The Montravail forest.
The A-frame isn't in a clearing. It's in the forest.
Here's what you hear, what you see, and why this forest isn't just the backdrop.
What you hear.
The rooster first, the rest after.
The rooster, obviously
Dimdim starts around five. Not negotiable.
The birds
The Martinique oriole whistling in the mango trees, the bananaquit hopping everywhere, the green-throated caribs buzzing around the bougainvillea.
At night
The tree frogs take over. Continuous, hypnotic. You stop hearing it after a while.
The wind in the bamboo
A background noise that never stops. It's the place's metronome.
What you see.
Mixed forest, light in patches.
The big trees
Kapok, mahogany, gum trees. And escaped fruit trees: mango, guava, avocado. The forest hasn't forgotten the old homesteads.
The tree ferns
They colonise the wetter slopes. Lianas everywhere, some thick as an arm. Light in patches, never direct.
In the rainy season
The ground gives off a smell of wet earth and decaying leaves. Fluorescent orange mushrooms grow on fallen trunks. Butterflies cross the light gaps — a flash, then nothing.
The tracks
Manicou scratching in dead leaves, bat droppings under the rocks, mongoose passing near the basin. Local hunters know this forest well — you'll come across their créole dogs from time to time, and Samsam answers them.
What to know.
It isn't a reserve.
75 hectares
Montravail forest covers 75 hectares at 250 metres of altitude, 4.8 km from Sainte-Luce town centre. A tropical mesophilic forest, managed by the ONF.
Two marked trails
The ONF laid out two family trails between 2013 and 2015: the Anoli trail (900 m, 30 min) and the Mangouste trail (1,650 m, 50 min to 1 h). Waymarked, with interpretive panels, easy level.
And the other trails
Beyond the waymarked trails, there are paths maintained by local hikers and hunters. Less marked, sometimes barely known. We'll show you from the A-frame.
Respect
The forest shelters us, and it shelters many other things. You walk on it, you don't mark it. Adapt your gear to the season — in the wet season, some sections get slippery.
The best hour.
Before the heat.
Six in the morning
The light is low, the heat still bearable, and the forest belongs to the birds. If you're lucky, you'll hear a hummingbird before you see it.
Coffee first
We leave with a thermos. A pause at the top of a hill, lukewarm coffee, the view opening up — that's southern Martinique in the morning.
Back by nine
The heat rises fast. You head back to the shade of the préau, take a shower, and the day really starts.
Evening too
Five in the afternoon, golden light through the ferns. It's a different forest. Shorter, calmer, without the morning's coolness.
Nearby.
A few useful pages before you come.
Come stay.
The simplest way is to write to Bolo directly. We check the dates, talk a little, and see if the place feels right.
Write to Bolo →Airbnb and Booking also available if you prefer a platform: Airbnb · Booking
