We started at what @Lucy Leheilleix fittingly called the tunnels. These stone buildings were set into the side of a hill and share the area with a lime kiln you could walk into. We still have no idea what they were originally used for, but they felt like something military, perhaps a battery of some sort. We were then guided to an old wooden house with a black shingled roof.
At the start we had no idea that it was the old home of the Black River CID headquarter. My exploring nature took over and I looked all over and inside. Still, in ok condition, it is not long for this world as a giant banyan tree has started to eat its way through it. If the red car that is more tree than car now is anything to go by, the building will be a tree soon.
Saying our goodbyes to our gracious host we head out. A quick lunch at La Kiosk restaurant in the Ruisseau Creole Mall, a great panini, that I improved.
Across the bay to La Batterie de l’Harmonie that delivered a Martello tower in fantastic condition, and you can go in. The sheer size of this monument is breathtaking when you have been visiting sugar mill chimneys for a while. The inside was like a cave, the water running through the lime mortar has created stalactites and stalagmites where ever it has dripped. I walked the plank and climbed the rickety old ladder and was rewarded with easy access stone stairs to the roof.Â
The views were all-encompassing but too soon I descended and we were off to Chateaux La Pointe Koenig, an abandoned house that holds many secrets.
The house is empty, there is no litter on the floor or old furniture around, but the place is full of bad graffiti, apart from the back build. There you will find three large examples of true street art, and the arts have a new fan of their work.
 Outback there is a perfect cannon, still standing on its mounts and sitting in its track, and watching over the battlements. Plunging down a cliff I met up with Riki on the beach.
A short stop at Saint Augustine Church with its colourful stained glass and off to the post office and marine cemetery the last resting place of Colonel Draper, founder of the turf club. I tell some stories about Paul and Virginie and their creator Bernadine Saint Pierre. We did our ‘start the montage’ dance in front of two laughing girls, a little embarrassing, but fun.
La Preneuse beach delivered another Martello tower and 5 cannons, one on top that took a drone to see. This tower actually houses a museum, but it wasn’t open. We met Vero Laos, a fellow Youtuber and she interviewed me, awesome. It is also thanks to her for the drone footage. A quick scout around and we were off up the hill.
We finished the adventure at the cave of the virgin for the poor. Maybe it is a church or someone’s house, all I know is it has a huge pigeon sculpture on its roof.
Black River has a tourist feel about it, but it really does deliver on its history, the type you feel in your bones and on your fingertips.