Zwel'A Bawoudè

Kité mwen ba-w an ti kamo ! Yes, let me tell you a good one! On the 30th of Martinique, near La Trinité, there will be a race you can’t even dream of: the Zwel’A Bawoudè will take participants on crazy trails, between sea and mountain 🌊⛰, with coastal singletrack and panoramic views over the Atlantic Ocean, and the Presqu’île de La Caravelle 😍. My goodness! What a joy! Let yourself be carried along the two trail routes of 50 km and 10 km that will make you dream around the peninsula, itself embedded in the island of the Martinique, within the archipelago of the Small Islands 🗾. Inception ! 🤯

In case you didn’t know, the presqu’île de la Caravelle is a concentrated slice of Martiniquian landscapes with, again and again, banana plantations 🍌, prairies and shrubs shaped by the trade winds 🌬, a dry forest around the lighthouse 💡 that dominates this tongue of land about a dozen kilometers long, but also mangroves, the cliffs licked by waves and beaches bathed in crystal-clear waters 🟢🔵. It’s at Tartane, a fishing village, that the trail Zwel Bawoudé calls home and it’s also from here that trails wind into a wild natureonce marked by smuggling and the sugarcane culture 🌾. It’s a patchwork of colors awaiting you on this deliciously Caribbean race!

To give you more context, here’s what your 50 km course will entail, if you’re brave enough to face it (or crazy 🤪): a big lap around the Presqu’île, more or less! First, you’ll start from the sandy beach of the Baie de Tartane, where the start gun will fire. The adventure will then take you along azure-blue sea with green and golden ridges and lush green nature (remember the bug spray 🫠). Once you reach the Anse de la Grande Pointe, you’ll leave the coast and head inland through the dense green forest 🌳 of La Brêche to reach the South across the middle. Then it’ll be time to head West toward the Anse Bélume and Belgrade. You’ll arrive almost at the base of the peninsula before returning to your starting point 🏁. For this, after seeing the tropical, wild forest that inhabits the area, you’ll turn back toward the blue for the rest of your race along the Atlantic Ocean.

You’re going to have your eyes feasted on: the island’s colors are vibrant all around you: the blue of the water, the green of the grass 🌴, the black of the earth, white-sand beaches, and the colors of the animals and of the martiniquian outfits 🌈. That said, the color that will dominate this year is… pink! 💗 Faithful to the values championed by the organizers, the Baroudeurs Martinique association created in 2013, the event will be the third leg of the Chimen Lavi in partnership with the Ligue contre le Cancer martiniquaise 🎗. Although the race takes place on September 30, it is part of Oktob Woz (Pink October

Alors, let’s go! 🏃