Virgin Gorda: Day 4

Another early morning storm, followed closely by another brilliant sunrise and then another breakfast of toast, bacon, cereal & coffee at home. This is precisely the kind of routine to which I'd like to accustom myself.

We specifically planned to visit the Baths on a Monday in the hopes that the crowds would be somewhat lessened; I'm not sure if it was because it was October or because it was Monday, but we definitely lucked out.  Once DH injured his arm, he decided that he was just going to stay home at the villa and not try to make the walk down & back up again at the Baths, but at the last minute he packed a book and a camera and said he'd go along with us for the ride but stay behind at Top of the Baths to read and wait for us. 

Pleased that he wouldn't be home all day by himself, we all piled into the car and drove to the southern part of the island. Upon arrival, however, we discover that Top of the Baths was still closed for the season. Too bad!  But at least Mad Dog was there to rescue him. What Mad Dog lacks in a handsome view is made up for with the staff, who are great, and the chickens, which are fun to watch.

Thus, Melanie, my mom, and I made our way down to the water after first stopping at the gate and paying $3 per person for entry. Claire (a woman) and Lilly (a man) greeted us and chatted with us for a few minutes and welcomed us to Virgin Gorda. The walk down is just a little bit farther than the walk to Spring Bay, and once at the bottom you're rewarded with more fabulous rock & sea views as well as public facilities in the form of bathrooms, changing rooms, and a beach bar. 

My mom and I set up our chairs under the sea grapes to read while Melanie opted to go in the water for a while. Before long, though, we decided it was time to conquer the Crawl, which is the path between the Baths and Devil's Bay in which you have to walk, climb, scramble, and yes, crawl over the rocks, aided along the way by ladders and a rope. I wasn't sure whether my mom, in her late 70s, would be up for it, but when I showed her a YouTube video of it before we left home, she was determined to give it a try.  

This photo of Melanie gives the boulders a good sense of scale.

Well, she turned out to be a champ.  She wore sneakers the whole way through to give her better traction on the wet rocks and to give her ankles a little stability, and I carried her camera just in case she lost her footing. Early on, we met up with Sharon, a woman from Barbados who was visiting the BVI for work, and we all went through together.  

This was lucky, as Sharon helped both my mom and Melanie get through some of the trickier parts. Mom sometimes needed an extra hand, and poor Melanie actually banged her head twice on the lower passages. NB: Do NOT wear a sunhat when going through the crawl because it may alter your  peripheral vision and depth perception!

This was the fourth time that I had done the Crawl, and I was surprised by how high the water level was inside. The water reached to my knees in the cave, and in the photo above, which had been merely damp sand on all previous trips through, was several inches deep. 

The Baths may be the biggest tourist spot in the entire BVI, but it's a pretty amazing experience for all of that. The sunlit grottos, the rock formations, the furtive sea views while you're walking through all combine for an experience like no other. I think it ties with the bioluminescent bay on Vieques for the must-do tourist activity in the Caribbean for its magic and true uniqueness. 

Once you've made it through to Devil's Bay, there's a lovely small beach to reward your passage with a swim.  Melanie was a good sport to pose here, as there was a cut and a fair-sized knot already on her crown from her first mishap with the low-lying rocks. We lolled about in the water for a while, then realized we should make our way back through again so as not to be too late to meet DH for lunch. 

We made a few more pictures on the Baths side once we emerged and bought a bottle of water from the beach bar, called Poor Man's Bar & Grill. I was both surprised and gratified that prices there were actually quite reasonable compared with what we'd seen elsewhere. Bottled water only $2, beer $3, Painkillers only $4. I would have thought that with such a captive audience, the prices would be significantly higher. 

When we walked out of the restaurant we were surprised to see Sir Lilly selling towels, sarongs, etc. I'm kicking myself for not getting a photo of him, as he was as charming as he was handsome--I appreciate a man who takes the time to flirt with *all* the ladies in a group, and so did my mom! He was also kind enough to let my mom take one of the towels with her, with the promise to leave the payment up top at the entrance gate since we didn't have enough cash to pay for it at the moment.  I just love that about the Caribbean--from Anguilla down to Grenada, I've got stories like that from each island and it is just one of the reasons why DH and I love traveling there whenever we can.

Chicken at Mad Dog

We invited Sharon to join us for lunch at Mad Dog, as she was on her own until her friend got off work later in the afternoon.  She travels around the Caribbean as a judge for the various pageants held on each island and she'd been on Tortola that weekend to judge the equivalent of Miss BVI. We talked about our travels and our favorite islands over lunch, which came to around $80 for five sandwiches and two rounds of beverages, including water, bushwhackers, and Ting.

After relaxing after the meal and enjoying the breezes, we dropped Sharon off at her hotel in Spanish Town--and packing all of us in the car was no easy feat!  Then we made the long way home on the Nail Bay road, convinced that it saves both the brakes and the transmission on the car, and as it's a lovely drive and we were in no hurry, we simply enjoyed the gorgeous views. 

Once home, we dispersed to do our own thing: nap, swim, shower, take a walk, prepare dinner. DH made a beef & broccoli stir fry, and we finished up the green salad from a previous night in. Cookies & cream ice cream made for a decent dessert, followed by rum punches and watching the movie Best In Show. It's one of my favorite comedies ever, made even better by the addition of a drinking game that Melanie and I created. 

I tumbled into bed to finish reading The Dinner before turning off the lights. Not long after, a storm blew in and I tried to stay awake to listen to it.  There are few things more satisfying than lying in bed after a fabulous day at the beach, recounting the memories and listening to the thunder and the pound of the rain on the roof. 

In closing, here are a few more photos from our day at the beach: