Travelogue -Virgin Gorda

Today, it was cloudy. We mostly hung out around Guavaberry Spring Bay. In the morning, I drove out to the Ferry dock to retrieve my notebook, and give the Ferry Captain some money to take back to Eugene. I happened to look up and saw the moon peeking through the clouds in broad daylight, and took Photo #87. You may find the photo a little more impressive if you click the photo to get the full-screen image.

While I was out, Jenny rented some snorkel gear from GSB, and paddled around the beach, observing lots of fish. I had tried snorkeling before, and found that my beard prevented my mask from sealing to my face, requiring me to clear the mask of water every 5 or 10 seconds. That was no fun. In a previous vacation, we had gone out on a snorkeling boat whose captain slathered me up with Vaseline to keep the mask water-tight. That worked, but I didn't like the goopy feel of the stuff on my face, and I decided that snorkeling was not for me.

After lunch I caught up on some email correspondence and practiced guitar and concertina. At the end of the day, we went down to the GSB beach and watched the sun set. (Photos #89 & 90) While we were there, I noticed the man on the boulder shown in Photo #88. How did he get up there?

In the evening we played Boggle as mentioned a couple of pages ago, in which she trounced me as earlier reported.

This morning we chose to walk into town to a breakfast place called the Mo-Ka Bakery for some bagels and turnovers instead of eggs. The place was no Starbucks, but then I've never been a big Starbucks fan. When we got back, I fell into conversation with a fellow in a neighboring cottage. (I've forgotten his name.) He told me he is a regular visitor to GSB, so I asked him for recommendations on interesting places to visit on the island. He recommended two places to see and one place to eat, all on the northern end of Virgin Gorda: Leverick Bay, an upscale beach and resort, Saba Rock, a minuscule island accessible only by water taxi, and Hog Heaven, for the best ribs in the Caribbean.

Leverick Bay

91. Approaching Leverick Bay	92. Leverick Bay Resort	93. Leverick Bay Beach	94. Leverick Bay "Parking Lot"
91. Approaching Leverick Bay	95. Leverick Bay "Grand Manor"	96. Grand Stair	97. Yacht

We took to the road once again, retracing our route to Gorda Peak, but continuing onward to the northern reaches of the island. As the road approached the narrowing tip of the island, the terrain grew steeper, and the strip of level land between mountain and sea became even narrower, requiring ever more extreme switchbacks and steep grades in the right-of-way. We finally approached Leverick Bay as shown in Photo #91. Parking space was at a premium here, and I finally found a little unoccupied niche alongside one of the switchbacks where I could shoehorn in the car. We got out to wander.

Leverick Bay (Photo #92) is definitely upscale, but not up to billionaire standards. The steep terrain and scarcity of horizontal real estate required everything to be squashed together cheek by jowl. I much preferred the setup at GSB, where, even if the individual cottages didn't have a lot of land attached to them, the boulders afforded us some privacy, and we weren't looking directly into our neighbors' windows. The resort (Photo #93) and beach (Photo #94) are quite attractive. Out on the bay itself, the residents' yachts were anchored in an aquatic parking lot (Photo #94), and there was one moored to the dock as well (Photo 97). The main building (Photo #95) with its ground floor restaurant was also lovely, and the suites on the upper storeys were reached via an impressive curved stairway (Photo #96).

A short stroll covered most of what there was to see there, and we decided to check out Sava Rock.

Sava Rock

98. Water Taxi	99. Para-sail	100. Clear Water
101. Hammock	102. Phone booth?	103. Ice Bath?
101. Hammock	102. Phone booth?	104. Leaving Saba

We went back to the car, and prepared to head out. However, when I entered "Sava Rock" into Google Maps, it found it, but couldn't tell us how to get there. To give you some idea of how far out in the boonies the place is, Google Maps hasn't gotten around to mapping it yet. ("You cahn't get the-ya from he-ya".) We had to resort to the occasional road sign, and watching the little icon indicating our car's position on the uncharted map on the phone screen, and taking roads that seemed to go in the right direction towards Saba Rock. The route shown on the map at the top of this Blog post was hand-drawn as a poor approximation of the way we actually traveled.

After a couple of false trials, dead ends, and U-turns, we got to the dock eventually, and just in time to catch the hourly free water taxi (Photo #98) to Saba Rock. It was a 12 minute trip across the water. On the way, we spotted someone para-sailing (Photo #99). Looked like fun, but for someone younger and stronger than me.

"Rock" is the right word. It's too small to be called an island. It's almost circular, with a diameter of no more than 200 yards. We could, and did circumnavigate it in around 15 minutes. The water is crystal clear (Photo #100), which must make for great snorkeling. Every square inch of the land mass, except for a narrow border of beach and docks has been transformed into a resort, with guest rooms, restaurants, shops, and other amenities. Some of those amenities looked most inviting (Photo #101). Others were less so (Photo 103), and still others were just puzzling (Photo 102).

We were able to catch the same water taxi that brought us to the Rock on its return trip a half hour after it left the "mainland". Looking at Photo #104, you can appreciate how tiny the Rock is.

By now, we were getting pretty hungry, so we thought to check out our neighbor's third suggestion, Hog Heaven. I'm not usually into ribs. They're messy to eat, and I usually get barbecue sauce all over my beard, and it takes me a week to rid myself of its last remnants. But I was so hungry, I figured I'd risk it for a change. We found our way back from the Saba water taxi dock to Terra Cognita where Google Maps could find us, and headed back over the mountain towards GSB. I had been musing that "Hog Heaven" was probably no heaven for the hogs involved, but when we made the right turn at the sign to leave the main road, I started to understand the true meaning of the restaurant's name. The road turned yet further upward until we arrived at a high bluff where the place was situated. The view was heavenly (Photos #105 - 107).

The place, like many restaurants on Virgin Gorda, was a low building with a covered roof and open sides. It was perched on the edge of the plateau, overlooking the whole northern end of the island. Sitting there in the cool mountain breeze was delightful. And the ribs were really good, and worth the mess. Jenny managed remarkably well with knife and fork. I didn't have the patience, and licked my fingers all the way back to Palm Cottage, where I showered the rest of Hog Heaven out of my beard.