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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Holiday Cruise, Day 6: St. Kitts

Our final stop on our cruise was the Leeward island of St. Kitts. We docked at Port Zante in Basseterre, the capital. The places circled in the map below are the places we visited while there.
Map of St. Kitts (source of original map image)
View of St. Kitts from the ship as we approached the island:

St Kitts

We took a tour of the island, stopping at a few historic and scenic sites along the way. Our first stop on our tour was Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor. Batik is the wax-resist technique of hand-dyeing designs on fabric ("batik" also refers to the decorated fabric itself). The design appears on both sides of the fabric. They had several stages of a design on display as well.

Caribelle Batik St Kitts
A completed batik

Caribelle Batik St Kitts
Wax on an unfinished batik
The gardens at Romney Manor span about 10 acres. There was a wide variety of plants, and the gardens were maintained very nicely. We easily could have spent more time there if we weren't limited to the tour time.




Romney Manor St Kitts

Romney Manor St Kitts

Brimstone Hill Fortress, also known as "The Gibraltar of the West Indies", is more than 300 years old and sits on a 40-acre hilltop 780 feet above sea level. This was the main attraction of our tour.

Looking up at Brimstone Hill Fortress from the parking area
Brimstone Hill Fortress St Kitts
Stairs leading up to the fortress (note the clever reuse of old cannons)

Brimstone Hill Fortress St Kitts
Entrance to the fortress

Brimstone Hill Fortress St Kitts
Fortress courtyard
There were some beautiful views from the fortress area. You can can see a neighboring island, Saba, which is to the northwest of St. Kitts, from there as well.

Brimstone Hill Fortress St Kitts
Facing northwest; Saba is visible in the distance

Brimstone Hill Fortress St Kitts
Facing southwest

Brimstone Hill Fortress St Kitts
Facing east, toward Mt. Liamuiga, which is the island's tallest peak at 3,793 ft

Brimstone Hill Fortress St Kitts

Our last stop on our tour of the island was at Timothy Hill, near Frigate Bay (slightly southeast of Basseterre). There is an isthmus connecting the island mainland to a small peninsula.

Frigate Bay St Kitts
View of North Frigate Bay from Timothy Hill
Timothy Hill St Kitts
View of Atlantic side of isthmus from Timothy Hill
 
Timothy Hill St Kitts

Well, that's about all for St. Kitts!

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