Anse Bertrand

This lady is employed by the bus company to transport folk on an ‘express service’ from Pointe à Pitre (south) to Anse Bertrand (north).  And, express it certainly was in terms of speed - she drove like the wind even red lights were ignored (don’t worry, there’s nothing coming the other way she said!!) but, in terms of time, forget it!  The timetable had reckoned without Chantelle’s mercy trips;  3 ladies wanted to go to the supermarket – we made a detour;  a little old lady wanted to get home – she did, another detour, right to her doorstep;  then we completely jammed the highway as Chantelle blew kisses to one of her many ‘beaus’.  As if this wasn’t enough, when she took off after yet another of her ‘emergency stops’ there was an almighty crunch – a quick verbal check with one of the passengers to ask if she’d damaged anyone (no, only two traffic cones) and with a roar of laughter she was off.  Her finest hour was probably the 75 point turn (I exaggerate, of course, it was only 60) when she found the road unexpectedly blocked and refused to take the diversion.  Manoeuvres completed, we spent the next 10 minutes looking out for passengers she might have missed because of the blocked road.    This ‘crazy’ lady also did me a great favour, she tarried in Anse Bertrand long enough for me to have a look and take pictures.  When I needed to change buses to get to Port Louis she diverted and dropped me exactly where I needed to be then, with a wave, she ‘hung a U-ey’ and was off to rejoin her official route.   Very definitely a law unto herself!