Day 182

Well we got the van and pilled the 7 of us in (Southern Cross, Windswept and ourselves) and I don’t think we had really decided what direction to go until Denis turned left out of the parking lot and we were headed north. We decided to drive to the end of the island and work our way back.

As we were nearing the north end of the island the road narrowed and we reached the end of the road...well as far as we could go. The road did continue but the bridge across a little river was down and the only sign to tell you was a sand pile in the centre of the bridge.

We turned around and the first stop on the way back was the Columbus monument. It was a 25 min drive back to the monument (no one tells you this) on a path (it isn’t fit to be called a road) that had barely been cleared. There are tons of potholes, so many that you cannot dodge them, at times you are on such an angle we were seriously worried about the van rolling. I got very car sick sitting in the back and decided to walk part way until we determined that there still was a long way to go back to the monument and then I sat with the back door open in the little space between the door and the middle seats.

Finally we arrived.

It was a very pretty sight and the view from the point was incredible. We didn’t stay long before it started to rain and we headed back down the bumpy path. We had heard that you would be happy that it wasn’t your car when you headed to the monument but this ride gave you whiplash!

From there we decided we were hungry (well Bob’s always hungry and had been talking about food from the moment we got in the vehicle) so we stopped at a local restaurant we had seen on the way down the island. It looked like a nice place when we came in..and it seemed very clean and well maintained...but when she said ‘we’ll I’ll try to get a hold of the chef and see if he can make you up some burgers’ we really had our doubts. Bob told her no we wanted some good fresh fish and she eventually came back and said they could make us up some grouper and fries. We agreed and ordered our food and some drinks while waiting. We chatted and waited...and waited and chatted and then we waited some more...I’ll be honest that I really wasn’t sure if we were going to be happy about the food when it came out...

Eventually the food arrived and OMG it was (for now at least) the best grouper I have ever had. It was broiled, very lightly battered with some caramelized onion and tangy lemon butter and as Papa said it was exquisite! Leaving there everyone was happy and admitting that we all had had some huge doubts about the food.

We left the restaurant in search of the Santa Maria Resort which is said to have the finest sand in the Bahamas. We have seen some amazing beaches and all have been great, you can’t really pick out one as a favourite or being so much better than another. We found Santa Maria and parked to go walk the beach. It was a beautiful beach with the whitest, finest sand just like the brochures say. It seriously was like walking on flour. As of now this is by far my favourite beach we have walked!

After we made it down the beach and back everyone visited the resort lobby and Bob talked our way into getting to look at one of the condos. We walked in and were impressed at the very high ceilings, we were jealous of the gorgeous kitchen, we walked into the bathroom and dreamed about lazing in a hot bubble bath, we walked into the bedroom joining the bathroom to find two queen sized fluffy comfy beds and were then told that this was the guest room, we walked across the hall and thought we had died and gone to heaven in the master bedroom, we walked into their bathroom and gazed longingly at the Jacuzzi bathtub and then all the ladies looked at the men ;]. These condos are rented out for roughly $5000/week.

We made our way back to the main road and saw an ice cream parlour. Well with me and Bob in the car we had to stop lmao. Unfortunately they had moved their ice cream to another location at a gas station 2 blocks up the road. We weren’t giving up easily but as Karen said as we got back in the van “...how long is a Bahamian block?”, well they only have one main road and driveways off of it. It turned out that it wasn’t too far away and we stopped for ice cream.

Next stop is the Adderllay Plantation...well the ruins of it anyways. The Adderlay’s were one of the wealthy British loyalist families who left the Carolinas after the civil war and were granted land in the Bahamas for a new start. They were said to have tried to grow cotton, as most plantation owners did. Needless to say in the harsh terrain which holds little soil to plant on and the extreme weather conditions the Islands endure, cotton did not flourish and many families gave up, freed their slaves and returned to England. Even now as a pile of ruins you can see how huge and great these plantations were built to be. The house was on the highest hill in the area with a magnificent view. I found the well back behind the houses...I was surprised to find the fresh water maybe 12’ from the top of the well...which is about 60’ above sea level.

Our final stop for the night was at the Long Island Breeze. They had planned a happy hour with free hors d'oeuvres out on the back deck, but after a long day of exploring we were hungry! The gang decided to order pizzas and Pretty Penny joined us.

It was a great day followed by a nice lazy night and by the time we were back on board it was bedtime!

Niki