Royston Hike Tours

[stefmo]

Has anyone done the Rainforest or Volcano Hike with

Royston ?

[Liz Pereira]

You should post your question on http://*****

 

Quite a few members have hiked with Royston.

[douglar]

I'm hiking with Royston on Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes when I get back next week--

[Liz Pereira]

On http://***** under Articles there is a write up on hiking with Royston.

[douglar]

The volcano hike with Royston was great. Even though he's a one man company, he's very mature, responsible and professional. He has a very dry sense of humor that catches you off guard sometimes but he was a great companion for the day and fairly knowledgeable about the island, the history, the flora and fauna. Not necessarily book knowledge, but the kind of stuff that an intelligent person would pick up if they listened to their grandparents. He cut & stripped some sugar cane for me, climbed up a tree to get ripe guavas, cracked open some almonds, and always keeps an eye out for birds, mongoose and monkeys to show.

 

His truck might set you back a bit when you first see it because he works on it a lot himself. He put in a custom roof and seats to make it a little more like a tour vehicle, but he's a very safe driver on an island where that isn't always the case.

 

The volcano hike is a fairly demanding bit of exercise, but Royston did a good job of judging the pace that my fiancé was willing to hike at, made sure she got breaks as needed and brought along refreshments for the hike and lunch for the top.

 

The volcano isn't any work at all for Royston. Just another day in the office for him, but he's willing to get more daring if you ask him to do it. He seemed sincerely gleeful when I wanted to some more difficult spots at the top. He gilded me up to some beautiful vistas and to the top of some freight train sized boulders that are not the place to go if you have vertigo. He did it effortlessly, easily springing over 6 foot gaps while I scrambled and futzed over hand holds and footing. He's climbed every peak on the island and most of the neighboring islands too.

 

We got about 5 minutes of hard rain at the top but Royston saw it coming about a minute before it arrived and got us under a tarp before any drops fell.

 

Very pleased with Royston. Professional, nice guy, great job of pacing and adjusting the day to whatever you want to do, absolutely no ceiling on where he'll take you if you ask. Highly recommended.

 

Volcano is extremely beautiful too. When was the last time you saw 30 foot tall ferns, giant banyans, or a 1000 foot deep crater valley filled with untouched emerald green rain forest 1/2 mile in the sky? It is magnificent place to go.