Morne Cabri…
Today the health trail, Morne Cabri welcomes many walkers or athletes for a specific health program.
Yet the historical legacy of this ancient island is unknown …
Nautical base for the youngest, reserve of crabs for the Easter “matoutou”, but also hunting plan in the Bay of Genipa.
The 1,700-meter course winds its way through paths made of different species, mainly ficus. It owes its name to the fact that wild goats, formerly, lived there blithely.
On the way to History …
To regain, the space of more than 3 miles, the hot springs remind us by some aerated bubbles their existence near the old railway (today bitumen). The ocher color is explained by the ferric deposits of the earth.
This day barely visible … yesterday they participated in children’s games. Daniel reminded me how he got the chicken eggs (so many on the site) to eat after cooking in a small basket mesh.
“No more than 5 minutes,” he says, “because the water at that time was very hot.” I am willing to believe it, because a drilling practiced in 1969 had reached a reservoir of 93 °!
Mangroves
Morne Cabri, in the industrial area of Lamentin, is surrounded by the bay of Fort-de-France (Génipa) and the mangrove; a singular and fragile ecosystem between “sky, sea and land”.
The 4 types of existing mangroves (red, gray, white and black) – by a natural park of 1200 hectares – join the municipality of Ducos.
These trees are the only ones to live in salt water (with the tides), eliminating salt and having aerial roots.
Daniel’s parents and many others, he explained to me, had noticed the virtues of these saline waters … indeed, the conjunctivitis healed much more quickly after a bath in the bay named … by now to invite our children to bathe rather than consult !
Wall, What are you singing?
The roots sing praises. These – by dint of work and reshuffle – show embedded stones … in “supports, armrests, backing, flying buttresses” … and so on (so the vines torment them) … to suggest the ancient history of stones.
Indeed, the ruins visible Morne Cabri suggest the origin by their ocher-red color. Their adventure retraces the crossing of boats from Brest, Nantes, Bordeaux or Dunkerk … These boats left “empty calluses”.
In order to weigh them for the seaway, rocks were stored and then thrown overboard around Morne Cabri, end of the conveyance. Recovered by the workers, these rocks became cornerstones of buildings still visible today.
The hot oven, still visible on the premises, allowed many actions … sanitation, aseptic, architectural work … but it is another story !
Written text in collaboration with Daniel Lafrontière.
L’équipe de Familyevasion vous invite à parcourir un autre article du patrimoine martiniquais.
Pingback: Morne Cabri, à la découverte des murs chuchotants - Family Evasion