Saturday, December 10, 2016

Down Island Trip, Day 1!

Hello everyone, 

Today was special—we got to sleep in! (Except for a few people, who headed into the trails for an early-morning run.) After meeting at the flagpole at 7:30 and enjoying a breakfast of meat, potatoes, grits, and cornflakes, we finished up any final packing for our long-awaited camping trip. Soon we’d be heading north to the very tip of the island of Eleuthera, stopping to see beautiful sights and eat local food along the way.

We just left the parking lot for our road trip! We are so excited!

Finally, after packing two vans, we embarked on the trip! About an hours drive later, we arrived at a small bakery in Governor’s Harbor and devoured cheese Danishes, doughnuts, and other sugary treats we’d been craving for days. We also stopped for a bathroom break at a gas station, where Michael was finally able to stock up on Altoids. 

Stan, showing us how to do it right. A cheese danish in one hand, and a coconut danish in the other. 

Our first major landmark was called Hatchet Bay, which we soon discovered included an intricate and dark cave. We experienced ‘spelunking’ (cave-exploring) as we wandered through the rocky passageways and painted ourselves with the red, iron-rich clay on the cave floor. We even turned off our flashlights for an eerie 24 seconds of pitch-black silence. 

A big group of us in the muddy cave!

After returning to natural daylight, we enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches, cassava chips, and fruit. Off to our next adventure! Stan and Whit led us to the other side of the Hatchet Bay site, where we saw Seahorse Pond. We were going to snorkel with seahorses! We explored the crystal-clear waters of the pond and successfully found crabs and various invertebrates (and seahorses, of course).

We dried off and climbed back into the vans for the last leg of today’s trip. Our final destination was Daddy Jo’s beach (we passed the house of Lenny Kravitz, Eleuthera native, on the way), where we arrived to watch a beautiful sunset along the white sand of the shore. We unpacked the vans, set up our tents, and starting cooking food. Within a few hours, we were all sitting around the campfire eating homemade veggie stir fry, complete with rice, broccoli, onions, carrots, and green peppers.

Check out the sun setting over our amazing campsite!

Our amazing fire-building team, with some OLers and some newbies!

As the sun went down, we played games, told ghost stories around the campfire, walked along the beach, and took pictures of our incredible campground. Tired from our long road trip yet excited for the second day of the journey, we went to sleep at 10. We were going to awake at the early hour of 5:45 to see the sunrise at the Glass Window Bridge—a sight we couldn’t wait to experience.

Playing the game "Mafia" around the campfire on Daddy Jo's Beach!

See you in a week! Hope you’re enjoying the snow :)
Laura and Sarah

No comments:

Post a Comment