National Treasures of St Vincent and the Grenadines organised a moonlight walk in the Argyle area to take place on Saturday, 11th February. The Tee shirts for the walk were sponsored by FLOW and depicted a scene captioned 'Moonlight- the poor man's lantern'. At about 4.30 p.m. that afternoon, two members of the National Treasures’ Board went out to Mount Pleasant to place signs and balloons to indicate the start of the walk and the meeting place. This was at the on the road to Rawacou past the Stubbs end of Argyle International Airport runway. It used to be known locally as 'Crazy Camel Hill'.
Many people arrived between 5.00 and 5.30 p.m. The walk was delayed for half an hour for two reasons: one, the Red Cross had not arrived by 5.30 p.m. and two, the Prime Minister arrived and spent some time chatting with many of the people present. Dr Gonsalves did not, however, when invited, join the walk.
The walkers eventually set off at about 6.05 p.m. but some members of National Treasures stayed behind to wait for the Red Cross and any latecomers. One member stayed at the back with the slower walkers, two others were in the middle and one member was to the front with the largest group, which had set off at a fast pace led by some keen walkers. The Traffic Police officer on his motor bike started off with the largest group to the front and then kept doubling back. The Red Cross arrived at about 6.30 and went back and forth along the route.
The moon did not appear as expected and for most of the walk was hidden behind some very dark clouds. As the moon rose it gradually appeared above the clouds and there was moonlight for the last ten minutes of the walk past Rawacou and back to the starting point. The walk around the perimeter of the Airport took about one hour and forty-five minutes- maybe a little less for those at the front. The bulk of the group finished about fifteen to twenty minutes ahead of the stragglers. While they waited for the last of the walkers to complete the circuit; not only were they able to enjoy beauty of the moonlight with the moon now completely visible, there were also the runway lights to admire.
The walk was a successful event and very enjoyable. There were eighty-five to ninety people in all, and about eighty of those were wearing the National Treasures’ ‘Poor Man’s Lantern’ tee shirts. The largest contingent was from the Bank of St Vincent & the Grenadines (thirty-one people)- they were a very lively and spirited group.
Several persons reported having seen a woman’s figure in a white dress in the area near the old sugar mill. Could these have been sightings of the ‘Jah Bless’ (Diablesse), which according to the many stories roams around the Argyle area?
The feedback from Argyle Moonlight Walk was very positive and the consensus was that National Treasures should organise more events like this.