Telfor is a few months from being 60. This is well past an age when most of us are beginning to feel a few aches and pains and figure walking to the fridge for another Carib is a fair amount of exercise. In this respect Telfor is quite sickening. He is neat and wiry and there is no sign of that 15 lb honor belt from years of good living that has led some of us to believe they are making trouser sizes smaller than they used to. Here is a grandfather who thinks nothing of rowing around Grenada (he's done it both ways), he's climbed Mount St. Catherine nearly a hundred times and he's walked right round Grenada using small footpaths. He is now teaching himself to windsurf. He's currently at the stage where he tacks by falling in and swimming the windsurfer round. But as soon as he progresses beyond that he'll windsurf around Grenada. Well, at least Telfor's hair is grey - there are some things healthy living and exercise won't do for you.

Telfor has managed to make the love of his life support him - he is a hiking guide. He does not have a car and he is not a taxi driver. On the contrary he finds that traveling by bus gives him and his customers much more freedom. You don't have to finish where you started - you can walk from one parish to another and just hop on a bus. For those who share his views this is both an adventurous and inexpensive way to see Grenada. However, Jeff Fisher, Linda and I are somewhat lazier and determined to travel by car, so for our hike to Levera Piton we arranged to collect him by the gates of a great house along the way. Our timing is perfect, the bus dropped him off about a minute before we arrived. It was mid afternoon, Telfor had already been up Mt. St Catherine that morning and got a good soaking from the rain into the bargain - but when we picked him up he was dry, fresh and eager to go.

We parked up at the foot of the small mountain and Telfor lead us along trails and through shoulder high bush up the slope. Time passed quickly as he regaled us not only with his knowledge of locals plants, but also with stories from his life.

"Over there is Telescope Rock - I have spent many a good day out there. I just took some breadfruit and caught fish and roasted whelks - they used to have a lot of whelks out there".

Telfor had done many things in his life - shunting carriages on railways in England, building boats and being a land surveyor. But many of his fondest memories are from the times he spent as a sailor on the small engineless Carriacou sloops. He crewed on the famous St. Barts smuggling run more than once. I remembered those days well.

Back in the 60's duty free St. Barts was a sleepy little island whose main industry seemed to be selling duty free liquor and cigarettes to small sailing sloops who would deliver them home without bothering with customs formalities. Often you would see a variety of small boats from different islands along the quay all heavily laden before departure. It was so accepted in those days that even the priest and Police chief in many islands would give the captain some money and a demi-John to be filled with their liquor of choice. On one trip Telfor was cooking rice as usual up on deck in the bow on a small fire contained in a tin lined wooden box with rocks in it. He looked up to see a huge green mountain bearing down on him. He clung on tight as the wave crashed down on the boat and swept the deck. They never saw the rice or the pot again, but the fire box was tied down and they saved some of the rocks which had collected along the bulwark.

By now we had passed the summit and were headed down the other side when Telfor brought us to a perfect rest spot. A few house-sized boulders jutted out from the steep hillside and we perched on top of them to appreciate the almost terrifyingly precipitous view straight down to the bottom of the mountain nearly a thousand feet below. Almost directly below us was Levera Pond surrounded by mangroves. To the southeast we could see back towards Mount St. Catherine and down the coast to High Cliff point. Close by the little islands Sugar Loaf, Sandy Island and Green Island lay just offshore. A catamaran had managed to find its way in behind the reef of Sandy Island. To the north we could see all the way up to Canouan. We counted some 20 islands and let the day flow by chatting and reminiscing. To a hiker like Telfor, home must be the whole of Grenada with many hidden beauty spots like this one his own personal sanctuaries. He even mentioned that he might bring a sleeping bag out here one full moon night and use it as his bedroom.

Telfor's phone number is 442-6200. I made a note of it. I could get used to a few hikes like this, and who knows it might even get me back in shape.