosphere, with beachgoers sun tanning and playing in the water. There were little cafes and restaurants opposite the beach. All this helped to relax our frame of mind after the hectic drive. As we proceeded, the setting really started to improve, as more than half of the peninsula is a Nature Reserve.
We soon found out that the Chateau Dubuc area is a popular place, as the parking lot was overflowing, with cars parked all along the side of the narrow dirt road. C’est la vie. It was a gorgeous day for a walk – Very warm and sunny. At 86 (30c) degrees it seemed hot for early April… and we were about to find out that the couple litres of water we had brought, was somewhat insufficient to replenish the fluids we were about to lose. Thank goodness we had dressed light and had sun protective hats.
From the parking lot, it’s a short half kilometre walk to the plantation ruins of the Chateau Dubuc, although we decided to head the other way, and walk the main loop in a clockwise direction. We headed off for the lighthouse called the Phare de la Caravelle, via a winding gravel road through a green ‘dry forest’. The road had a gradual incline and eventually turned into a broken paved road before getting even steeper. As we were walking along, we heard a fairly constant, rustling in the leaves on either side of the trail. As a Canadian, I naturally thought of squirrels or small birds making the noise, but as we are in the Caribbean, I imagined the culprit might be lizards or iguanas… But no, upon closer inspection, we were surprised to realize that there were a number of large red crabs scurrying around in the foliage – Wow, I wasn’t expecting that!
After a little more than a mile (2km), we came across the side trail that branches off towards the lighthouse. We followed the short paved road uphill to a large wooden structure, where a few groups of hikers were taking refuge from the sun, eating snacks and drinking water. From the look of them, they had likely hiked the loop counter-clockwise and had just completed the dry exposed section of the trail along the coast, that we were heading towards. From here we discovered the cement staircase that led to the lighthouse and look-out area.
We climbed the stairs and came across a semi-circular monument/bench/map of sorts. The built-in map’s arrows pointed to the features and landmarks of the surrounding landscape that could be seen from this high ground. We could see various mountain ranges and peaks of the island, ranging from the north-east coast, Piton Lacroix on the other (west) side of the island, as well as the mountains south of Le Francois in the south-east of Martinique. Closer to where we were standing, we had an amazing panoramic view of the peninsula and surrounding bays and shorelines.
After soaking in the spectacular sights for awhile, we went all the way back down to the junction point and continued back on the main road which eventually transitioned into a more natural trail that headed towards the shoreline. We were getting anxious, as this narrow path provided a glimpse of the sea, hinting at the coastline trail we were approaching. This was a nice walk and we were accompanied by a bright orange butterfly (moth?) who meandered down the trail with us for a while.
Did I mention that it was hot and humid? Well, it was, and we were just about to leave the shelter of the low scrub-like trees to walk along the sun-soaked rocky shoreline of the peninsula’s east coast.
Ahhh, I was looking forward to this stretch of trail – We headed south down the wind-swept shoreline. We were thrilled with the eye-popping views of the rugged coastline and its multitude of blue inlets and bays. For the next mile (2km) or so, the picturesque trail consisted of dry gravelly coastline paths, some large sections of rock, a few man-made stairs, and some short forest trails that bypassed some dangerous cliffs. We even walked through a short 3-4 foot deep rut in the earth – that was weird. We really enjoyed this scenic coastal section of the trail! While the large rock sections provided the best views, we had to search a bit for the markers indicating where the trail was. Hiking this path was like a mini-roller-coaster ride, taking us up and down in elevation, sometimes 30-100 feet (10-40m) at a time.
While this was an absolutely beautiful trail, we were aware that there had been little shelter from the relentless heat of the sun which was high in the sky at this point. Thankfully, there was a great breeze coming off the Atlantic Ocean, and that, along with our water, kept us from over-heating. With the constant thought of having to get back to the cruise ship on time, we were moving at a fairly quick pace throughout the hike. We were only stopping to take the occasional picture of the amazing coastline and ocean views! Eventually, we reached a junction in the trail where a side path ventures further south along the coastline looping for another mile (2km) or more. My feet were kind of burning, so we decided to head back towards the Chateau at this point.
So, we traveled inland again, back into the dry forest landscape. That said, in less than a mile (2km), the terrain transitioned into mangroves. Perhaps the area was in need of rain, as we encountered some fairly dry mud patches. Suddenly, we were in for another treat – There were holes in the mud everywhere. It appears that there are dozens, if not hundreds of Soldier (Bernhard’s Hermit) crabs (that we had encountered earlier) living here! So Cool… After examining the place thoroughly, we now quickened our pace, which was a bit of a challenge as the path had many twists & turns and ups & downs as we climbed back up into the scrub forest.
I should mention that there was informative/educational signage (in French) along the way. They became more frequent as we neared the end of the trail. About 2 hours and 15 minutes after we left the car, we eventually reached the Chateau Dubuc, which we found out is the ruins of a large 17th-century plantation that grew coffee, tobacco and sugar among other things.
The ruins consist of the stone remains of a Greathouse along with a number of other buildings set magnificently on a hillside overlooking the well-protected Baie du Tresor. This would have been a large and extremely impressive plantation in its day, with the owners having their own slice of Caribbean paradise. I can easily imagine the buzz of activity all around the area, with the movement of people, crops and produce from the fields to the mills, warehouses and to & from the waterfront where ships would be anchored just offshore… The modest fee of 5 Euros per person to enter the grounds and view the small museum was well worth the price.
After the half kilometre walk back to the car and a change into some dryer clothes, we headed back to Fort-De-France, which this time took us about 40 minutes… Leaving us enough time to wander around the Capital for a while 😊.
ACT Staff
For a more ‘technical’ Trail Report as well as much more information on hiking in Martinique, please reference the following links (to pages on our website):
- Martinique Hiking – Circuit de la Caravelle (loop) Trail
- Martinique Hiking – Trail Reviews and Hiking Guides
For an overview of this French Caribbean Island paradise, take a look at our Martinique Vacations page
If you’re looking for more active things to do while vacationing on the island, click on our Martinique Adventures blog for more great ideas! (coming soon)
For a more relaxed vacation itinerary, you can find great Tourist Attractions on the island, by checking out our Things to Do in Martinique blog (coming soon)
