Australian yachties, (Tolly & Jas from S/V Le Mistral and Ian & Wendy from S/V Outsider) who we have followed down the various islands since Fort de France invited us to join them on an island tour of Grenada with Cutty, who came highly recommended.

We found out why the island is called Spice Isle as we came across an amazingly rich and diverse amount of flora and fauna growing wild all about the island. In one particular spot,  an old plantation Cutty found Ulang Ulang, tumeric, lemon grass; a tooth brush leaf, Cocoa, Cinnamon, Glue berries (used to glue crafts etc), nutmeg to name a few.

Below the Brazil Nut. The pod was amazing and of course contains a huge number of nuts.

You name it and Cutty would stop by the side of the road and show us it growing.

In the Grand Etang Forest we even came across the beautiful coloured trunk of the Eucalyptus tree, which dots the Australian landscape.

The Grand Etang Forest covers 1600 hectares with some amazing waterfalls, some of which we hope to hike to.

At the top of the forest road we met the Mona monkey who loves mangoes and appears swinging through the trees upon hearing the honk of the van horn.

We stopped in Grenville at the Nutmeg processing plant for a tour. Prior to Hurricane Ivan in 2004 Grenada was the No 1 nutmeg exporter in the world, now no 2. 90% of the nutmeg trees were destroyed and it has taken some time for the crop to slowly come back. Farmers bring the nutmeg and mace to the plant and are paid according to the quality and weight.

There are huge trays at this plant to dry the nuts before being sent to one of the other plants on the island for further processing.

We visited an old rum distillary Rivers Rum, still producing rum, even though it wasn’t working when we were there. It uses a water wheel to crush the sugar cane and then the sugar is boiled in copper bowls and pumped up to the fermentation tanks before being sent to the boiler and vaporizer. The end product is overproof white lightening fire water. Not our best rum tour. This is not exported and no one in our group bought a bottle, way too strong.

Stopping at the Belmont estate, where Grenada Organic chocolate is manufactured, we hoped for a tour but couldn’t because there had been an accident and one of the owners was electrocuted and killed while wiring solar panels at the factory a couple of days before. Needless to say the estate was very impressive and the chocolate delicious.

It was interesting seeing the island and views, various vendors on the road sides and the houses which ranged from small homes on hillsides with no raod access to upper income homes with 3 car garages. Hurricane Ivan really caused havoc on the island and you can still see that this island with the help of other countries is still rebuilding. We found the people in all the various villages we went to so friendly waving out to us as we drove by or saying hello as we wandered along the streets. 

Would definetly recommend Cuttys tour.