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:

Bored on Virgin Gorda? Not us!

L-R: DG, DH, and me

 Nevis. Bequia. Virgin Gorda. Anguilla.  I'm frequently surprised by the number of people who wonder why we're not bored on our favorite islands.  No casinos?  No large scale all-inclusives with nightly entertainment? No duty-free shopping?  No booze cruises?  What can we possibly do with all of that time on our hands?  Well, here's what we did in Virgin Gorda, and we barely scratched the surface:

On one of the days we visited Spring Bay, we had the pleasure of watching several local youngsters climbing one of the boulders and jumping into the water.  We took a few photos, and the next day when we came back the granddaughter and I decided to jump into the water ourselves.  DH took a few shots of each of us and we had a lot of fun!

Same rock formation as above, but I shot this one from the water.

Bonsai!

Here we are, ready to give it a shot ourselves!

Success!

One day we went to the Baths because seeing them on a daytrip from Tortola in 2005 was what made us choose VG for this trip.  It was late afternoon on a Sunday and the place was really crowded, which was a turnoff for us.  What’s more, we had to pay $3 per person (admittedly not a big deal) for the privilege of setting up our beach chairs there, when we had a lovelier setting at Spring Bay that was free of charge.  The snorkeling was disappointing compared to Spring Bay, too, so the best thing about our afternoon at the Baths was doing the crawl through to Devil’s Bay, which we hadn’t done on our daytrip in 2005.  That really was a lot of fun, I must admit, and we got some fun pictures there, too.  In the future we’ll probably skip the Baths or just come really early or much later in the day, or just go all the way down to Devil’s Bay instead, which was much less crowded.

This is the beautiful, iconic, primodial-womb-like entrance to "the Crawl"

One of the many staircases along the way.  You also have to duck, balance, climb, and crawl your way through to get to the end.

 After driving around the island, we stopped off at Savannah Bay one afternoon on our way back to the villa.  This is a really gorgeous stretch of sand and from the looks of it would have pretty good snorkeling just off shore.  The beach was nearly always deserted every time we drove by.  There are a few thatched umbrellas on the beach there, but they are not very strategically located—they’re so backed up against the sea grapes and shrubbery that by afternoon there would be no room on the sand in the shaded parts.  I would recommend this beach in the morning.

Beautiful, deserted Savannah Bay.  I'll have to spend more time here in the future!

 We drove out to the abandoned copper mine twice, once close to sunset and once in mid morning so that we could shoot it in two different lights.  We were fascinated to wander through the ruins and watch the surf pound below us.  I’d definitely recommend this place as a pit stop when you’re already down near the southern end of the island.  We spent around 30 minutes there, but you wouldn’t have to linger as long as we did.

Copper Mine, in the gloaming

Copper Mine in midday

The pounding surf was beautiful here and quite loud, too!

Sometimes we just stopped to watch the world go by.  Or paused to eat ice cream.  Or make a new friend.  From tiny little take-aways that dot the main road to full-on formal resort dining, Virgin Gorda has you covered.  One place in particular won us over, though.  It's called the Flying Iguana and it's located smack-dab next to the itty-bitty airport.  Puck is the man who runs it, and we had a great time visiting with him over the course of our various meals there.  He introduced us to his two parrots, who always kept us entertained.

The Flying Iguana, seen from its parking lot.  Doesn't look like much from the outside, but just wait...

View from the Flying Iguana, across the runway to the water.  Isn't that water gorgeous?

Watching the world go by, one small aircraft at a time.

Puck's two parrots at Flying Iguana

Ice cream always tastes best in casual places like this!

Hiking – on Sunday morning, granddaughter and I got an early start around 6:30 am and hiked up Gorda Peak.  There’s a little dirt road you turn off of the North Sound road where there’s a car park and a sign that indicates the hike to the top is about 50 minutes.  We’d had a pretty heavy rain the night before and the trail was wet in places, and in fact there was a light, lingering rain for the first 10 minutes or so we were walking.  I’m not in especially good shape, but I didn’t find the trail particularly challenging.  The hardest part was negotiating the slippery rocks on the way down.  Unfortunately the sky was still really overcast when we got to the top, so we didn’t see the jaw-dropping views everyone mentions, but it was still lovely.  We rested there and took photographs for about 20 minutes before heading back down.

Hazy view of the BVI seen from Gorda Peak

View looking south over the island from the turn-off to Gorda Peak

Pausing for our breath and a quick photo op on Gorda Peak

Bored in Virgin Gorda?  Why, no, we weren't, thanks for asking!  Hiking, swimming, snorkeling, exploring, making new friends, all tempered with large doses of snacking, reading, and eating, kept us feelin' groovy for our entire trip.  And now I'm missing it like crazy--maybe I can somehow plan a return trip in 2011...

This shot was taken on our villa balcony.  I think it pretty much speaks for itself.