One of the best ways to explore Grenada, is on a hiking tour through the countryside, the rainforest and many of the natural attractions.The best person to take you on one of these tours, is Telfor Bedeau.
He is the person everyone thinks of when you mention hiking, and practically a living legend.

Telfor is an institution. Gentle, but formidable. Just the way institutions should be.

You are most likely to meet him up a mountain, or crossing a river, or on the way there. He will be the one striding along purposefully, with stick (probably) and plastic sandals (for sure), trying (successfully and not at all patronisingly) to keep down with the members of the group that are half his age. Which is roughly the age he looks.

Telfor Bedeau (pronounced bee-do) walks for a living. He walks with tourists, he walks with locals, and occasionally he just walks, sometimes for charity. The walks alone and with friends / neighbours are logged, and at the time of writing he has done between 12,000 and 13,000 miles. Walks with tourists are not counted, so he is likely to have covered about twice that distance. All of it on Grenada (21 x 12 miles.)

He will take people on easy walks. He is a frequent dabbler in hashes (see www.grenadahash.com): indeed, he has set some memorable ones. But he comes into his own when tackling the long, arduous routes: Mt. St. Catherine (840m), or Fedon’s Camp. You might gather as much from his hashing name: ‘Mountain Goat’.

A walk with Telfor can be anything from a gentle stroll to a serious cardio workout. It’s up to you. Whichever you choose, it will be time spent with an old friend. He is unflappable, affable, and seems to relish everyone’s company. There is not a lot he does not know about nature – he seems to be more a part of it than most people - and his wealth of observations and anecdotes is there for the taking. This includes insights into herbal medicine. Not that his learning is ever imposed on you. He knows his terrain, (a Grenadian Wainwright, if you are English), and has been known to show lost hunters their way home. I have followed him to Fedon’s Camp, ducking under and scrambling over trees that had been felled by Hurricane Ivan. Telfor seemed to melt through them. Nature makes way for Telfor. There is a mutual respect.

When he became 48, he decided to mark the occasion by rowing round the Island in a boat he had built himself. He spent 31½ hours on the water. This having been a worthwhile experience, he did the same ten years later, but in the other direction. He built his own house, and a few years ago was reading Boccacio and Dante, because he did not think he had read enough European literature. At that time, he led a walk down the East coast, stopping to drink a toast to each beach we arrived at with his home-made rum punch. Inexplicably, the more we drank, the less we stumbled. Several of the beaches were not marked on the map, but they were not a rum-induced illusion: I crept back later, to check, and they were still there. Telfor finds places that cartographers do not.

Every institution needs a legend, and a partner. Grand Etang (pronounced ‘granny tan’) crater lake attracts a modicum of wild life, including mona monkeys and the odd stray dog. One such dog, now deceased, was a bitch called Bruce. Bruce and Telfor had similar temperaments: modest but wise; and Bruce soon started accompanying Telfor and his walkers on the rainforest routes. After a time, by mutual assent, Bruce was deemed to have achieved ‘the knowledge’. So whenever Telfor had a big group, he would say “Half stays with me, the other half goes with ‘Hiking Doggie’, as he called Bruce. And everyone met up an half an hour or so later.

How did he get started? After working on the railways in England, and also doing a certain amount of sailing, he returned to his native Grenada and trained as a surveyor (self-taught.) Needless to say he made some of his own instruments. This gave him a feel for distances and directions. He also taught himself navigation, from reading and observation. One day, he was invited to join a group of walkers. They trudged round the rainforest, each member of the group more confident than the others of finding the way. Telfor, who realized that whoever was leading at the time had got it wrong because the sun was in the wrong place, was paid scant attention. Eventually, someone said triumphantly that they must be near civilization, because they had seen some footprints. Telfor, ever the quiet voice of authority, pointed out that they were their own footprints: the group had been walking round in a circle.

“After that”, he said, I got myself a map and compass” And the rest, as they say, is history. The map and compass are long discarded, though: Telfor has internalized them.

In 2008 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to walking, to tourism, and to his island, of whom he is a peerless ambassador and representative.

If you fancy a walk with Telfor, call him on 442 6200. During the daylight hours, you will not find him at home of course: he will be out walking. He does not go in for mobile phones (or cars). Just leave a number on which he can call you back, and he will. Pack your walking shoes, and discover Grenada from the inside, with a matchless interpreter.

Article written for us By Ian Blaikie | Photo: Ian Blaikie