Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory nearby Antigua & Barbuda. We hadn't planned to visit here as part of our trip through
the Caribbean, however upon researching things to do in Antigua and after excluding Barbuda I decided on a special surprise for us all to do a helicopter
tour of the island with Calvin Air.
The Soufrière Hills volcano on Montserrat had a major eruption in 1995 which devasted half of the island and buried the original capital of Plymouth. It
was the first eruption in 350 years and the majority of the population has never been able to return, with those who have being confined to half the island
and limited in what they can do. Tourism once a key island income has been decimated by the volcano activity and destruction of the island's airport.
We got confirmation late on as to our exact flight time and I was not sure our flight would even go ahead until a couple of days
before we were due to fly. I was surprised that our booking required no deposit to secure, especially given the cost for four of us to take the flight.
There were many flights going in / out on the day we were flying, some of these would be from cruise ships etc. especially those with a heli-pad. So we
had a bit of waiting around until we were due to depart, we had also arrived early which didn't really help, but we had a long drive to get there through
the capital. The team however at the air base were very good, free water was provided, and clean toilets were available including lockers for storing bags.
The flight departed and we had a fly by over Antigua's stunning coast line with a view over Jolly Harbour's many beaches before we transited out over the
Caribbean Sea. We could see Turtles through the crystal-clear turquoise waters, we could also see the seaweed bloom caused by unsettled weather events of
recent. Thankfully most of this missed the best beaches in Antigua due to how the currents worked.
After a 15 minute flight across the ocean we arrived at the shores of Montserrat and we flew up the route of the pyroclastic flow to the top of the volcano.
In a fitting way they played the Jurassic Park theme song as we flew over the scenes of wonder and destruction, the open crater of the volcano spewing out
sulphurous gases and ash. As we circled the island you could get a real feel for the destruction and what it must have been like to try to escape its flow.
For part of the flight we flew low and fast following the track of the lava down the mountain to the sea so we had a real feel of the minimal chances for
anyone to escape. We were also able to view the ruins of the town and villages, see the regrowth of the jungle now that man has vacated the area and witness
impressive lava tubes.
After 15 more minutes circling the island, we turned around and headed back towards Antigua, spotting more boats and Turtles on route. The pilot was very
informative and provided lots of information about the events during the eruption, subsequent earthquakes and re-development of the island.
For videos of our helicopter flight, see below:
Next country on our exploration of the Caribbean was to be the rugged island nation of Dominica.
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