Excerpt from BBC
Beyond Grenada’s picture-perfect beaches, the Caribbean nation is a nature lover’s paradise of lush rainforests, crashing waterfalls and soaring mountain ranges. For the past 60 years, those who ventured deep into the wilds of the Grand Etang Nature Reserve in Grenada’s interior were likely to spot Telfor Bedeau as he hiked its many trails and pathways.
Known as “the Indiana Jones of Grenada”, Bedeau is something of a nationwide celebrity. He has walked, rowed and mapped nearly every nook and cranny of Grenada’s rugged terrain, covering 16,093km and climbing its highest peak, Mount Saint Catherine, a staggering 217 times. His love and knowledge of the island’s unique natural habitat is perhaps second only to his thirst for adventure, which has led him to circumnavigate the nation’s eponymous main island non-stop in a kayak, as well as sailing around it twice in his self-built sloop (a single-mast sailboat).
Bedeau has only lived away from the island once, in 1958, when he travelled to England on an ocean liner after being inspired by the Dickens and Shakespeare his grandmother encouraged him to read as a child. Working for British Rail in London, he found the climate too cold and returned home a year later to pursue what he loved: sailing around Grenada’s shores; diving to explore its underwater worlds; and above all, hiking through its seldom-explored rainforests.
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