Baths, but no Tub

Honeymoon Day 3 - Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - The Baths, Virgin Gorda

We woke up early Wednesday because we had a busy day planned.  We ate breakfast at the Village Cay Hotel restaurant.  I had 2 eggs and toast.  John had a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.

After breakfast we trekked back to the port to get our ferry tickets.  We got a package deal with the ferry service for a round-trip ferry (9 am departure, 3:30 pm return), taxi service to The Baths beach, and lunch at a restaurant called The Bath and Turtle.

Waiting for the ferry

On the 30 minute ferry ride

What looks like a large residence on one of the islands

The taxi that took us to The Baths.  When we were traveling with bags, taxis were enclosed vans, but most taxis on the islands looked like this.

Once we got to the beach, we had to tell the taxi driver when to pick us up for lunch.  We decided on about 12:30, so we could eat a late leisurely lunch before catching the ferry back.  There were a couple older women doing the lunch thing too, so we set to have the taxi at the same time.

When we got to The Baths, there were 2 options of paths to take down to the beach.

The path we chose seemed to go on forever.

But, finally, we got to beach.

The Baths is so named because giant rocks have created what looks like smaller pools of water.  There are giant rocks all along these 2 beaches (The Baths Beach and Devil's Bay Beach), and the 2 beaches are connected by The Caves, which is where the smaller pools of water are in amongst a labyrinth of giant boulders.

I ventured out to take a picture on a rock.  Sadly, this is the last picture my point and shoot camera would take.

After taking the above picture, we walked down The Baths beach to explore a little.  At first we didn't realize that some of those big rocks are just beneath the surface of the sand.  We were walking along the level where the water just barely covers your feet when it comes in, and at one point, we were crossing over a rock with a little moss on it.  When I realized there was a rock there, I took the first couple steps carefully, but my footing seemed fine.  Then, the water came in... I slipped, I fell, the camera (that was still out and ready to take pictures) fell with me.  The camera had a small impact on the rock and only got a little water on it, but that was all it took.  The camera tried to turn back on for a couple minutes, and then, it just gave out.  I was fine... except my pride (I had to walk around in a wet dress for the next hour) and I was sad to loose the camera.  

For the remainder of the week, anything that caused the slightest inconvenience, particularly sea weed brushing against us while swimming, got an exclamation of, "Nobody likes you, Mossy Rock!"

The following pictures are some I found online of the caves.  After spending a few minutes mourning the camera, we climbed through the caves to Devil's Bay.

This is the Cathedral Room, which is the first room of the caves on the path from The Baths Beach.

I don't think John enjoyed The Caves as much as me because at several points in the journey we had to bend down and pass through narrow gaps in the rocks.  Some of the openings seemed a little short to me, so I imagine it was even worse for John with 11 more inches to clear and a backpack on.  I offered to carry the backpack, which he refused... I think he didn't want me to fall and get that wet too.  ;-)

 

Devil's Bay beach was smaller than The Baths beach, so after hanging out on the Devil's Bay side for a few minutes, we wanted to head back to the other side.  Instead of climbing back through The Caves, we decided to climb back up to the welcome center and take the entrance path back to The Baths beach.  We had thought the path to The Baths beach was a little long, but there weren't low rocks to duck through, so we figured that it would be easier for John than going back through The Caves.

It turns out that the path from the welcome center to Devil's Bay is about 3 times as long as the path to The Baths.  We were exhausted by the time we got to the top and wished we'd just gone back through The Caves.  We bought a water and waited a bit, but we did eventually head back down to The Baths and enjoy the beach and water for a little while more.

We met the taxi and our fellow lunchers (June and Peggy) right on schedule to head out to lunch.  We developed a saying to help us remember their names: Peggy like the month and June like John's Aunt.  :)  Lunch was back near the port at The Bath and Turtle and included punch, a Caribbean burger for me, and a Grouper burger for John.  

The taxi driver said the waitress would call him when we were done with lunch, and at the latest, he'd pick us back up on the way to the port with a group heading back at 3:00.  Lunch didn't take 2 hours, so by 2:00 we were done eating and by 2:30 we'd wandered around a bit and were just waiting, sitting with Peggy and June, for our return trip .  By 3:10 we were a bit concerned, and I think that if it weren't for another taxi driver, who knew the company our tickets were with, driving by, our driver may not have remembered to come get us at all.  (The waitress who was supposed to call was no where to be found, and had been a bit rude during lunch, so we doubted she had done her part)  We got to the ferry in time to run on board as they were making last calls.

When we got back to the hotel, we were exhausted from all the walking, falling, climbing, ducking, and nervous waiting. The obvious thing to do was take a nap!

Supreme Court of the BVI and the only hospital in the BVI is the bigger, white building in the back

After some resting, we headed back out on the town for dinner.  We found a neat place called Sabroso Churrasco Grill.  It was just down the road from the hospital, pictured above (The picture was actually taken on Tuesday while we were wandering, but I couldn't use my iPhone to take pictures of Sabroso Wednesday because it was already dark).

Sabroso was neat because you pick your meat, your sauce, and 2 sides, and you make your own meal.  John and I wound up getting almost the exact same thing though: we both had Tangy BBQ sauce, potatoes, and macaroni pie.  The only variation in our selections was that I got chicken and John got beef.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and spent some nice time reading on the porch. This was our last night in Road Town, and we were looking forward to spending the rest of the week relaxing on the beach.