The Bahamas that few have ever seen---trip report from the fringe of civilization!!

[beestforwardspeed]

OK Guys and gals!! Here is the intro video to this trip! The other videos will come when I post those days.

After months, even years of anticipation, I FINALLY am ready to publish a trip report documenting my journey the absolute fringe of civilization-----and back again to the NE Shore of Great Inagua---a place so unspoiled, remote, and isolated, that there are NO KNOWN photos or video of this gem on the entire internet………

Until now of course!

(Since there will be a lot of my non-pilot friends reading this, I'm going to use layman's terms to the aviation parts of this trip. Hope that doesn't drive you crazy.)


To give you an idea of just how remote this place is, I’d be 68 miles from the nearest permanent settlement at the NE Point of Great Inagua. To reach it would require a 5 hour, 55 mile drive (you do the math as to how rough this road is!) followed by a 13 mile walk, along what is one of the nicest and least visited beaches in the entire Bahamas.


As much of a focal point as getting here under my own power was, there was a 2nd place that was almost as remote and unspoiled. This would be Long Bay on the eastern end of Mayaguana’s north shore.


Unlike NE Point Inagua however, Long Bay on Mayaguana was a place that I tried, and FAILED to reach in July of 2014 when I timed my trek badly, and ended up in waist deep water right at high tide, forcing me to turn around unexpectedly. Ever since that failure, I was determined to try again and make it---this time choosing a time when the tide was low in the middle of the day, so I could cross both ways in shallow water.

Was I going to make it and be successful this time?


God only knew!


So finally on Monday March 28th, I started my long 1300 mile drive to Florida, and from there I’d be renting a plane in the West Palm Beach area to fly over to the Bahamas.


I left home about 6:00 PM on Monday Mar 28th and the start of a nearly 2 year wait had finally begun. As I headed down I-91 to the Merrit Parkway, I had to remind myself that this was not your ordinary trip! It sure felt like it because this is a route that I take when I visit my Grandmother in Pennsylvania frequently. To think that this was the start of a journey to the quite possibly the most remote tropical beach in the western hemisphere was surreal, and it hadn’t even sunk in yet that I was going to be in my most favorite place on the entire globe.


It got dark just as I crossed from CT to NY and I drove over the Tapanzee Bridge, to the Garden state Pkwy. From there I took the NJ Turnpike and by 9:30 or so, I decided to call it quits. I’d driven about 200 miles and spent the night at the Super 8 Motel in Mt Laurel NJ and got a bite to eat at a restaurant just 100 yards away.


Made it to bed at a decent hour and was planning to drive another 12 hours the next day. If I had minimal traffic, I’d probably make it to Georgia, which would leave me with a very manageable 7 to 8 hour drive the next day to West Palm Beach.


Got on the road at 8AM and luckily I had very little traffic from Baltimore to Wash DC to Richmond.

Once past Richmond, I knew the rest of the trip would be smooth sailing.


In the car that I rented, luckily I had cruise control and an ipod station with plenty of music to listen to. This always makes a long ride in the car go by a lot faster.


I lost about 15 minutes near Fayetville, NC backed up for about a mile from an accident that blocked the left lane. But other than that, I had no traffic.


I took a break at the SC welcome center and stretched for about 15 minutes. Having traveled 550 miles today (750 from home) I was just starting to feel like I was losing a bit of steam, but figured I’d be good for another 200 miles or so, which would put me near Savannah.


Surprisingly, I didn’t see any Palm trees until I reached SC and the few that I saw there were not native. This surprised me as the area is in hardiness zone 8.


Arrived in Savannah at 7:30 that night.


Having driven 720 miles that day, just 400 the next was going to feel like a cinch!


Now Wednesday Mar 30th, I started down I-95 at 8:15 that morning. Despite starting fresh that day, I could still feel the previous 900+ miles from the past two days, taking its toll on me. When I finally crossed from GA to FL, it felt as if I’d reached a major milestone.


Surprisingly however, was the fact that the overall vegetation had not changed a whole lot from the NE and Mid Atlantic states. It was mostly deciduous trees with some pines mixed in. Nothing “tropical” about it at all. In fact, the vegetation reminded me more of MAINE than it did somewhere in the sub-tropics, the only real difference being that the trees leafed-on 2 months earlier than Maine in the spring and leafed off 2 months later in the fall.


Around Jacksonville, I’d reached the 1000 mile mark from home, and it just hit me how FREAKING FAR AWAY the Bahamas are!


In this day and age with the internet, texting, social media, instant communication, etc, it was so easy to lose track of just how far away my favorite place in the world was! When you are sitting for 20+ hours in the car, and you feel mile after mile in your bones, it hits home that this place isn’t exactly around the corner!


As that thought went through my mind, I was reminded even more that 1000 miles doesn’t even come close to covering the distance to other places on my radar screen like Nepal (Everest of course!) and Fiji. To think that’d I’d have to drive that far 8 times over to reach the same distance as these places, just gave me a headache. At the same time though, it made me realize how BIG our planet is---again, something that has been forgotten the last 5-10 years with social media really taking hold of our lives.


I arrived to Ft Pierce, FL to pick up the liferaft for the trip at about 2:00 and then got a bit to eat at the café there. I then drove the remaining hour to Jupiter, FL where I’d be staying with my aunt and uncle the next few days until I left for the Bahamas.


Stay tuned as I will post Bahamas day 1 later this weekend or early next week!

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Heck..........I'm just going to post my 2nd installment now. Why wait!!

Bahamas Day 1: April 2nd

After 21 months since my last vacation to the Bahamas, it was finally time to return again. Because the plane that I rented was not going to be available until 3:00 that afternoon, I was going to have to land in Nassau since customs would have already closed for the day at the other airports, plus I didn’t want to run up against the darkness since, other than Freeport, they are the only airport in the Bahamas that allows me to land or take off after sunset.


Luckily, the plane was back a half hour early, and as soon as I saw them shut down, I drove my rental car right up to it on the ramp, and loaded everything in carefully. Doing this always takes longer than I think it will, and today certainly was no exception.


45 minutes later, I was ready to depart from Lantana Airport (6 miles South of West Palm Beach). With the wind being out of the SE, I used runway 15 and continued straight out to stay clear and underneath the West Palm Beach Airspace.


7 miles later, I turned to the ESE on about a 120 degree heading towards NAS and asked the air traffic controllers at West Palm for my clearance. Unfortunately, the route that they assigned me put me on more of a NE heading, rather than on a SE one, which added about 10-15 miles extra to the trip. Not that big deal in the grand scheme of things, but its always better to go direct whenever I can.


Once about 30 miles offshore, almost halfway to Grand Bahama Island, I was able to get a more direct route from Miami Center which probably shaved about 5 miles off. Passing abeam Freeport, there were a few fair weather cumulus clouds which were fun to fly near. At 7000’, they were mostly below my altitude, so not terribly bumpy.


About 30 min later, I passed over one of my favorite sandbars. The same one that I visited on the boat from Great Harbor Cay in the Berry islands on the first day of my 2014 trip. At mid tide, the sandbar was still clearly awash and I got some decent photos of it.


Roughly 10 miles later, near Chub Cay, I came upon what looked like a widespread area of towering cumulus clouds, that had tops probably in the 13,000’ range or so. I thought for sure that they were going to give me a rough ride, but they did not look high enough to truly be dangerous so I continued on, and tightened up my belt. I kept waiting and waiting and at first, it looked as if the deck was right over New Providence island.

It ended up being just to the south of Chub Cay though.


As I was about to enter it, I braced myself for moderate turbulence, but much to my total surprise, I literally found a clear passageway right through it to the other side. I think I was in the clouds for all of 5 seconds, if that, and it ended up being almost a completely smooth ride, with maybe very occasional light turbulence! Amazing how that works!


The Nassau controllers descended me to 2000’ shortly thereafter and I made a perfectly straight in approach and landing to the SE on the main runway 14. I bounced the landing a bit, which I attributed to the further aft center of gravity that what I was used to flying since I had the backseat loaded up. It still was within safe and legal weight and balance limits, but I just wasn’t quite used to the different feel.


I taxied over to Jet Aviation which has customs on site, and walked in with my passport and filled out the pink immigration card. After being in and out of immigration in less than a minute, I was sent over to customs where I asked the lady on duty if it was necessary to bring in all my bags as I had a ton of luggage (too much, I know!).


She offered to come out to the plane to take a look instead, and once she peaked in for about 10 seconds, she was find and sent me on my way!


VERY NICE AND PLEASANT LADY!


I was afraid that I’d be looked at with a lot of scrutiny and possibly sent to secondary since I had a lot of items onboard that someone might think I was trying to sell (water jugs, bottled water, etc). I mean……NOT a lot of people come to the Bahamas to vacation and trek several miles along deserted beaches, so Id completely understand why a customs officer would look at me as if I’d grown a 3rd arm!


Jet Aviation had already arranged a taxi to take me to the Orange Hill Inn. I was hoping to stop by a Batelco store to replace my expired sim card in my Bahamas phone, but they had closed for the day and would not open until Monday. I’d have to wait till I was in Mayaguana for that. Oh well.


The taxi ride to the OHI was uneventful and I was glad to be back in the Bahamas, even though I wasn’t quite yet in the REAL Bahamas. Soon though.

Checked into the OHI and then dropped my bags in the room and went for a swim. I was very surprised how hot and humid it was for early April. It felt more like Jun or Jul, that’s for sure.


That night I had a delicious dinner and a few beers to go with it and enjoyed the comradely with the other guests. The plan was to get out of there mid morning and make my way to Mayaguana, where I would prepare for my much anticipated trek to Long Bay!!


Much for fun and excitement to come, so stay tuned to this thread.

 

[Unit74]

"Once your under control, turn left at Echo......"


Yea, she noticed!

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Bahamas Day 2: April 3rd

Photos:
https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/56841718@N06/sets/72157667198042805/

Woke up at 7:30 this morning, happy to finally be back in the Bahamas! The previous day, I exchanged PM’s with one of our most helpful posters on this site, Dusty-Traveler. Since she lives close by, we arranged to meet up for breakfast at the Orange Hill Inn. We had a good time chatting about all the members on Tripadvisor and just about the Bahamas in general. She is now the 2nd Tripadvisor member that I have met in person, and I definitely have plans to meet many more hopefully---especially Pigfaceboy who just seems especially cool! One of these days hopefully.


Afterwards, I arranged for a cab ride to NAS, but on the way I was hoping to find an open Batelco Store so I could replace the sim card on my phone. No such luck, as they were closed being that it was a Sunday—so off to the airport we went.


When dropped off at Jet Aviation, I had to make sure to get a C7A form (cruising permit) so I could hop between islands. For those that don’t know, the C7A is a form that shows you’ve already cleared customs and it is frequently requested when flying into airports of entry.


The plan for today was to fly over some noteworthy islands on my way to Mayaguana, rather than just fly there directly. After filing my flight plan (filing one is required for arriving or departing Nassau or Freeport) I was instructed to taxi to runway 14 (main runway) and departed uneventfully with a left turn to the ENE towards Atlantis. The air traffic controller asked me to fly a ESE heading instead, so I asked him if it was OK if I flew to the ENE for another 12 miles, and then turn to the SE once past the eastern end of New Providence. Since I was flying VFR (visual flight rules) this was no problem with him.

The reason I was flying this way, is because I was going to film the entire path with my Gopro from Nassau to Georgetown---a popular route among yachters. As soon as I was over the water, I dropped down to 100’ or so as I crossed the coral ridden Yellow Bank, about 10-15 miles SE of Nassau. Among those in boating circles, the Yellow Bank needlessly puts fear into sailors who are unfamiliar with the area, as the chart shows many clusters of shallow coral heads, some of which are only 2’ or less underwater at low tide. The reality however is that these coral heads, while plentiful, are very easy to see and avoid with even halfway decent lighting. Just don’t set out too early in the morning since the sun will be right in your face on this route.

After about 30 miles of open ocean (certainly a calculated risk when flying at just 100’ above the water---but something I’d only do while flying solo) I came upon Highbourne Cay in the NW Exuma chain. I then circled this island counterclockwise at 500 feet and saw what looks like an amazing white sand beach on the east side, with that perfect shade of blue water. Next up was Shroud Cay, with its extensive creek system. Many of the creeks on that island are completely dry at low tide. At high tide, they are easily 4-5 ft deep, so make sure to start on a rising tide if you explore by boat!

After passing Shroud, I came upon Normans Cay, which has recently undergone a significant transformation, along with a new runway. POI’s around Norman’s are the lone palm island, to the E of the runway, as well as the sunken drug plane inside of the lagoon, to the north of the airstrip. This of course from the 1970’s and 80’s when the islands was a major transshipment point for cocaine coming from Colombia to the US.

Next up was Warderwick Wells Cay, where the ELASP headquarters are. Along the channel moorings were at least 6 or 7 boats anchored. Following this was Compass Cay, hope of the famous nurse sharks of course. Don’t miss the amazing beach on the east side of this island. Fine powdery white sand up against spectacular blue water!

From there it was down to Big Major Cay and Staniel, which everyone and their brother are familiar with by now. As many of you are probably shaking your head right now, its just gotten so out of hand how these swimming pigs are hyped up as if they are some alien creature never seen before. OK……I can see why they ‘d be fun to feed and see on the beach (Ive visited them a few times myself) but to travel dozens, or even hundreds of miles JUST to see them, does seem a bit out of hand!

The rest of the flight down the Exuam Chain goes uneventfully, and although I am so used to flying over that water by now, I never can get over how beautiful it is. After flying as far south as Georgetown, I turn back to the NW to land straight in to runway 30 at GGT. Here I will top off the tanks and charge my camera batteries.

Since the wind is splitting the runways pretty evenly I depart runway 12 to the SE and turn on course to Samana Cay and climb to 7500 feet. At this altitude I’m able to reach Miami Center (Air Route Traffic Control Center) and get radar advisories. Beautiful and much cooler up this high, not to mention safer since I have a lot of time to deal with any problems.

Once about 12 miles from Samana Cay, I start my descent down to just 100 feet and fly along a steep reef drop off along the western tip. A friend of mine from Cruiserboards.com told me that along this very wall was some of the best diving ever that he has experienced in the Bahamas! Not sure I should be sharing that with the world, but hey…….what the hell. Once at the west tip of Samana, I fly east along the south shore to Columbus Bay where the published anchorage is, and then turn to the NE across the interior of the island to survey an inland blue hole that my friend from Cruiserforum was curious about. After that, I fly back along the south shore of Samana, eastbound, all the way to the eastern tip. It is along here that I find some of the most gorgeous water and coral heads anywhere! A pure sandy bottom with patch reefs scattered about!

After exploring Samana Cay, I turn to the south and climb up to 3000 ft towards East Plana Cay. This is the same island that I scrapped the boat trip to on my July 2014 visit, since the weather was marginal. Just like Samana, I fly as low as 30 feet, eastbound along the south shore, and then climb up again to 5500’ on course to Mayaguana. It is the NW tip of Mayaguan where I first make landfall and I notice that many are gathered in Betsy Bay at the mail boat dock, just a mile or so to the south of my flightpath.

I continue eastbound along the entire north shore and pass low over the Baycaner, then over north beach. Looking to the SE, I can see a rain shower over the uninhabited interior of the island. While the weather is far from horrible, it is less than optimal with substantial cloud cover. I sure hope it clears nicely for my trek tomorrow!

Later I make my way over Wreck Bay, White Hill Bay, and then Long Bay before turning back to the west to land. Strangely, the wind is out of the SW which means I’ll land on runway 24. Every other time Ive been to Mayaguana, Ive landed on runway 6 to the NE, since the wind there almost always has an easterly component to it.

Upon landing, something happens that I never thought in a million years would!

One of the police officers approaches me and asks to see my pilot certificate. I hand it over to him, he takes a quick look, and then hands it back. I never would have thought in Mayaguana of all places that I would be asked for this. I’ve never even been asked in the US for it, let alone in the Bahamas. I can kind of see why though. Here I am, the only plane in the area, coming into such a remote place. Not your everyday occurrence there!

The officer, along with 2 other guys from the Baycaner, help me unload the plane and put my stuff in the car. I then tip the guys $10 each as a thank you and Shorty’s cousin drives me over to the Baycaner. Unfortunately, Shorty has not yet returned from the dock when I arrive. His cousin helps me get settled in to my room, and then I get my trekking items prepared for tomorrow. Cameras charged up, shoes ready to go, vehicle is in good working order, and food and water for trek is all set!

I am ready for tomorrow!

Long Bay or Bust!

After a great dinner, its off to another early night of sleep, because I’ve been waiting 21 months for what is going to happen tomorrow! I better make it to Long Bay successfully this time, or else!!!

 

[Unit74]

Bro, I'm gonna do it. We are moving to south GA in the next few months. We are avid cruisers, but I really want to use the plane to find those ahhhhhhhh..... Relaxing places and just melt away.


Any problems finding fuel? Costs at hotels/resorts? Any tips to,save a buck? They take gringo dollars or.....?

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Bro, I'm gonna do it. We are moving to south GA in the next few months. We are avid cruisers, but I really want to use the plane to find those ahhhhhhhh..... Relaxing places and just melt away.


Any problems finding fuel? Costs at hotels/resorts? Any tips to,save a buck? They take gringo dollars or.....?

You should go! You only live once, and honestly, there is no place in the world like the southern Bahamas IMO. Even by GA pilot standards its remote there, let alone average travelers!

I mean.....where else in the world can you be on a tropical beach, 11 miles from the nearest road, and 66 miles from the nearest town, (see my avatar) with an almost perfect shade of white sand and blue water!

Its like you can feel like Columbus all over again, without thinking you are really going to die. It still boggles my mind that the NE shore of Great Inagua is smack dab between Miami and San Juan, yet is MORE remote now than it was a few centuries ago!

All reachable totally under your own power via GA (and some strong legs of course)!


I never had any issue with fuel. Just call ahead to confirm. The Bahamas and USD's are the same and everywhere takes either one.

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Bahamas Day 3: Long Bay or Bust.

The "Denali of the Bahamas".

Stills:
(public link)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...861.1073741901.1634899637&type=1&l=3028e65478

FINALLY………..after failing in July 2014 to reach Long Bay, today was going to be my day to succeed and GET there----------come hell or high water---literally!
My alarm went off at 5 AM, so I dragged myself out of bed, loaded some last minute items into my backpack, and heated up some water to make some Mountain House freeze dried food (which actually tastes good, in my opinion anyway). This would give me a jump start of some much needed calories for this trek. I also loaded up my pack with 2.5 gal of water, along with salty snack crackers, as well as protein bars, which will come in handy later!
As I made my way from my room to the truck, I passed thought the main area of the Baycaner and saw Shorty lying on the couch half asleep. I asked him why he was sleeping on the couch, and he told me that he wanted to be there just in case I needed any last minute assistance in when I was getting ready to leave for the day, especially since I had to kind of stick with a schedule. I bit him farwell and told him I would be back in time for dinner, but didn’t know more specifically than that.
I made my way to the truck and threw my pack inside and then mounted my Gopro on the outside of the windshield and started east from Pirates well, then south towards the airport, with a left turn to the east to Abrahams Bay. By now the sun had risen, and I no longer needed my headlights at all. Just past Abrahams Bay, the road became unpaved and the journey had really begun. Heading straight east for the first 2 miles past Abrahams, it was no surprise that the sun was in my eyes, so I had to don my sunglasses and lower the visor. At times the surrounding bushes would shield it enough to not need this, but this was intermittent and I found that I kept putting on and then removing my sunglasses a lot.
This got better after mile 2 when the road turned to the north and my eyes were most comfortable without sunglasses since it was only about 7:20 AM at this point.
Now, about 3 miles into the off-road portion of the drive, I’d remembered from 2 years ago that this was the roughest and most overgrown section of the road, but for some reason this time, it didn’t seem as bad as it had been last. I attributed this to being prepared and having no surprise this time, not the road actually being smoother and cleared from overgrown vegetation. It was around this time that I gave a shout out on camera to my most loyal followers on this Tripadvisor Forum.
If I forgot you specifically, please don’t take it personallyJ
As I topped the 2nd of two hills, about 4 miles into the drive, I stopped to get some photos overlooking the dense forest to the north. You can see the shoreline from here, but the beach is still hidden from the vegetation. This drive really was pretty easy going. Also, at this time, I inspected the camera to make sure that there were not any bug smears on the lens. Luckily there were none, so I continued the drive and before you know it, I made it to mile 5 at the salt pond. Here the road turns from the north to the East-Southeast as it follows the south side of the saltpond on the north shore.
About ½ mile later, the camera was wacked by a substantial branch, which tilted it up quite a bit. Luckily I noticed it quickly, stopped the truck, and corrected the angle, otherwise I’d have been kicking myself for forgetting, when all the subsequent video was out of line. The rest of the 2 mile drive was uneventful, and at 7:45 I made it to the end of the road at Wreck Bay.
Taking my time to load everything up meticulously beforehand, so I wouldn’t forget any important items, I realized that I’d left behind my ipod. Oh well…… at least it wasn’t anything super critical, although listening to music sure is nice.
Unlike the drive here, where I used just 1 Gopro, on this trek I was not going to take ANY chances! That meant using 2 Gopro’s simultaneously that would film concurrently. That way there would be no single point of failure between these two camera---something that I simply could NOT afford on the trek of a lifetime. Can you imagine the heartbreak!!! LOL
At 8:10 I was ready to roll, and made my way from the truck to the beach, about 50-100 yards. As I looked to the right and then to the left, the beach looked a lot nicer than it did last time since the sky was almost completely clear! The water looked a lot more blue and the sand a lot more white, compared to 2014 since the sun brought out the color a lot better. I love it!
As I started the first quarter mile along Wreck Bay towards the east, I was surprised how soft the sand was. Sure, it was only 2 hours after high tide, but I would have thought that i'd find somewhere that I could get a solid footing on, but it seemed that no matter where I walked I never could get firm footing.
Luckily, this didn't bother me NEARLY as much as it did on 7/19/14 because I prepared extensively for this trek by carrying 55 lbs on the treadmill, 4 times a week, with a substantial incline, which would simulate walking on soft sand. Despite the fact that I slacked off on the exercise in the few weeks leading up to this trek, I still felt very solid and prepared. Heck.....its entirely possible that slacking the last few weeks actually helped me, since it gave my legs a chance to rest.
That being said, I firmly believe the biggest muscle that would allow me to (hopefully) complete this 17 mile roundtrip walk was my BRAIN............not my legs! It truly is amazing how powerful the mind is when it comes to focusing on an important goal and seeing it to completion.
(continued on next page)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Moving along, towards the east end of Wreck Bay, I was already on pace for a 19 minute mile! Holy crap, I never though I'd be that fast on relatively soft sand with a 25-30 pound load! I knew that pace would drop because very soon would be the rocky iron shore section with what last time seemed like an endless stretch of challenging rocks.
Sure enough, a half mile later, I come upon that very rocky section that made my 2014 trek so challenging and surprisingly, the traverse across the first section of it (a quarter mile perhaps) seems to go by much more easily that it did 21 months earlier. I attribute this 100% to knowing full well what I was facing. The element of surprise simply was not there this time around. I mean......its not like 21 months is that long to think through the minutia of every inch of this route or anything! Haha!
Near the end of the first stretch of rocks, I give another on-camera shout out to Pigfaceboy, Dusty-Traveler, ChicagoBear11, DNAmobile, and a few other members of this forum! I hope you all appreciate that:--))
Now 2.4 miles into it, Ive been averaging 23 minute miles since the start, much faster that what i had hoped for....especially because that included the rocky shore slowing down my average.
About 500 ft later, I spot what seems like a small fishing boat, perhaps a half mile ahead. Part of me is curious, but the other part of me is about to be bummed. Only in the SE Bahamas is a beach considered to be crowded when ONE other human is in sight! LOL!
Not 5 seconds later however, I realized it was an optical illusion as it was simply a wave breaking off of one of the rocks slightly offshore. I was glad to know I still had a 99% chance of having the entire eastern half of Mayaguana all to myself!
Moving along, i soon could see the Archie wreck about 3000 feet ahead. This brought back memories from 2014, and i knew that soon id be coming up upon the moment of truth. My heart rate picked up, and it was NOT because I was exercising harder! It was because I was excited.
This was going to be the day of reckoning!
Or........I should say, the day of trekoning! The day of reckoning while trekking! Hehe!
In 2014, I arrived abeam the Archie, right at high tide. This day however it was just a bit more than 2 hours before low tide. That made all the difference in the world when it came to being able to walk around the limestone mounds and cliffs without getting wet.
As I rounded the first bend to the right past the cliff, my pulse picked up again. I then made my way to the same tree that I climbed under and through in 2014.
It vividly reminded me of what had happened almost 2 yrs earlier and I reflected internally, to myself, about all that has changed with me since I was last here. I can't really describe the mental thought process, but I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about it when you return to a particular favorite spot some years later, and you have a form of deja-vu and you compare events in your life then to how things are now.
I hope that makes sense anyway.......
As I climbed under that tree, I emerged in the exact same spot as last time. Now exactly 2 hrs before low tide, I was amazed how DIFFERENT it looked vs 7-19-14. The water was up to my knees last time. This time the line was 5 feet away.
I could then see the creek about 100 yards ahead and my heart started to thump again, thinking to myself....I BETTER make it across this time!! A moment later, as I was filming, I though to myself.....what are all of my loyal followers on TripAdvisor going to be thinking when they see the video of this, a month or two from now!
I then made my way behind one of the bushes that I noted last time and then hugged the shore. Having flown over this creek the day after my failed attempt, I shot a photo of it for Shorty (Owner of Baycaner) to see, and he told me which path to take to best cross the creek. He told me to take path B (2:22 in video). On my failed attempt I'd taken path A.
Now.......almost 2 years of waiting and frustration was about to come to an end. The moment I had been waiting for, as I gazed across the creek! The other end was well within field goal range.....probably 30 yards across! I was just trying to take in everything emotionally, thinking that 2 yrs of frustration was literally going to end in 5 minutes!
That being said, the water was rapidly flowing out of the salt pond and into the ocean. Although it did not look deep, it was fairly fast moving and it was deep enough that I knew I'd have to change my shoes to make it without soaking them. I then got rid of my North Face shoes and donned my open air Keene's, carrying the other pair to keep them dry.
I then started to walk across and the water went from my ankles to my shin and to me knees. I was excited! At that point, looking at the lighter color I knew I'd passed the deepest part and sure enough it got no deeper than my knees. Before you knew it, I was across the creek, which was absolutely surreal, in the strictest sense! I mean......to think that a 600 pound gorilla had been lifted off my shoulder was amazing. 2 years of frustration came to such a sudden end.....it was like it hadn't even sunk in just yet!
Back to business, i scrapped my Keen shoes and changed back into my North Face pair and kept on trekkin down White Hill Bay! Almost 4 miles into it now, i was at the Bahamas equivalent of probably 13,000 feet on Denali, very excited to know that not a lot stood between me and my ultimate goal to reach the east end of Long Bay.
Even with the time it took to change my shoes on both side of the creek, I was still averaging 30 minute miles. I'd certainly bring that number down again once I got moving.
Now just 90 minutes before low tide, I am really making up time on While Hill Bay. No surprise since its like I'm walking on "sidewalk sand". Makes it a lot easier.
I stop about midway across WHB and climb up to the top of the sand on the dune and get some photos. They are much better shots being 10-15 feet over the beach than they are at eye level.
Although most would say that the weather was fantastic, I was not so quick to say that, being that I am very picky when it comes to the conditions. I mean......after all this is the trek of a lifetime!
Why do I say that?? Because the sky had scatted cumulus clouds which casted shadows on the long stretch of sand as I looked to the west. While some photographers would have thought the contrast was cool, I, on the other hand, didn't want ANY clouds to alter the sun shining on the white sand and blue water. Direct rays seem to really bring out the blues and whites in the tropics, and seeing it so vividly seems to hit me with a potent dose of euphoria that I just cherish!
Trekking along, now toward the eastern end of WHB, I give a shout out to a few of my pilot friends on camera. I let them know that as nice as flying in instrument weather (low cloud ceilings and poor visibility) is at home, that clear skies in the Bahamas are still king! Not long after that shout-out, I'm now on easy rocks again as I round the bend from WHB to Long Bay.
This is probably the Bahamas equivalent to 16,000 ft on Denali. It sure is nice to have (literally) sea level air to breath on my own version of the highest point in North America!
The E to SE wind that had been blowing at a good clip all this time, was now almost completely calm. It was then that I realized that I might be bit by mosquitos, but very surprisingly they were nowhere to be found. I swear, I must be one of the luckiest Bahamas travelers. Not because I get to see some totally off the radar places, but because almost everyone has told me about how bad the bugs are on Mayaguana, and other islands in the SE Bahamas......yet I've yet to have more than just minimal issues with them!
Subarctic Quebec Canada in July on the other hand........I though I was going to be eaten alive!
(continued on next page)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Not 100 yards later, I saw a site that i never thought I'd see here. Footprints in the sand. What the hell? Someone else might have had the same idea as me. Uhhhhh. Being that these were well above the high tide line, there was no telling how old they were. Mayaguana had been dry lately, according to Shorty, so its possible they could have been weeks, or even months old. If I had to guess, they were probably left by a local fisherman walking just a few tenths of a mile, and NOT by a foreigner tourist like myself who had the same crazy idea!
Still though......it did slightly dampen my excitement knowing that this area wasn't quite as isolated as I'd had in mind. That being said, I saw not 1 single other human on the entire 17 mile roundtrip trek.
Now having rounded the bend to the left from WHB to Long Bay, the iron rock returns again. Now I was averaging 27 minute miles, despite stopping on each side of the creek to change shoes. While this section was not as hard to walk on as it was from Wreck Bay to WHB, it still slows me down significantly. At that point I give a shout-out to Bill Keegan, who 33 years ago in July of 1983, walked this very shore as part of a graduate school research project (not sure of all the details).
Right before the end of the iron rocky shore on W Long Bay, the trekking became almost as difficult as it was just after Wreck Bay, meanwhile less than a quarter mile ahead, I could see wide open sand that stretched for miles! I guess it really is the hardest right before its over!
As I started on the first sandy section of Long Bay, the heat really was hitting me, although I still had PLENTY of energy. Now about 11 AM, it was absolutely INCONCEIVABLE to imagine that it was actually SNOWING back home in CT. A fairly rare, late season weather system dumped about 3-4 inches. I simply could not wrap my head around the thought that 1300 miles straight north it was actually snowing. It felt like it might as well be on a whole different planet as the suns rays hit my face with sweat dripping down.
About 1.5 miles from the end of Long Bay, I could hear a turboprop aircraft way off in the distance. I figured it was probably the BahamasAir flight that comes and goes twice a week, but I was kind of surprised still to hear it so far away. I was now at nice section of beach, so I climbed up on the bluff to get some more photos. The water here was that nice shade of blue with coral heads and rock coming close to the shore. Walking here was very easyyyy since I had more "sidewalk sand" and I was probably doing 20 minute miles.
I was looking back towards the way I came, every so often to get an idea of where this photos was taken.
http://www.bahamas4u.com/mayaguanaisland.jpg
I never found exactly where (although I do know it was somewhere on the east end of Long Bay).
FINALLY, just before noon, I made it to the end of Long Bay and did my own celebration for reaching the Bahamas equivalent to the highest point in North America-----Denali!
It was a fantastic feeling to know that after 21 long months of planning, that'd id FINALLY cracked this nut. That creek might have put a stop to me the first time, but i was absolutely determined to get here, totally under my own power, and I finally did!
This is a perfect example of why you should NEVER give up on achieving realistic goals, even if you have failed before.
Shortly after, I gave a shout-out to everyone in the marketing department at Corona Beer, who want me to find my beach!!
Well guess what......................
I'VE FOUND MINE!
Have you?
As much as I wanted to stay here and savior the moment, I wanted to start walking back before 12:30, because the sun would still be behind my back for a while, meaning the lighting would be better for photos straight ahead of the fantastic beach.
Since it was just 30 min after low tide now, I continued to have that wonderful sidewalk sand that made walking so easy!
Before you knew it, I came upon the iron shore again, and noticed that there were many holes, most of which were about a foot in diameter, and dropped through the rock for at least 5 feet, some more.
YIKES!
Stepping into one of these would almost certainly ruin your whole day, in the best case, almost certainly requiring medical attention, and worst case could quite possibly could be life threatening. Good luck quickly getting to a hospital, or even a clinic from the NE shore of Mayaguana. It was a vivid reminder that there is absolutely inherent risk in visiting these places, especially as a 1 man band. Holding the GoPro, I had to be especially careful to NOT let the camera distract me from stepping into one of these!
Soon I was back on WHB and with about 5 miles left to go on the trek, I was starting to feel fatigue set it, ever so slightly. I'd walked a bit over 12 miles so far. Next thing you know it was time to cross that creek again.
This time I'd have NO CHOICE but to cross it! Haha!
Since it was less than 2 hrs after low tide, on the back side, I figure the water would be no higher than it was on the way out. It ended up being just 8 inches deep and the most, and was not flowing either way. While I knew there would be a significant lag after the published low tide, I was surprised that it happen to be 2 hours after! I guess the water in that salt pond takes a longggg time to flow out. Makes sense though.
Now back to the Archie again, I changed back into my NorthFace shoes and continued on towards Wreck Bay. As I rounded the corner where the limestone cliffs are, I had a moment of Deja Vu as I'd often daydreamed about this area in the intervening 21 months! To think that I was actually living it, and not daydreaming it this time was a fantastic feeling.
Now coming up on the iron rocky shore again, I was really on guard to make sure I wasn't distracted. Being that it was the end of the trek, and not the beginning, made the chances of slipping greater. Simple fatigue and nothing more. This parallels the well known fact in the mountaineering community that most accidents happen on the descent, not the climb. Whether its Mt Katahdin in Maine, or an 8000 meter peak in the Himalayas, that stat holds true.
I finally made it to the eastern end of wreck bay and had just a bit over a mile left till I got to the truck. By this point, I was REALLY feeling sore and tired and couldn't wait for this to be over and done with. 16 miles so far on foot today!
Midway across Wreck Bay beach, (in hindsight) I realized that I was starting to exhibit mild symptoms of heat exhaustion. I started to mentally process things more slowly. It was probably like having a few martinis where you THINK you are OK, but you still have significant impairment in judgement and decision making skills.
I was so ready just to get back that I pushed it. Looking back, this was NOT a smart think to do as there would be no one out here to help me if I lost consciousness. I did have the sense to at least stop and pour some water over my head. What I should have done though is jump in the ocean for several minutes, which would have lowered my core temperature drastically.
It was a good lesson at a cheap price though. I had a bag full of luck that was lighter, but a bag full of skill that was heavier!
Finally at about 3:45 I made it back to the truck! What a beautiful site it was to see her.
After resting for about 15 min, I started the 8 mile drive back to civilization as I'd cooled off nicely by now.
The next hurdle would be making it up the same hill that almost gave me grief back in 2014. I knew that I needed to carry more speed into it, so I did and sure enough it worked. Didn't have to spin my wheels at all to make it up. The rest of the drive was uneventful and I'd stopped by at the dock at Abrahams Bay for a few minutes of the way back to the Baycaner.
I made it back there at about 5:30 or so, and stopped into Shorty's office to tell him all about my successful quest for Long Bay. He was thrilled for me! I then made my way to my room and picked up a few more batteries to take with me as I was going to made a quick side trip to the NW point of Mayaguana, about 3 miles from the Baycaner.
This is an area that is easy to reach and is always fun to see after a hard days of work in the real remote areas.
Later that evening I have dinner with a few other (Bahamian) guests at 7:30, perfect timing when it gets dark and my photography time is done with.
The rest of the evening is spent just hanging out at the Baycaner and then sitting out on the beach in the dark, which I've done on both my 2012 and 2014 visits. Similar to last time, at about 1 AM, I'm looking straight out to the north and can see heat lightning. Its way far away so its not a safety concern, but is cool to look at.
Finally off to bed and on my way to Great Inagua tomorrow where I will prep for my GRAND trek to the Bahamas equivalent of the highest point on earth, the following day!! Whoooooo!!
(end of post)

 

[Unit74]

With money, is it better to exchange dollars or keep em greenbacks? I know in MX, they want US dollars over pesos. I've even been asked before getting a price.

I the cruise ports, US dollars are pretty much standard currency, off the beaten path, wondering what is preferred. What's a night at a hotel run? Decent hotel, not a hostile.

 

[Skip Miller]

not a hostile.

hostel. Autocorrect strikes again, and this time it is a bit humerous! -Skip

 

[Unit74]

hostel. Autocorrect strikes again, and this time it is a bit humerous! -Skip

I'm really tired of Apples shirt. Seriously, Apple always pistols up my shirt all the time.

 

[beestforwardspeed]

With money, is it better to exchange dollars or keep em greenbacks? I know in MX, they want US dollars over pesos. I've even been asked before getting a price.

I the cruise ports, US dollars are pretty much standard currency, off the beaten path, wondering what is preferred. What's a night at a hotel run? Decent hotel, not a hostile.

Don't need to. The USD and Bahamas dollar are interchangable

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Sorry guys, I totally forgot I hadn't published the rest of this trip report, so I'm going to pick it up now with day 4.

I'll be flying from Mayaguana to Great Inagua, and on the way, I'll do a low survey over Little Inagua, and the the NE point of Great Inagua, where I'll start my grand trek tomorrow.

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Bahamas Day 4: April 5th

Hurdles, hurdles and more hurdles. Will I even make it to the NE point of Great Inagua, totally under my own power?

Stills:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/56841718@N06/sets/72157668146855926


I forced myself out of bed at a decent hour (by vacation standards anyway) and filmed some last minute video from the Baycaner before departure. The previous night, I was watching what looked to be a late season cold front make its way SE towards this area. Because if this I was a bit concerned about t-storms while flying, but even if that wasn’t to be, I would still be a bit bummed if it were overcast, since I am VERY picky about the weather in what is my favorite area in the entire world! Luckily as I opened the curtain in my room that morning, the weather was beautiful! A bit of a very high thin layer of clouds, but other than that, spectacular!

As I walked from my room to the main area, Shorty was nowhere to be found, but his cousin told me that he could check me out and send me on my way. As I head over to the office, I look at the receipt and notice that just like last time, Shorty knocks $30 off my nightly rate! Too nice! Since I am paying with a credit card (gotta save my cash in the out islands, ya know!) I have to wait what seems like a long time for his cousin to call the bank in Nassau, input my info, then call him back. In reality it was probably 15 minutes but it always seems like a lot longer when you are on vacation!

I load up the truck and make my way to the airport where I’ll leave it parked near my plane and then keep the key inside for Shorty to get it later. As I’m driving east in Pirates Well along the shore, I see Shorty passing the other way on his way back to the Baycaner, and I stop and hand him $60 for a tip! He more than deserves it, especially having taken soooo much time over the years to answer my absolutely endless barrage of questions on the phone about Mayaguana!!

Speaking of the phone, before I depart, I am itching to refill my Batelco phone with minutes, so I stop by the booth in Abrahams Bay. When I arrive, they are locked up, despite it being noon on a Tuesday. It really is fascinating how business is done differently in the far out islands that in the states. Here, they will wander off to do whatever during normal hours, and come back when called. That would be frowned upon of course here! It doesn’t bother me, its just how it is there. When in Rome……….

Eventually, she comes along to open the store. Since my Bahamas cell had not been used in almost 2 years, she has to get me an entirely new sim card, not just a refill on minutes. This takes a bit longer than planned (what doesn’t on Mayaguana!) but it’ll all work out in the end!

As I arrive at the airport, I notice a twin engine turboprop parked out front! This is the first time ever I’ve seen another privately owned aircraft in Mayaguana! He is parked right in front of me, so I make sure to be inside the plane when he departs with my feet on the brakes, holding the controls, just in case his prop blast shakes me! Luckily I don’t feel much wake from him since he is parked at an angle to me. I wonder where he is off to?

After I spend an hour of so reloading my plane, I am on my way and depart to the east on runway 6. After reaching about 500 ft, I make my way eastbound along the south shore of Mayaguana, which I’ve never flown over before. Once past the settlement, I drop down to about 30’ and fly at almost full speed along the rocky coast! Whewwwwww….this is FUN, but its certainly something not to be taken lightly. When you fly this low, you ALWAYS make sure to trim the plane nose up, that way if your hand accidently slips off the control wheel, the plane will climb and not dive! It’s strange how this is perceived as being risky to some, whereas driving with 100 mph closure between vehicles on secondary highways, just 15-20 ft apart is so routine!

As I reach the eastern end of the south shore, I turn on course to Little Inagua, and climb up to 5500’. I much prefer to have some altitude below me when flying over the open ocean, which would give me time to deal with any problems and prepare to ditch.

I tune into the radio frequency for Miami Center and am high enough to hear only the aircraft transmit, and not the air traffic controller. Good to know that I’ll be able to reach someone at least since I have the emergency frequency of 121.5 MHZ tuned in.

I stay high for as long as practical as I approach the NW tip of Little Inagua, and the do a “crow bar” style slam dunk descent. My airspeed gets up to about 140 knots, which is in the yellow range and only advised when flying in smooth air. No problem since there isn’t a ripple of turbulence. As I come upon the leeward shore of Little Inagua, I drop down to about 30 feet as I look to the east to see if I can see any of the solution holes that have 3 or 4 palms growing out of them. Luckily, it doesn’t take long to find it, and so I turn towards it right away and film a very low pass over them. At that point, I realize that there isnt’ just one solution hole, but at least 3, 4 maybe 5 or more, all at least a mile from the leeward shore. I do low flybys of several of them down to about 20’ above the top of the palms!

(continued on next post)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

I try as best I can to look for trails, or just makeshift paths that lead away from these holes, hoping that they are easy to access from the shore, but no such luck since the interior looks pretty overgrown. Bummer, as I was hoping to get something for my friend Craig who was hoping to visit them someday. Oh well……….

After doing several low passes of the solution holes, I then turn to the SW, intercept the shore, and then fly south along the west shore right past the published anchorage near the SW tip. Absolutely beautiful blue water, right up against pure white sand here!

In my opinion, this is definitely the Bahamas equivalent of Manaslu (100 mi west of Mt Everest), which is the world’s 8th highest peak at 26,759 feet. Getting here, (totally under my own power of course) is absolutely on my bucket list for a future trip, as are the other 3 Bahamian 8000 meter peak equivalents (Samana Cay---Cho Oyu, East Plana---Kanchenjunga, Hogsty---K2)!

Once past the SW tip of Little Inagua, I climb again up to 2000 feet and keep on a south to southeast course for the west end of Christoph bay, just past the NE point of Great Inagua! It’ll be almost to this point where I’ll be executing my grand trek!

I start by flying west to east around the crescent shaped Christoph bay, and then make a left 270 degree turn and then hit NE point! From there I fly along the exact route that I’ll be walking (hopefully) the next day, except in reverse. Because there are numerous bluffs that abut the beach, I’m not able to fly quite as low as I’d like, but I’m still only 60-70 ft above the water, and 30’ above the bluffs! About 2 miles south of NE point, I see two DONKEYS up on the hill, looking out over the ocean. Hopefully I’ll see some more on the ground in that same spot tomorrow!

As I make my way flying down the beach, I am a bit disappointed that the sand isn’t as white, and the water isn’t as blue as I had envisioned. Oh well…….not much you can do about it, but I’m still going to trek it!

Soon, I come upon the end of the 55 mile long Molasses road that I’ll drive the next day to get to the start of the trek, and at that point, I climb up to about 700-1000 feet and follow the road back to town.

If only I could travel this fast and this easily tomorrow………..I think to myself. A moment later, I think………well, if it were that easy, the challenge wouldn’t be there, and I would not have such an important goal to achieve! Can’t have everything!

Now about 5-10 miles west of the SE Point of Great Inagua, I notice that the road follows a saltpond closely. Looking down, now flying at just 100 feet, I notice that the road seems very wet. I make sure the camera is running, because I want to show Allan Clare Sr the film to make sure that it’ll be drivable. It occurs to me that there is a very REAL chance that I might not even be able to start my trek……let alone finish it. I’m starting to feel down in the dumps before its even begunL(( Just a mile or two later, I notice the road is even more washed out than it was before. This is really not looking good. I’m in serious doubt.

I keep following the road towards Matthewtown, and about midway across the south shore (20 miles from Matthewtown) it seem to break off in several different directions, and I’m now concerned about wasting time tomorrow getting lost. The deck is really stacked up against me now in terms of my chances of getting there. And my rule is that if I can’t get there totally under my own power (meaning the one solely responsible for every segment of transportation) then getting to the “Everest of the Bahamas” at NE Point will NOT count in my book.

A lot is on the line for me emotionally, that’s for sure!

Now just 8 miles from Matthewtown Airport, I fly along the South shore for a while and get some nice pics of the blue water, and then land to the west on runway 28. It is a very rare day, especially as late in the season as April to have the wind blowing from the west, but never say never when it comes to the weather of course.

My landing is pretty smooth and I roll all the way to the end and turn left onto the ramp where I start to unload, and then walk inside to show immigration my C7A cruising permit. There is a nice fridge inside the offices with plenty of cold water. I waste no time uploading my video of the flight over the road to show Allan Clare when he arrives. I then give him a call and tell him I’m ready when he is and about 15 min later he shows up and helps me unload the plane!

Super, super nice guy he is! A true down to earth gentleman!

When all of my (oversized) belongings are out of the plane, we pile everything into his car and make our way to the Enrica Inn, where I’ll be spending the night before departing bright and early the next morning for my GRAND trek to NE point!

After dropping most of my belongings at the Inn, we hop back into his car and make a quick stop at the Inagua General Store and then find a place for me to eat later.

Then, we take a drive up to visit one of the guys who I was planning to rent the vehicle from for the excursion.

ANOTHER CURVEBALL!

Unfortunately, when Allan is chatting with this guy, he is giving him the vibe that he is not comfortable having me drive 55 miles on my own to the end of Molasses road since I’ve never been to Inagua before. He is genuinely concerned that I’ll get stuck and damage his vehicle. I stay out of the conversation because Allan is speaking on my behalf, urging him that not only has he done his homework on this route, but that the sentimental value of this trip to me is HUGE. He does not want this visit to Inagua to be in vein for me.

See what a great guy Allan is!

(continued on next page)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

(Continued from previous post)

We leave his place unsure about whether or not this guy will be willing to rent me the truck (Ford F-150) and travel about a mile to meet up with another guy. Right from the start this guy says (nicely) that there is NO WAY that he’d feel comfortable having me rent his truck to travel that far, on my own, with the condition of that road. It was a moot point anyway because several of the tires on his truck were in very bad shape.

He went on to tell me that even HE was very hesitant to drive all the way out there, and that many locals even feel the same way for fear of getting stuck in the mud.

This is NOT looking good at all for my prospects tomorrow, and I’m really starting to become concerned and at this point, Allan seems to have hit a brickwall……at least temporarily, and is brainstorming other options. A minute later, he suggests that we revisit the first guy and try to twist him arm a bit and see if we can change his mind.

As before, I simply stand on the side and listen while Allan talks to him. Allan really does know everyone very well on Inagua. Allan basically reiterates to this guy (Tonn is his name) how important this is to me. A moment later, Allan comes up with the idea (that Tonn had all along) that for no additional charge (other than the vehicle rental and gas) that Tonn ride out there with me, spend the night at the end of the road with the truck, while I start my trek, and then meet me back the next day to drive back. That way, he feels comfortable in that he can say something if I start to drive somewhere I shouldn’t be.

I pause at the thought, and think it over. While it would normally sound good……….I really want to say that I made it there and back totally under my own power, and I just feel in my heart that even if I drove 100% of it, that having him there would defeat that purpose. I’d be one think if it were a buddy of mine from home who was in the passenger seat, but having a local there would spoil my sentimental goal.

At that point, Allan cues me to talk directly to Tonn. While I am far from being a professional negotiator, I thought that I had enough intelligence, aptitude and savviness to be able to get what I was WITHOUT coming across as angry, frustrated, or short. I wanted to come across cool, calm and collected, and it was critical that I did, as this was my one chance.

So here is what I did………….

I said to Tonn in a very mellow tone that this is an excursion that I’ve planned for 18 months, down to every detail. Not only that, but for sentimental reason, the entire premise of this excusion adventure was to say that I didn’t just get to NE point, but that I got there totally under my own power. I went on to mention that if he wasn’t comfortable with me renting his truck from him to go solo, that I didn’t have the desire to go at all and that I would just scrap the excursion all together…….

Tick…..tick……tick…..tick

Will this work its magic???

Much to my relief, I seemed to have forced his hand, but in the most gentle and nice way possible.

He told me that he would allow me to do this with his truck!!!!!

When he told me that, I made it clear that I would not only pay for any damage I did to his vehicle, but would also compensate him if he had to retrieve the truck if I broke down there, and he seemed to have warmed up to the fact that I was legitimate!

Drawing on what I know about the mindset on how locals think, in an area where tourism is a major way of life, I KNEW that money was what I needed to put on the line, and I did that by stating that he was not going to get any $$$ from me if he didn’t allow me to execute this DIY excursion the way I wanted to. As proud as I was that I successfully won him over, I was even happier that I accomplished it in a way where I came across as mellow, and not as an a$$. Win win win!

IF ONLY I could be half that smooth, confident and deliberate when knowing the right words to say to a pretty lady I encounter in the bookstore or wherever, I’d feel like a king and a half!!! Hahaha!!

From that point, I rode with Todd back to his moms place north of town and readied the truck for tomorrow. The only thing is it needed to be fueled up which I made arrangements for the next day at 6:30 sharp. Luckily Harold told me that he’d be ready to go then to turn on the gas pump, but I still was a bit uneasy about things running on time on Inagua.

Once back at the room, I packed up by external frame bag with food and water, and put it in Tonn’s truck. I didn’t get to bed till midnight, and was worried about my energy level for this long walk, but just slept as best I could.

Alarm set for 5:30 AM

(The end)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Bahamas Day 5: April 6th

GAME DAY!! THE TREK OF A LIFETIME!

(This is a 48 minute edited and narrated video, with good music, so find a comfortable chair and enjoy!)

Photos: (public link):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...410.1073741902.1634899637&type=1&l=f93fdb7fac



"Everest of the Bahamas"-----"Lands End", whatever you want to call it, on the plate for today was the granddaddy of them all!

THe trek that I'd prepared 18 months for, was going to FINALLY happen today!

I set my alarm for 5:30 but woke up 15 minutes before that, ready to get this thing started! I spend the next 45 minutes packing everything up and loading it in the truck to take with me. At 6:00 just as I am about to leave the Enrica Inn, I get a call from Harry asking me if I'm ready to meet him at the pump to fuel up the truck!

"You bet I am" I told him!

10 minutes later, we fuel the truck up all the was to full. Running out of fuel would just about be the stupidest thing one could do out there in the MOFN! She takes about 20 gallons and I pay him the $100 bill in cash. No credit cards accepted at this makeshift gas station, thats for sure!

He asked me if the truck was running well and I said it was fantastic. No hint to anything wrong at all. He was glad to hear that!

As soon as I pay, I skedaddle out of there, at 6:30 AM sharp, all set and ready to begin this long 55 mile drive! I turn left, right past the Inaguageneral store and then drive straight down the road, that veers right, across an isthmus that scales the first salt pond, just a few mile outside of town. At the end of that, I take a hard left turn eastbound. A few miles later the road becomes rough and I'm able to do about 10-15 mph, maybe a bit more.

My blood pressure first rises when I see that there are a lot of puddles in the road, but they don't look too deep. That is only a hit of what is yet to come though........

As I continue east, the road forks and I just randomly stay to the left......I mean, that is the side of the road that they drive on in the Bahamas, isn't it?

As I do that, I'm not paralleling the saltpond, and I notice that there is a lot of standing water in the path. Mind you, this is supposed to be the easy part of the road, since we are only at mile 7, halfway to the Inagua Outback Lodge.

I wisely engage the 4WD and make my way thought the water. Much to my surprise the standing water is a lot deeper than it looks, and it sprays a TON of water up on the windshield, which leaves me COMPLETELY blind!! I put the wipers on high speed and slow it down a bit.

A moment later, it feels as if I'm sliding a bit and struggling to maintain directional control, which majorly raises my blood pressure!! I try to gingerly touch the gas, which seems to help with this somewhat. The LAST thing I need is to get stuck here. That would be an absolute embarrassment and a huge hit to my ego.

Luckily, I make it though this wet stretch, and afterwards the road is rocky, but dry, allowing me to do about 8-10 mph. I'll take slow and dry over fast and wet ANYDAY! Not long after I look to the right and notice that the part of the road that had forked off just before the wet area, rejoins at this point. I should have kept right, I think to myself. I make note of that on my GPS so I remember on the return to keep left (south).

Now at mile 10 (of 55) a guy comes up on me wanting to pass, so I let him go by. Luckily this is just before a fork in the road, so its easy to have him come past me. We say hello and he tells me he is on his way to the Inagua Outback Lodge.

At mile 12 or 13, I come upon a section where the road goes up a bit of a hill, RIGHT on the edge of the ocean. There is only a 2' high stone wall guarding against going into the ocean, and only room for 1 vehicle at a time. No big deal to drive it, even though it looks daunting.

Just a half mile, the road forks right to the IOL, so I know to take a left at this point.

This is the moment I've been waiting for. Is Vince Tobia going to be correct in that I'll end up turning back soon after? I sure hope not!

Now at mile 15, everything looks good---relatively speaking. I mean, I know it was going to be slow going, but this isnt't any worse than what I had hoped for. Not much worse than the road to wreck bay on Mayaguana certainly.

At mile 18 the road becomes VERY rocky and I have to slow to a crawl. Even doing 5 mph seems too fast, so I slow it down to a speed that I'll probably soon exceed......on foot!

Mercifully, this rough section is short, and it turns to dirt, which I'm able to do 20 mph or a big more on comfortably. From mile 20 to mile 30 or so, the overall theme was rocky and slow sections alternating with smooth dirt sections.

At mile 23, give or take, I spot a donkey off to the left, but unfortunately, he runs off into the bush too fast for me to get a photo or video of him. Oh well.....there will be plenty of more opportunity to snap photos of these animals.

Once at mile 30 or so, I come upon the area where the road was especially wet from surveying it from the plane. Since I had marked it on my GPS from yesterday, I had an adequate heads up about it, which is always nice. As soon as I see the standing water, I stop the truck and engage the 4WD and then take her through.

Just as before I get a good splashing from the puddles, that are again deeper than they seem at first glance. My blood pressure rises accordingly as I hope I make it through! I make the mistake of carrying too much speed into the puddles for fear of getting stuck, which results in my GPS and other items on the dashboard being thrown into the air momentarily!! I’ll know on the way back to slow it down a bit.

500 feet later, I make it onto dry ground and disengage the 4WD again. I also stop the truck and take a look in the bed to make sure my water jugs are still intact, and luckily everything is OK, albeit thrown around certainly! Next up is the half mile to mile section (now at mile 32 or so) where the road parallels the salt pond, on its north side.

It is here that I first remember seeing the standing water from yesterday’s overflight. Luckily, those puddles are just a few inches deep, even though it looked a lot worse that it was. I still make sure to stay in the center of the tracks. You WILL get stuck if you try to drive on the salt pond itself!

At this point, I’m thinking that the rest of the drive is going to be pretty smooth. While its certainly not as bumpy as its been from mile 15 to 32, its still bumpy enough. At mile 33, I come upon an area that looks like it has fine powdery sand, so I put on 4WD again just to be safe. It looked as if others who have used the road in times past had already laid plastic strips along it to get better traction. I aim for that and I can tell right away that I get a better grip when on it.

This section lasts for about a quarter mile, returning to regular dirt and hard packed sand afterwards. At mile 39, I come upon SE Point as the road turns left from east to north, and follows the east shore up. This areas is much easier to travel on and I’m consistently doing 15 to 20 mph without any difficulty.

I give an on-camera shout-out to Pat Wilson at this point, and thank him for being such a valuable goldmine of info, since he’s driven this road a few times before. Not surprisingly, Pat Wilson is familiar with Bill Keegan, since he has published many papers on Caribbean Archaeology.

The road is very close to the ocean now and you can get some spectacular views of the water off to the right. What is especially nice is watching the waves break over the barrier reef about a quarter mile offshore. With a northeast wind of 15-20 mph, they sure are going to break in dramatic fashion! Nature at her best, I tell ya!

Along the road, it is common to still see floatsam washed up on shore, despite being up on a raised bluff, 20’ above sea level.

It might have been hurricane Ike back in 2008 that did this, if I had to guess. Now making real progress at mile 52, I notice an abandoned bulldozer along the right side of the road that looked like It’d been there for decades, just left to rot away in the elements. It actually wouldn’t surprise me if it was the original piece of equipment that was made to plow the road back in the early to mid-1980’s. Who knows!!

After 4 hours and 50 minutes from leaving Matthewtown, I make it to the end of the 55 mile road at 11:20 AM. Yessssss! I am now wayyyy ahead of schedule, and can take the time to make myself a hot lunch and hydrate up as much as I need! I take full advantage of the time, and meticulously make sure every detail of my pack is ready. As I double check my food and water rations, much to my absolute HORROR, I see water leaking from the bottom of my pack. This is NOT what I need.

Fu#$@#%k

(continued on next post)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

My worst fear is that my tent, and stove have gotten wet, but luckily, both of those items have not been hit. Phew! That being said, I still need to find out which of my water jugs is leaking, and remove it right away. The first suspect, since it is more susceptible is my camelback, and sure enough, that’s it! It is leaking from the bottom of the tube where it attaches to the bladder, and so I take the whole thing out of my pack and throw it in the truck! Piece of garbage!

There still is water dripping down and so I try to get rid of as much of it as possible before setting out. Luckily it stops dripping down quickly, and soon I am ready to set out on what is to be the trek of a lifetime to Lands’ End.

At 1:00 on the dot, I start my trek, and drop off one of my gallon sized jugs of water inside one of the many bushes near the end of the road.

After that, I hit the open beach and make my way northbound. Right away, I am greeted full force by the strong NE wind, blowing almost right in my face. Oh man………..I’m thinking!! This is going to be WORK! If the wind in my face isn’t enough, I’m about 10-15 lbs heavier than I was planning for, which immediately becomes noticeable. If that isn’t enough, about 50 feet after I start on the sand, I almost trip over some small rocks or other objects. YIKES! This is not what I need at this point!

As much of a hindrance that the strong wind is blowing right in my face, there is one MAJOR advantage to having this strong breeze. HEAT DISSIPATION! This will allow me to stay a lot cooler for longer, especially since its early afternoon when the sun is at its strongest and the diurnal temperatures are at their highest. Another thing that is going in my favor is that low tide is just 1 hour away, which means more “sidewalk sand” to walk on!

As I look to the north, now just a quarter mile into this, it dawns on my that this is the real true game day. For 18 months I’ve been thinking every detail of what this trek is going to be like, over and over again. And here I am, in the moment walking the walk! Its at this point, that I almost totally forget about the extra 10-15 lbs that I’m hauling and just focus by default on how AMAZING this place is-----and I haven’t even reached the nicest stretch of beach!

Looking way ahead, easily a mile or two, I can see distinct bluffs that are probably 40-50 ft above sea level, and I just have this oozing yearning inside of me to get up there and see them up close, and then see what is around the next corner from there. While the beach looks straight in most areas when viewed on the map, there are gently turns and undulations that make the geometry such that you can’t see more than a few miles ahead, from any given spot. Often times much less distance than that!

I knock off mile 1 of 11, in just 23 minutes, and feel like I’m really getting in the groove and into a nice rhythm. Just a half mile later or so, I come upon the washed up pontoon that is probably 30 ft long and just 2-3 ft wide. Pat Wilson had sent me a photo of it, so I knew it was something to check out. It lye well above the high tide line, so I’m guessing that it was washed up during Ike, almost 8 years ago.

At roughly mile 2, I come upon a wooden red boat, that is about 25-30’ long and 8’ wide. I can’t help but wonder if that was once a Haitian sloop, used to try to get refugees out of there. Good chance at that, but there is just no way to know for sure where these random finds first came from when washed up.

At mile 2.5, I come upon something that I NEVER would have guessed I’d see washed up on shore, right on the water’s edge. What was this object? A 6 cylinder Cessna aircraft engine, with one of the blades still intact! Unfreaking real! Unless the plane crashed there, with everything else completely disintegrated, I just can’t envision how something that heavy could make it onto the shore! Truth is stranger than fiction, I swear!

Now most than 3 miles into this trek of a lifetime, I’m still averaging 23 minute miles. Its now about 20 minutes after low tide, so the sidewalk sand is at its absolute best. Its at this point as well that I start to think about dropping off some water for the way back tomorrow, which will lighten the load. I decide to do that around mile 5 or so, give or take.

My plan is to stage it near a prominent landmark, that way it’ll be easier to find on the way back tomorrow. Sure, I plan to mark the spot on the GPS and everything, but you never know when your GPS could fail you. Better safe than sorry, and even that being said, I would NEVER box myself into such a corner where I absolutely DEPENDED on using staged water to return safely. That being said, it is a nice bonus.

At mile 4.5, I come upon more floatsam that is running all along the beach and just walk up to it to see if there is anything interesting in there. What I find makes me laugh! What is it?? It’s a 1990’s era 16’’ TV and VHS VCR, all in one, with an antenna! I would have LOVED TO haul that thing back with me, just as a silly souvenir, but at 20 lbs or more, its not worth the hassle. Plus, who the hell knows who’s touched that thing and where it might have first came from! Ickkkk!

Now about 3 PM, I come upon a nice scenic piece of driftwood and use that to stage the water. I drop off 2 liters of it and hide it under a bush so it stays cooler the next day. I don’t want to hide it too deeply of course, because then I might have trouble locating it on the return.

To make it even easier, I take a few photos of the bush and the surrounding area to make it easier to find the next day as well. Little tips and tricks that come in handy. As soon as I drop off the 2L of water, I walk up about 10-15’ onto the bluff and just look north, then south. I am just taking in the good scenery for quite a ways on each side. And to think that just a few miles ahead will likely be better is a great feeling.

All in all, I rest up for about 15 minutes, which brings down my average from 23 minute miles, to 26. Still good, and being on the move again will slowly bring that number down again.

At this point, I am eagerly anticipating reaching miles 6-8 or so, because it seems as if that its in that stretch, the the beach becomes even nicer and more sandy. 25 minutes later, I come upon the first split (where the beach becomes interrupted by limestone rocks, large enough to have to climb up and over) at mile 6. This split is littered with a ton of flotsam. It amazing (and such a shame really) all the junk that has washed up on shore over the years from who knows where.

At I make it to the top of the split at mile 6, just as I'd had a hunch about, the beach really opens up nicely as I look north to where I'll continue this grand trek.

If I had to quantify it, this would be the Bahamas equivalent of camp 3 on the Lhotse Face of Everest at 24,000 ft!

I am now back down to averaging 25 minute miles since the start and feel like I still have significant energy. While you do need to be in decent physical shape to do something like this, I firmly believe the strongest muscle in my body in this situation is my BRAIN, not my legs.

The overwhelming excitement to make it to NE point has just consumed me. Hands down, IMHO, there is nothing more beautiful in this world than a scenic tropical beach, that is also remote and hard to reach, but at the same time, attainable totally under my own power. That combination is just unbeatable.

Now at mile 7.5, the beach straightens out, and I can see ahead for well over a half mile, and probably more. The sky has a few scattered clouds at 4000 ft, give or take, and the wind continues to blow, right in my face---exactly as forecast. I've been staying relatively cool, despite trekking with 65 lbs during the hottest part of the day, with a sun angle identical to early September, which i'm grateful for. At this point, its like the trek has really kicked into high gear, and it is at this approx location that the instrumental tune that I play at 23:40 in my video, vividly reminds me of walking mile-after-mile of white sand beach and blue water.

Even though the name of this instrumental tune in named Rum Cay, if I were going to name it, I would hands down give it the name of none other than.....

INAGUA!!

Yea........what an absolute shock! Haha

Whenever I listen to this tune, it reminds me of what it must have been like for Gilbert Klingel in 1930 to walk this same route (just other direction) after becoming shipwrecked near NE point! (Read the book "Inagua" written by him, to know what I'm referring to). Its like I'm trying to jump into Mr. Klingel's spirt and put myself in his shoes when I hear this tune, and try to imagine what he must have been feeling in his bones almost 86 years ago. A feeling of awe, coupled with great angst and fear, all wrapped into one.

More on Gilbert Klingel later.................

At mile 8, I come upon another split, but this one isn't as high or wide as the previous one at mile 6. When I get across it (easy) I look ahead, the the beach is even MORE scenic than its been the last mile or two, if that's even possible! Ah Ah amazing! What most tickles my fancy is when I see low lying bits and pieces of white washed limestone rock, embedded in the fine powdery sand.

It breaks up endless white sand just enough to keep it from getting monotonous, without it ruining the powder. Luckily too, most, if not all, of the flotsam is washed up well above the HT line, keeping it clear of the best of the sand. Furthermore, the taller bluffs that were the norm from miles 2 through 5, have become almost nonexistent at this point, although they do reappear as I get closer to "the bend" at mile 11.

(continued on next post)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

At mile 8.3, I am still averaging 25 minute miles, despite stopping for 15 minutes at mile 5 to stage water and rest a bit. I am AMAZED how much easier this trek is than everything I trained for at home, and it seems as if there is almost something wrong that its not hurting more. Thats good of course, training SHOULD be harder than game day.

Just before mile 9, I come upon one more split, but this one is minimal and takes just 15 or 20 sec to cross. I'm holding steady at 25 minute miles now having covered 8.8 miles in 3 hrs and 41 min. Its coming up on mid-tide now, but the beach has the appearance more of low tide, which is easy on my eyes in terms of the scenery----not to mention, easy on my legs!

Just past mile 9, the theme is limestone cliffs, rather than bluffs, that abut the shore, not far above the HT line. Like matching clothes, they really go perfectly with the white sand and blue water, much more that bluffs that have a tanish look to them.

At mile 9.6, now exactly 4 hours into the trek, for the first time, I can actually SEE the endpoint for today, less than a mile and a half ahead. There is no mistaking the white washed bluff at the end of "the bend" at mile 11.

Not a quarter mile later, I come upon what is the biggest challenge yet of this entire trek, just before mile 10! It is a limestone rock pile, with a passageway through it.

By now the tide is rising and I was not in the mood to get wet, so rather then walk around it, I go right up the middle of it, not knowing how much of a twist this is about to give me. The first 20 feet of it or so are easy and wide, but just past that point, it narrows drastically, and i have to turn sideways to negotiate it. No big deal, until I notice that there is no firm place to plant my feet below me. The rock floor is angles and irregular and so I make DARN sure that I'm planted on something firm before leaping again.

At this point, I am literally 65 miles from the nearest medical facility, so a minor injury in town would be magnified exponentially out there in the MOFN! It absolutely nags at me what I would do if I became injured badly enough to require help out here, especially not long before it will get dark. Naturally, I totally focus my attention to not getting hurt, and forget about getting good video shots.

Luckily, I make it through this rock passage without incident and continue on past mile 10, with less than a mile to go for the remainder of the day. For some reason, my pace slows down a bit, which I attribute to a combination of a rising tide as well as simple fatigue starting to set it. The scenery however from mile 10 to 11, more than makes up for tiredness!

I'm talking white washed limestone cliffs coming RIGHT up to the fine sand beach, with the waves beautifully crashing into the sand and then gently oozing up near the rocks! And if that isn't enough to get excited over, the water, off to my right, is no less beautiful, with the sun getting low in the sky (now almost 5:30 PM) which really seems to bring out the blue in the water! Sweet!

Low and behold I make it to "the bend" at mile 11 at what is the Bahamas equivalent of Camp 4 on the South Col of Everest at 26,000 feet! To make it more exciting, I can see two donkeys just grazing way up on the bluff, about 30' higher than me.

At this point, I am 11 miles from the nearest road and 66 miles from the nearest town! What a fantastic world I am in right now!

As much as I want to just savior the moment, I must get back to work setting up my tent, (not an easy task in a 15-20 mph wind, straight off the ocean!) and getting my stove set up so I can have decent food to eat! Only out here, in what is arguably my favorite place in the entire WORLD, would I be perfectly content being totally alone AND not needing to have a beer or two to enjoy it fully! Its just wild, blissful and mesmerizing.

Since I am still warm from walking so far, I take off my shirt and secure it in my tent.

It is just amazing to think that in the year 2016 with high speed internet, cell phones galore, texting, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc that there still is a place where you can have such an unspoiled and beautiful tropical beach while 66 miles from civilization. Its the stuff that you read about in Robinson Crusoe and castaway style novels of yesteryear, not the stuff you envision still exists in out modern fast paced world. When here at "the bend" you just get the feeling like you are in a magnificent land that time forgot, stuck in an era where discovering the new world was on par with landing on the moon was in 1969!

Perhaps even more ironic, is that the ground that I am standing on now, is actually MORE isolated today, than in was several centuries ago, because back in those days (certainly in the early 1800's) Inagua was rather prosperous with dozens of settlements scattered along almost all of the coast. Today of course, the only one is Matthewtown, diametrically opposite of where I am!

Back to setting up my tent now.......

Since the wind is blowing strong from the east (the wind doesn't die off at night like it does away from the ocean since water cools down much slower than land) I make sure to position my rectangular 1 man tent into the wind, so the amount of surface area is minimized. I'm not worried about it blowing away at all, since I have 30 lbs or more of water still remaining.

Now right at sunset (7:05) I make sure to have my headlamp ATTACHED to my arm at all times, as well as a spare one in my pocket, because when it gets dark here, it will get DARK. Its a new moon which means absolutely no light once the sun is far enough below the horizon.

Or so I think.....................

Now 30 minutes after sunset, I can still have enough light to see features all around me---near and far. I know that surely that'll change in another 30-45 minutes.

An unexpected curveball.........

As it gets dark, there is one thing that I COMPLETELY underestimate. Not only do I underestimate it, but I disregard it all together.

What is that??

I'm starting to get COLD!!!

Cold??

What the hell??

Wasn't the biggest issue of this whole excursion figuring out a way to not overheat??

Holy toledo!

With the sun down, my shirt off, and the wind blowing steady, I am indeed
significantly chilly. While not to the point of being debilitating, it is serious enough that I am a bit on-edge about it. Again, I am 66 miles from the nearest settlement, and minor issues are magnified greatly out here. I am not anywhere near panic mode yet (I never panic, but you know what I'm saying), but i am in a heightened state of vigilance to take corrective action if this gets worse.

As soon as it gets completely dark, I plan to get in my tent and warm up. But 10 minutes later, now almost 1 full hour after sunset, its still light outside, and I am impatiently waiting for it to get pitch black, as that was something I really way looking forward to when planning this.

Not long however, the shivering is not getting any better so I put on my shirt (what I'm wearing in the video---so not much for staying warm).

Luckily, this does a better job that I think it will of getting the chill out of me. While still a bit nippy, it makes a big difference and am much less concerned. Now that its 90 minutes after sunset, its STILL not completely dark, so it becomes obvious that its man made light from somewhere, and not astronomically based. I can only surmise that its coming from Morton Salt. Possibly Haiti or Cuba, but those places are 80+ miles distant, so thats a stretch. I have no idea.

Now almost 9:00, I am tired and I hop in my tent and try to sleep. I am perfectly comfortable in there, temperature wise, but that's where it ends. The wind continues to howl, flapping the cover and creating a lot of noise (Its not white noise like an air conditioner, so its hard to tune out) and my single 1'' pad deflates several times throughout the night. If it weren't for temperatures in the mid 70's and sea level air, I might just think I'm on the REAL camp 4 on Everest, resting up for a summit bid the next morning!

Such is the price to pay to get to the Bahamas equivalent of an 8,000 meter peak! If it were easy, it wouldn't have been on my bucket list!

Goodnight!

__________________________________________________________________________

(continued on next post)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

My goal is to start the remaining 2.5 miles of my trek to NE point at 6:45 the next morning, but unfortunately, its at that time that I get out of bed, which means that I don't get started until 7:15 AM. That being said, its not that big deal, although i am hoping to make it back to Matthewtown before dark that evening, so with a 17 mile walk, then a 5 hour drive ahead of me, I don't want to dilly dally.

I resume the trek by climbing the hill up on the bluff, which takes me to the first crescent beach, less than a quarter mile north of "the bend". This beach has brownish sand, a lot of flotsam, and plenty of dead seaweed, so its far from the nicest one around here.

At the end of that, I climb up on the plateau, about 30' above sea level. This is an elevated area of rolling hills, low level stunted brush (constant east winds don't allow vegetation to grow much here), a few donkey paths, and a few short palms scattered here and there. It doesn't take long for me to see another few donkeys, which I'm luckily able to get a photo of before then sense my presence and take off running away.

I follow this for the next half mile or so, waiting for the beach to go from rocky to sandy. At that point I traverse down to the sand and continue walking there for another mile or so. Now just about 25 minutes from reaching NE point, I look for a place to climb back up on the tabletop because the cliffs are way too steep and way too high to scale when I get there.

I'll have to do it several tenths of a mile before hand. About 0.3 miles before, come upon a gently sloped bluff that takes me on a clear passage to the tabletop, and use it to get on it. No biggy, and soon I am continuing towards my endpoint.

At this point, I take note that this is the spot where Gilbert Klingel was shipwrecked a few days before Christmas in 1930, from which the book "Inagua" was written. What a story that is, and I really wish they would make a movie out of it someday. I'm PERFECTLY qualified for a leading roll in such a film, done on-site of course:--))

Not long after this spot, I can see the end of the bluff, straight ahead, which marks NE point. Just before it, are what look like rolling sand dunes, although not high enough to be considered that, its more the color and texture of the sand that reminds me of the desert.

Just a minute later, I FINALLY make it to the.........

EVEREST OF THE BAHAMAS

AKA: LANDS' END

Whatever you want to call it, this is my endpoint of what I'd been planning for 18 months! Otherworldly, surreal, out of this world!

Many different words to describe this place! Its just amazing to think that I'm finally here!

I have a secondary goal to make it to the main beach on Christoph Bay, and so I continue towards the southwest across the peninsula. On the east side of it, the vegetation is easy to negotiate, but moving further west it becomes harder and harder because it more sheltered from the wind.

Knowing this will come in hand later............

I come to the western end of the peninsula and look to scale the bluff down to the beach.

Not so fast Mr. Explorer.....................

When I get to the edge, its nothing but a 20 ft drop-off, at a 60 degree angle........

I think about trying it for just a split second, but quickly realize that would be monumentally STUPID, all by myself, 68 miles from the nearest hospital. Heck........even if I had 5 of my friends here, with a coast guard helicopter hovering right over me, i still wouldn't attempt that.

I tell ya, you have to be really careful out here and not take risks that you might when in a populated area.

I then kept walking down to the south a bit further, pushing my way through bushes and came upon another clearing along the edge. While this one looked more doable than the cliff, it still was too steep for comfort, so I wisely balked on it.

I then keep moving south, knowing eventually it'll be an easy transition off of the tabletop to the beach, but before long, the vegetation becomes too dense to bush walk through.

It at this point, that I fall back on my knowledge that windward vegetation is less dense than leeward, so what I figure I need to do is go east then south and then west, rather than straight south.

1 step back to go 2 steps forward.

As I am figuring this out on the cuff and off the top of my head, I think to myself that what I'm doing to true pioneering! There isn't a guidebook that is published ANYWHERE in the world (that I know of at least) that details how to do this. Local knowledge is scarce even.

It truly me, myself, and I, figuring this out by trial and error while 68 miles from the nearest town! I'm truly a trailblazer in this environment and I have no one to look to when it comes to making command decisions.

To my delight, my plan to go east, south then west works well, and I am able to find another clearing further south to get onto the beach, right before Christoph Bay.

One more hurdle however, is that there is a big bush, (probably 20-30 ft in diameter) that is sticking out of the brush and going far into the water, that I have to get around. Its right at high tide, so the water is fairly deep. I'm NOT in the mood to get wet, so I look for a path behind it. No such luck as its way too dense to even think about pushing my way through.

At that point, I call it good enough and head back to retrieve my tent. Getting the last way to Christoph wasn't critical for me, and I'd accomplished enough as it is.

I quickly make my back the the east side of the bluff, and walk south, and then down on the beach.

At this point, as promised, I do a 30 second spoof of the dating website www.match.com. Maybe they'll give me a few months free membership for that plug! Haha!

A half mile later, I get back up onto the tabletop to bypass the un-walkable shore and retrace my steps coming here a few hours ago.

As I overlook "the bend" again, the white sand and blue water, vividly jump out at me.

It is at this moment, that I can feel the ghost of Gilbert Klingel right alongside me.........in spirit anyway.

Its as if I'm just suddenly thrust into his shoes, reliving his experience from 86 years earlier, as I literally follow in his exact footsteps and walk the same route as he did, just hours after becoming shipwrecked.

I try my best to put it out of my mind that I am here by my own choosing where as Mr. Klingel was here totally by happenstance. I force myself to imagine I am here under the same circumstances as he was, and to think about how drastically different that would be the case, since I'd be literally worried about dying out here, not whether I'd make it back to Matthewtown before dark!

As beautiful as it is out here, I have to remind myself that I am nothing but a spoiled foreigner, surviving here on borrowed time. Take away all my food, and all my water, and my days would be numbered in this land that is as harsh as it is beautiful.

I make it back to my tent at 10:15 AM, pack up and load up on food. At 11:05 I am on my way back, 11 miles to Doghead point the way I came yesterday. Its mid tide now and falling, which means some ideal walking is surely in store for me on hard sand.

I start off a bit sluggish and am on pace for 23 minute miles for the first hour or a bit more. At this point, now at mile 8 remaining, the white sand and blue water seem even more vivid and beautiful than they did yesterday if thats even possible! I never would have guessed since I was going south into the sun this time.

Unfortunately it was somewhere between mile 6 and 9 where I lost my SPF 50 sunscreen yesterday, and I I keep my hat on the whole time and do my best to keep my arms shielded from the sun. I look for it (unsuccessfully) on each of the three splits, since thats where it likely came loose from my hip strap loop on my pack. Being bright orange, I figure I'd have a good chance of finding it, but no such luck.

Now at mile 6 remaining, its close to low tide and I'm really hauling now. From here until the truck, I'm doing 18 and sometimes even 17 minute miles, just ready to get back at a decent hour! I'm about 30 lbs lighter than yesterday which helps, but I'm still carrying 38 lbs.

(continued on next post)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

At mile 3 remaining, I keep up the pace of 17-18 minute miles and notice I'm getting a little tired and hot. Mind you, the wind has died off significantly from yesterday and its about 3-4 degrees warmer (wind shift from the NE to the ESE).

Learning from my mistake at the end of my Mayaguana trek, of not heeding the early warning symptoms of heat exhaustion, i immediately stop and pour water over my head, and just sit still and rest.

This helps a lot and 5 minutes later, i'm on my way again!

Now, 2 miles left to go, I'm still hauling it, and its very close to LT which is just fantastic for walking.

1 mile left and then before you know it, I'm at the path leading just 100 yards to the truck! I stop to pick up the orange water jug that I had left behind, and sure enough it is exactly where I had left it.

Its now about 3:00 and I averaged 21 minute mile from "the bend" to the end of the road! Whooooooo! I was pretty happy with doing it that fast.

I waste no time starting the drive back. Its the best feeling to know that the walking portion of this excursion is over and done with! Now I just need to complete the 55 mile drive without getting stuck! 10 miles into the drive, I can't help but take in the wonderful scenery off to the left where the road parallels the ocean. Just as on the way up, the waves are breaking way off in the distance over the barrier reef.

About 90 minutes later, now 4:30, I round the corner at SE point and know the most challenging of the driving is yet to come. I just take it slow but at the same time, don't dilly dally since I really want to try to get back to Matthewtown, or at least the Inagua Outback Lodge, before it gets dark.

I come upon the slightly wet area on the north side of the salt pond, now 32 miles from M-Town and know that not far ahead at all will be one of the most challenging sections of the road, as it was on the outbound leg.

As soon as the standing water is about 50 yards ahead of me, I stop and engage the 4WD.

Learning from my mistake yesterday, I take it a lot more slowly through the water, which works well and get me through it without much hassle. Even though its wet with water a foot or more deep, the bottom is hard, so no need to break through it at jaw chattering speeds!

Once through it, it doesn't seem nearly as daunting as it was the day before, which again, I attribute to knowing the ropes more.

After the wet and muddy stretches, come again the very rocky part of the road, now about 25 miles from M-town. Its bad enough that going just 5 mph is still uncomfortable, and so I slow it down even more. Patients is the name of the game. A few moments later, I stop the truck to step out and get some photos, and notice that the left front tire seem under inflated. Its to the point that I am genuinely concerned of getting a flat before making it back to Matthewtown.

A half mile later as I continue on the rocky stretch, I suddenly feel the wheel almost turn itself to the left, and then stop.

Oh crap! I realize that I probably now have a flat tire.

I shut off the truck, put on the parking break, and walk out to take a look.

Much to my surprise, all 4 tires are inflated. What the heck just happened?? Its certainly not a flat tire that caused the issue. What could it have been.

I go to start her up again, and find that I have to give her gas, otherwise she idles very rough and will even die, unless I keep her moving a bit, or keep my foot on the gas a bit.

Hmmmmm.

I have no idea what the problem is, but I just hope she can get back to Matthewtown.

5 mile later, about 30 minutes away from the Inagua outback lodge, the sun is very bright and RIGHT in my even! What an absolute pain in the butt.

Even a slightly dirty windscreen make this a lot worse.

If that wasn't bad enough, because of the direct sun glare, I hit the right sideview mirror on a thick branch that I'm not able to spot in time, which dislodges it from the plastic hinge. Luckily, the wiring is still intact, so I stop and duck tape it to the side of the car, so it doesn't break off on the rocky road.

I'm so mad at myself for this, and will absolutely give Tonn $$$ to fix it, no questions asked.

Just before sunset, I pass by the Inagua Outback lodge. I give some thought to spending the night there, but decide to keep on going since there is at least 30 more minutes of daylight, and the route is smoother and more straightforward here.

Or so I think......

Now about 6 miles past the IOL, I miss the furthest left fork in the road, and don't realize it until a mile or two later. Luckily I had marked the track on the GPS yesterday, but the wrong path was so close to being right, since it perfectly parallels it, just offset by 200 ft or so.

Now I backtrack, and take the far left fork, and sure enough this puts me where I want to go. I NEVER thought that the hardest section of this road to navigate would take place between M-town and the IOL!!

Now about 7:45 with just the smallest bit of light left, I make the right turn to cross the first saltpond isthmus, which leads me straight into M-town.

A mile or two later, the road becomes paved, and it is at that that I can FINALLY celebrate to have competed this grand trek to Lands' End and back! Once on the paved road, I make a beeline for the Enrica's Inn, and luckily am able to catch the lady working there to get me a room that night!

Whoooooooooooooo!!

As soon as get there, she makes me a nice dinner of leftover rice, green beans and chicken, which is very filling and delicious. I offer her $15 for this when I check out the next day, but she turns me down! Talk about hospitality.

The day is not over yet as i still need to stop at the liquor store to have a few cold ones to kick back after a successful trek. Luckily, the packie is just 100 yards across the street and it is there that I tell the guys working what I did today and yesterday!

When I tell them that I drove all the way to the end of the road, and then walked, they were like.....

"Oh I see........so you drove past Morton Salt and made it to the beach at NW point, huh!!"

"No, I replied", "I'll draw you a picture of Inagua and show you where I went"

So (with my less than stellar artistic ability) I draw them a sketch of Inagua and show them where I went.

"WHATTTTTTTT?? YOU WENT ALL THE WAY THERE"?

"Holy crap", one of the guys replied.........

"You went THERE"??

"I sure did", I said, "I was 68 miles from M-town when I reached the NE point of Great Inagua"

Now back in my room enjoying a few local beers, I posted on my Facebook page that I'd successfully made it all the way to "Lands' End" and back, totally under my own power. 20 minutes later, I posted about 5 or 6 photos to go with it.

Still not done for the evening, I promised Allan Clare Jr that I would stop by and meet him. We've been friends on FB since November of 2014, when I first planned this trek, and have chatted frequently ever since.

As head over to his place and introduce myself, I am most taken aback by how HOT and humid it is inside! It has to be in the 90-92 degree range, despite being 9:30 at night, and I'm just about to lose it!

Worse yet, Allan is in pajamas and seems used to the extreme temperatures. Even as someone who gets cold very easily (I need it in the mid-upper 70's inside to be comfortable) I can't imagine how one could ever get used to that extreme.

I mention to Allan that I damaged the mirror to Tonn's truck and has him how much $$ I should give Tonn to cover the cost of having it fixed. He takes a photo of it and emails it to his dad, who suggests $200 is a good number.

Now about 10:00, I make my way back to the truck. I look up the street and notice 4 or 5 unleashed dogs about 200 feet ahead. These things are barking at me, but luckily not charging at me. Still though, it is NOT a comforting feeling to be anywhere near dogs like that. In hindsight.......I should have carried bear spray, just as a precaution, as I was close to bringing it.

Luckily, nothing more came of it, and I wasted no time getting back into the truck and driving back. I tell ya, I would not wander those streets after dark for that very reason.

I sleep like an absolute baby that night and am sooooo glad that I've successfully conquered my first Bahamas equivalent of an 8000 meter peak!!

Off to Stella Maris, Long Island tomorrow, for some luxurious R&R at the Stella Maris Resort!

(The end)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Bahamas Day 7: From Great Inagua to Stella Maris Long Island

(public link)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...619.1073741903.1634899637&type=1&l=74467fc4cb

I woke up still glowing from conquering the Everest of the Bahamas and was ready for some LUXURY! Nothing too expensive, but something mid-range, that preferably was very close to an airport. Not just any airport, but preferably one with fuel, and that has customs on site. That way I would not have to fly to another airport, pay the departure tax, and then fly to Florida, in the coming days.

I quickly decide that Stella Maris fits the bill perfectly. Having not been there, make the decision even easier.

This is going to feel like midtown Manhattan compared to Mayaguana and Inagua of course)

I packed my belongings up (ton of cameras!) and of course all the sand in my shoes, pack, etc was a major PITA to get rid of. That might have been my favorite beaches' way of never wanting to leave me, despite me leaving it!

Before walking out, I offered $20 to the lady for the dinner last night, but she declined my offer. Very sweet and kind of her to bend over backwards for me like that!

I then walked outside with all my bags and saw Tonn sitting outside on the porch. I immediately walked up to him, told him that I accidentally knocked the sideview mirror off with the sun in my eyes, and asked him if he would accept $200 from me to have it fixed. He said that was fine, so I promptly gave him the cash. He didn't really seem upset, but I still felt bad that I'd damaged his truck. He told me know to worry about it!

We drove to the airport as I'd offered to take him for a flight around the area. Since I didn't need the 3 large water jugs that I threw in the truck for my trek, I offered them to him (free of charge). He really was doing me a favor as I didn't want any more bulkiness in the plane than necessary, since I tend to overpack. Since I'll be back possibly next summer, I'm sure he'd be cool with letting me borrow them, and it'd be a big help to not have to carry them in the plane again.

Now about 11:00, I was ready to get the plane fueled up, when it just started to rain. Not a moment later, it started to just pour...............and pour....................and pour!! Even though it was raining cats and dogs, you could see the sun and blue sky just a few miles away. Classic island style weather.

Some time later, as it was still raining, I go back to the truck (still waiting on the plane to be refueled) and much to my HORROR, I realize that I had left one of my suitcases out in the open on the bed of his pickup truck.

YIKES

I grab it right away, bring it inside, and open it up to see that there is a fair amount of water inside. My heart sinks as my computer is also inside. Thank God that it remained completely dry since it was inside of the case! That'd be heartbreaking, I tell ya.

After recovering from that scare, I open it up and dry it out best I can, and air it out for a good while. Its still raining like crazy outside, and so the fuelers are patiently waiting for it to stop, not to mention Inagua is a prime place for people working on “island time”. Finally the rain stops and the line guy refuels my plane. I make sure to have plenty of cash, since they do not accept CC at the airport.

I then head over to get Tonn and let him know we are all set to fly. He is excited and we hop in and begin the VERY short taxi to the runway. The wind is slightly at our back as we takeoff to the east which means it take a bit longer to become airborne than normal, but on a 7000 ft runway, this is no big deal at all. We then make a left turn towards Morton Salt and then turn to the north from there and pass just along the east side of Matthewtown at around 500 ft. He is loving every moment of this, I swear!

I ask him if he is up for going along the south shore, about 5-7 miles outside of town, and he is very excited. Once over unpopulated terrain, I ask him if its OK that we drop down to about 150 feet, and he's looks at me like I'm crazy for asking! "Of course", lets do this" he says! We then follow the south shore to the east and I'm now at about 100 feet and I ask him again just to make sure that I'm not putting him on edge by flying that low. Again, he's like....."what's the concern"? He acts as if I couldn't scare him if I tried to!

Once about 5 miles further east, I turn back to the west and fly low (although not nearly as low as I would have solo) along the same shore as we did coming the other way. I then ask him if he wants to try something really fun, and he's like....."Of course". I tell him that I'll need at least 3000 feet of altitude to do this safely, and he's like "No problem Mahn". Once up there, I bring the power back slightly, pitch the nose of the plane up to about 30 degrees, and then kick the rudder left and the control wheel (aileron) right. This causes a sudden stall (plane loses all lift over wings) and flips almost knife-edge! Even though I've done that many times (cross control stall is the technical term) its fun for me, but beyond amazing for him, as he yells out in joy!

Not wanting to use up the fuel that I have since I have a long flight ahead, I ask him if its OK that we head back to land and he says that's fine! We soon enter on the left downwind for runway 28, to the west, and I show him a simulated engine failure procedure where we bring the throttle to idle and glide in. Its such a non event that most passengers don't even know the plane is not under thrust. As I touchdown still with over 5000 ft of runway until the parking area, I give the plane a substantial amount of power----just enough to keep the nose wheel off the pavement. Its as if I'm popping a wheelie all the way down. 45 mph seems to be the sweetspot to keep the plane pitched up just enough so the nose wheel is about 4 inches off the pavement.

After shutting her down, Tonn and I have out photo taken alongside the plane and I bid farewell to him and start my sightseeing tour of where I trekked yesterday, as well as Little Inagua (The Manaslu of the Bahamas--8th highest mtn) and Hogsty reef (The K2 of the Bahamas--the worlds 2nd tallest, but more coveted mountain than Everest). As some of you know, both of those gems are the Bahamas equivalent of 8000 meter peaks, and are front and center on my bucket list for future trips, totally under my own power of course.

As soon as I takeoff to the east, I climb up to 5500 feet and head straight east toward the SE point of Inagua---very closely paralleling the road that I drove 2 days earlier. From up here, I can see almost the entire island of Great Inagua. Its amazing how large Lake Rose is. I can only imagine how many mosquitos and other blood sucking bugs that lake must be filled with! Its a far cry from the windward east shore that is right in the path of the reliable trade winds. As I'm sitting there, in air that is smooth as glass, I look down at the road and think to myself how LIBERATING it is to not have to worry about getting stuck and that I am free as a bird up there, able to change course at the drop of a dime!

At SE point, I turn to the NNE and follow the shore all the way to Doghead point, where the road ended and the trek began. About 10 miles prior to Doghead, I begin my descent down to just 100' or less. I'll be filming the exact route that I trekked 2 days ago, and what took 4 and 1/2 hours on foot, will take just 5 minutes by air, despite a slight headwind! That will feel most joyous to cover that much distance so quickly!

Now about 4 miles south of Doghead, I'm down to where I want to be in the 60 to 100 ft range, as I motor north along the east shore. At 21 08.800N, I come upon the wood skeleton that marks the beginning of the beach/end of the road, and I drop down a bit lower to around 50'. It is not uncommon for me to be slightly lower than the top of the bluff off to my left! If only I could have made it there this easily on Wednesday, but then if I could, it wouldn't be challenging and not even on my bucket list. Funny how that is!

(continued on next post)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Before you know it, I reach "the bend" and then get a sweet view over the "table top" between there and NE point. Once past NE point, I make a sharp left turn, and then fly eastbound (counterclockwise) along the beach on Christoph Bay, before turning to the north to fly along the leeward shore (published anchorage) on Little Inagua. Unfortunately, the video footage of the amazing beach at the SW end of Little Inagua doesn't turn out as well as I had hoped, since the sun was well to the west since it was around 4:00 by now. I soon turn to the NE and try to find more solution holes, but strangely, I have no luck. I can't figure out why I can't see them, and just decide to move along. I later figured out I hadn't flown far enough north.

I then cross over south again, back to Christoph Bay, and the fly along the rocky north shore of the bight of Great Inagua. Unlike the East shore, which has a very nice sandy beach where I trekked, the north shore is very rocky with honeycomb looking rock that is very sharp. I fly along this shore, because, MAYBE..........just maybe, on a future trip, I might try a 7 day, 100 mile trek along this route, all the way to Carmichael Point and back (to Doghead). If I did that, I'd absolutely bring a spare pair of shoes with the way that rock is so sharp!

Interestingly enough, Gilbert Klingel got to visit this area, just days after he was shipwrecked in his famous book "Inagua" and he vividly pointed out the stark contrast between the rocky north shore bight and the sandy east shore.

As I'm flying along at about 150 feet, I notice that there are still some decent beaches here and there, despite it being mostly rocky. I am eagerly anticipating the lower end of the bight where the cliffs are a lot higher and the water really along the rocks in spectacular fashion!

As I reach that area however, I am surprised at how small the rocky iron cliffs are! I was anticipating that they were around 70' high, but they only seem to be 30' at the most. Right after that area, the shore becomes a bit of low lying rock, alternating with coarse sand beaches----nothing to write home about, but not all that bad really. Once I reach Carmichael Point, at the north central tip of Inagua, I turn to the NW on course to Hogsty Reef!

This is of course, my holy grail in terms of my "Endeavor 8000 Bahamas" project (my multi year goal to reach all 5 Bahamas equivalent of 8000m peaks) as I've reached just 1 of the 5 so far. The 4 remaining are Samana Cay, Little Inagua, East Plana Cay, and of course Hogsty.

My mom DOES NOT like me talking about that NINETY mile boat trip to Hogsty Reef that I have planned for either next trip, or the one after that!, and with 30-40 percent of me on-edge about making that trip in an 18' Albury Brother boat, even in almost perfect weather, I can not blame her one bit! That being said, i'm going to let the ocean talk to me, and wait as long as I need to (up to 10 days) for a good weather window with light winds and little to no chance of thunderstorms, and the go for it!

25 minutes after leaving Inagua, I come upon Hogsty and fly about 50 feet over the SE sand spit. Its just a mile or so later, that I buzz the NW Cay (the main one) at the same height. I then fly for about a mile and do a hairpin turn to buzz it again to the SE since the sun will be behind me. I am pleased with the way the video turns out and spend another 10 minutes on site, getting more video doing low level flybys of the Siren of the Bahamas!

After I am done with that, I turn towards the south tip of Castle island, then climb up to 3000 ft, and follow the EXACT same route as I will be when I take the boat there, only going the other direction. As I am cruising along on the 40 mile stretch of complete open ocean between Hogsty and Castle, I get the spoiled feeling that somehow I should be able to cover that 40 mile gap instantaneously, just because I am in an airplane and not on a boat!

NOT SO!

That is still a great distance to cover over a featureless ocean, even at speeds fast enough to have you arrested for reckless driving in most states, and the miles don't count down as fast as I think they should. 15 miles of 40..............20 of 40.............25 of 40, and so on........it just keep going on and on, even at triple digit speeds---and this is only one segment of the entire 90 mile trip!

Ya mom.........you DESERVE to be nervous thinking about me making this boat trip!

I'm even questioning my own sanity at this point about wanting to be all by myself, in an 18' skiff, in completely open ocean. Yea, this is definitely deserving of being crowned the K2 of the Bahamas----a much more challenging endeavor than Everest, or the Bahamas equivalent of.

I come upon Castle Island on a NW heading and fly about 50' over it (the lighthouse is halfway up on the horizon) and then do another hairpin turn to the SE to fly along on a SE course to the south tip of it. This puts me on the exact same path, in the same direction, as I will be on my boat trip from Crooked Island to Hogsty. At just 50-100 feet above the water, I use the next 30 sec to a minute to really soak in the sight picture and burn an image in my mind of this route. Sentimental reasons more than logistical ones, since the only shallow water is along the last 100 yards near Hogsty itself.

After this, I turn to the NE to Acklins Island and drop back down to 50 feet and follow the shore to Salina Point, the turn to the NW and back to the SW along the beach on the leeward end of Ackilns (east end of Bight). The beach is rather nice here and a lot sandier than on the portion that is south of Salina Point.

By now I've had enough and turn on course to Stella Maris airport, just 0.7 miles from the Stella Maris Resort and climb up to 6500 feet. The sun is pretty much in my eyes the whole time as its 5:30 by now. I'm excited that I've gained almost 15 minutes of extra daylight from Inagua! I cherish EVERY MINUTE of daylight in the Bahamas, which is why I avoid visiting in the winter. Even April was earlier than I wanted to, but it was a worthwhile trade-off to have cooler temps for trekking.

I start my descent into Stella Maris about 20 miles to the SE and enter on the left downwind for runway 13, landing to the SE. My landing is pretty smooth and its cool to have the sun at such an angle to have my shadow about 100' in front of me as I'm about to touchdown.

As I shut her down and offload a few of my belongings, luckily Joel Frieze is already there with his vehicle and gives me a free lift to the resort. Once there, I walk in and am greeted by a fantastic lady who gives me an unsolicited offer of the Bahamas rate, which is $20 less than the rate for foreigners. With tax incl, it came to $175 I think!

Awesome!

Not only that, but I got a free welcome drink! Of course with blue being my favorite color, which matches the Bahamas water perfectly, I requested a Blue Hawaiian. I took it down to the pool just a few feet away and sipped on it there.

What an amazing difference 200 miles makes! To think that just 48 hours ago, I was at the fringe of civilization, in the most remote place in the entire Bahamas, and now I'm immersed in all out luxury (at least relatively speaking) was quite a cool contrast.

After I finished the drink, I made my way to my room, which overlooked the ocean,
although it was still a quarter mile from the shore. Still a fantastic view to the east, that's for sure. I was set for dinner at 8:00, perfect so that I could enjoy every last minute of daylight for photos and video. Since I was traveling solo, the staff was kind enough to add me on to a table of two extended families visiting from Wisconsin, with 3 generations---the middle one being a husband and wife around my age with a 2 yrs old son! Ironically they live just an hour drive from my sister and BIL who also have a 2 yr old son!

After dinner, I spent most of the rest of the evening at the bar and uploaded the rest of my photos and video for the day. Even though the resort was about 2/3rds occupied, by 11:00 I was the ONLY patron at the bar. Hmmmmmm, that's strange!

Stay tuned, much more coming up!

(The end)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

Bahamas Day 8: April 9th-----Samana Cay and Lady Slipper Cay from the air.

Stills (public link)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...348.1073741904.1634899637&type=1&l=8a0c1317ef



I woke up this morning planning to return to the US, but decided to stay another night. I just LOVE the flexibility of being able to decide, on a whim, what I feel like doing on vacation.

After several STRONG drinks last night at the bar, I woke up feeling just the slightest bit hungover, so I wanted to wait several hours before flying. It was not until about 11 AM that I felt well enough to fly, so around noon, I arranged for a cab to take me to the airport.

I really wanted to do some more extensive aerial reconnaissance of Samana Cay as well and give our one and only Pigfaceboy a surprise gift of his favorite spot in the entire Bahamas! Both of those were in the cards for today.

In the mid to late morning, I took a cab the 3/4 of a mile to airport from the resort and started my preflight of the plane. About a half hour after that, I was all set and ready to depart, so I took off on runway 31 to the northwest. As soon as I reached a few hundred feel, that blue water off to the left really jumped out at me! While not AS nice as what was to come, it still held its own, thats for sure.

At 400 feet, I made a left turn to the east, on course to Samana Cay and climbed up to 5500'. It was at that altitude that I had the most favorable winds (a tailwind of about 10 mph luckily). Enroute to Samana, I passed by Rum Cay--another one of my favorite gems, although not as remote as I'd like now having been spoiled by Mayaguana and the NE Shore of Great Inagua.

As I'm level in cruise at 5500', I suction mount another Gopro to the outside window and tether it with shoe string tot he inside of the plane in case it comes loose. The airflow is so strong, especially right behind the propeller, that not only is it a challenge to mount, but the wrapped ends of the shoe string really put a sting on my forearm as its flapping relentlessly in the 150+ mph breeze.

I put this camera up for the purpose of taking video in 4K resolution, and then extracting the still shots later. This would make for an 8 megapixel photo---respectable resolution. Using just the video from this camera will not be of much use because of the extreme vibration behind the propeller stream.

As I am about 10 miles west of the west tip of Samana Cay, I start a fairly steep descent of about 500 feet per mile and aim for the western reef which sticks out the most. It was on this reef that my friend Craig told me that the absolute best wall diving he has ever done was here. This was many years ago and a very calm day. The visibility was something ridiculous like 200 feet in that area. Although I am SCUBA certified and love diving almost as much as flying, I've been sooooo focused on how beautiful these islands are topside that I've kind of forgotten how nice they are underwater.

I'm due for some serious diving in the Bahamas, thats for sure.

Before you know it, I'm flying eastbound about 50 feet above this wall (100' above the top of the wall underwater) and I can see what Craig means when he describes how pristine it is. Very steep and distinct drop off for at least a mile or two, probably more. I continue flying along the wall and follow it to the shore, and then fly southeast towards Columbus Bay, just as I had done 6 days earlier. I then make my way to over the same inland blue hole about 1 mile to the NE of Columbus bay and then fly south and then east along the south shore of Samana.

As I reach the east end of Samana and then the unnamed island further to the east, I am hit full force again with some of the most beautiful blue/green water on the planet. Must be a pure sandy bottom with depths in the 5' range. This is what I envision when I think of overwater bungalows on stilts in French Polynesia. I shouldn't be saying that because I do NOT want to give any scumbag developer any ideas. Just what we need.

I round the tip of the east island and turn west and fly along the north shore of Samana. As nice as the water was on the east end, the pure white sand and deep blue shaded water here is even BETTER. Its easily the BEST combo of white sand and blue water in the entire Bahamas.

While I'm glad this winning combo of water and sand IS on the Bahamas equivalent of an 8000 meter peak (Cho Oyu), I wish it were not on the "easiest" of them, and instead wish it was on East Plana or Hogsty---both much harder to get to than Samana---not to mention Samana is almost always temporarily inhabited, which is why I title it the "easiest" of the five to reach, as it the real Cho Oyu in the Himalayas, located about 35 miles from Everest.

(Continued on next post)

 

[beestforwardspeed]

After my survey of Samana, I move onto East Plana again, but cut it out of the film since you all saw it already from my April 3rd write-up. I do a similar reconnaissance from 6 days earlier, just more in-depth. Additionally, I take a lot more RAW still shots of East Plana (Kanchenjunga of the Bahamas) as that is next on my bucket list.

After my survey here is complete, I turn on course to the west and aim for a point about 5 miles north of the Acklins Island airport. It is here that I start my survey of the windward NE shore of Acklins.

PIGFACEBOY!!!

As I position myself just offshore, I fly at around 150 feet northbound, and while the water and sand here are not quite as glowing as they are on the N shore of Samana, they still hold their own, even my Bahamas standards!

A few mile further north, I come across a gap in the lagoon where Acklins Island ends and Lady Slipper Cay begins. I make a left 360 deg turn around this lagoon which sets me up again to fly low along the eastern most end of Lady Slipper Cay

PIGFACEBOY!!!!

2 miles later, I make a hard left turn to fly low along the north side of LSC. This is where it is most STUNNING. There is a huge rock, at least the size of a few football fields right at the end of a creek. The sand here is so white and the water so blue, that it rivals the north shore of Samana! It looks as if this area has been completely untouched by humans since the beginning of time.

If Pigfaceboy beats me here, I'm expecting a complete video and write-up from him, in a similar fashion to what I've put together!

Now on course back to Stella Maris, I climb back up to 6500 and take in the sites along the north shore of Crooked Island. It is immediately apparent that there are several brush fires burning on the interior of Crooked. Hopefully they were able to contain them at least somewhat with the very limited accessibility of this area.

Now about midway along the north shore of Crooked Island, I have an "Oh ****" moment, that is almost over before I have much time to think about what happened!

All of the sudden, the engine revs down for a second or two, before roaring back to life as it had all along. While it shakes me up nice and good, having a million beaches right underneath me to glide to for a power off landing is far from your worst choice. Not only would you not be injured at all, but its very likely the plane would not even sustain any damage.

The only reason I can think of that might have caused this was just a small amount of sitting water that ran through one or more of the fuel injectors. I had the same thing happen several years ago while flying, and despite dumping the fuel thoroughly on the first flight of everyday, or everytime you refuel, sometimes it still happens for unknown reasons.

As I pass off Landrail Point, I climb up to 8500' to cross over the water from Crooked to Long island. After what just happened with the engine, I want to minimize my time beyond glide distance from shore. Luckily this altitude leave me only 3 mile where I would get wet if my plane turned into a glider suddenly. That being said, I still carry an EPIRB beacon, Sat Phone, and a life raft and lifejacket.

The engine runs flawlessly and about halfway across to Long island, I fly over a solid undercast cloud deck. The blanket of white stretches for about 5-10 miles all around me and its soooo cool to think you can just walk on the thing.

While the Bahamas is the last place I'd expect to pay attention to Mother Natures Scenery (since the terrestrial scenery is so amazing) she holds her own and is competitive in this area today.

As I would expect this far south so late in the season, the cloud deck does not cover a lot of area, and just 5 minutes later, I am over almost clear skies on Long Island. At this point I start my descent from 8500 feet and fly low again (about 200') along the NE shore, abeam the Stella Maris Resort to shoot some more video before landing.

The rest of the flight is uneventful and I make a straight in to runway 13 landing to the southeast. After shutting her down, I have her refueled and I go over to customs to pay the $29 departure tax, so that way I can just leave tomorrow morning without any rush.

I soon have my ride waiting to return to Stella Maris and then once there, I walk down the street to the waterfront. I had been meaning to check it out the previous day, but ran out of time. While there is hardly any beach down here, it doesn't take away how nice it is. I spend a few more minutes checking out the numberous pools down here before heading back to the main area.

Once back, I find a large group of British travelers who are all sitting alongside each other, and they seem to almost instantly welcome me as if I've known them many years! They are a riot and just can't stop laughing. I instantly feel comfortable around all of them.

Traveling solo does NOT mean traveling alone, thats for sure!

Later that night, they invite (actually FORCE me) to sit at their table for dinner (trust me, they didn't have to try hard) where the fun continues.

WHY or WHY did i leave my favorite party game, "Cards Against Humanity" at home. Ughhhhhhh! These 8 people would have been the PERFECT crowd for such a game.

I don't drink that much since I HAVE to leave tomorrow for the trip home. Like all good things, this too must come to an end, sooner or later.

I get in bed about 10:30 that night so I can get a decent early start back to Florida and then to Connecticut.

(The end)