Apologies for the length, I've been told I'm genetically incapable of writing anything in a succinct manner....
The Plan Mike and Kristina doing...
Five Days on Virgin Gorda at Nail Bay
Nine Days on Anegada at Neptune's
We're snorkelling and hiking people, with a minor in fishing, so our vacations are planned around those activities. We're not ultra-deluxe "All inclusive" or cruise type people, so our plans are colored by that as well (though we won't turn down luxury when it's offered to us :-) .
We've been to the BVI twice before (we were married on Long Bay on Tortola), but only day trips to VG and Anegada. This was to be our serious off-the-path BVI vacation.
Pictures: Flickr - Mike and Kris BVI 2008 Pictures FYI Only about 1/10th the pictures are up right now, there's a lot to upload :-)
Getting there:
NY JFK -> SJU (Jet Blue)
SJU -> Beef Island (American Eagle)
Beef Island -> Virgin Gorda (North Sound Express Ferry)
5 days later...
Virgin Gorda -> Anegada vs Smith's Ferry
Getting back:
Anegada-> Roadtown (Smith's)
Cab to Beef Island
Beef -> SJU (American Eagle)
SJU -> JFK (Jet Blue)
Day 1 May 16th, 2008Long day ahead of us, we start at 4:45 am and won't be at our villa at Nail Bay until sometime in the early evening. NY Flight uneventful, Jet Blue has some issues but the leg space alone makes it worthwhile, particularly for a 6'2" guy like me. American Eagle gives us a bit of a run around - everyone takes a shuttle bus out to the plane, we stand around, we get herded back into the bus and back into the terminal, they switch planes, we wait some more.
We get a new plane, new plane sits on the runway for awhile due to "mechanical issues" (yikes!). Along the way we also find out that Kris' carry on won't fit under the seat or on the overhead, so we have to do the special valet-service thing. We aren't happy campers about this but don't have any real choice here. So in the nose it goes!
But we eventually take off without incident and make good time to Beef Island, and Kris got her bag back without issues..
We're met outside of the airport by a Nail Bay rep. We're overdue for the ferry, but they call and get them to hold it for us, and they drive us over to the marina gratis. North Sound Express takes us over in short order, a nice ferry if a bit small.
At Ferry dock we're met by car rental company (arranged by Nail Bay), we get that settled quickly. Nice to know you don't need a special BVI license anymore if you're a tourist. We drive out to Nail Bay - as we've heard the road is mostly unpaved, but they are working on paving it, and it looks to be about halfway done. If you've driven anywhere in the caribbean at all this won't really phase you - reports online of the road being terrifying or treacherous must be from people who've never driven outside of suburbia. People who found this road terrifying would probably faint dead away on St. Lucia or St. Vincent!
Our villa is breath taking - it's one of the Mystic Water Suites and is a duplex lay out with a living area, bedroom, full kitchen, half-in-half-out shower, and a patio with a semi-private small swimming pool. Everything is very modern and extremely asethetically pleasing. And there's nothing in the world like having your own pool. And we got all this for well under $300 a night.
We do a bit of provisions shopping at Bucks, and then dinner at Nail Bay's restaurant, Sugarcane (recently renamed). Dinner is OK - not good or bad. A dip in the pool at our place and some videos on the computer end the night nicely.
Notes: They get satellite TV and adverise wi-fi access. But the sat TV only gets about 3 channels, and the wi-fi doesn't work around our villa areas (Nail Bay is _big_). Not a big deal to us but good to know. Also, Kasha at the front desk is very helpful getting taxis and such.
Day 2 May 17th, 2008The plan is to drive over to Leverick's and rent a dinghy to take out on the sound, but we get there 9:30ish and see a sign that the guy is out with clients and won't be back 'till 2:30. Damn! Need to readjust to island time :-)
We detour to Savannah bay, which is basically the atlantic side of isthmus between the north and south halves of the island. Beautiful beach, snorkelling doesn't seem very good though. We tried Nail Bay's beach next, but it was all full of rocks and didn't look inviting to snorkel. So we tried Long Bay as a last resort, which is the next bay over to the North.
This was pretty good. The water was pretty clear, and a decent reef was out there housing the usual small-scale suspects. To get to the good part swim straight out from the obvious beach access point until you're passed the main reef, then hang a right and snorkell along the outer edge as far you please.
The north end of the bay out of the water was even more interesting. There's a shelf of ancient coral/limestone that runs along for a couple of hundred yards where the surf breaks that's raised several inches above the water line, with many old shells and pieces of brain coral embedded in it. Plus lots of snails. A good bay for novice to intermediate snorkellers.
Dinner is at The Rock, and it's as good as the last time we were there. We hang out for awhile and get a taxi back (we don't like to drive in most islands if we're drinking).
We get a quote of the day. From our taxi driver: "You want to go where? Where is that? I'm not from Virgin Gorda, I'm from St. Thomas and just arrived here". Luckily he was a very nice guy, a good driver, and we knew the way ;-)
Day 3 May 18th, 2008Mike's sunburn recovery day. Despite using SPF 30 on my back, hours of snorkelling has burnt it to a crisp. So we turned this into a hiking and site-seeing day.
First up was the hike to Gorda peak. We drove to the first turn off you see for the peak, which has a pleasant little parking lot/picnic area. The climb is pretty moderate, and more tropical than I initially imagined. You see, our day trips to VG focused on the south sides (as I'm sure most do), and the southern part of VG is very desert like. Almost forbidding in some areas.
The nothern part is different, and feels much more like Tortola than the southern part does. As a result the vegetation is much more varied and intersting.
Anyway, getting to the top takes 30-40 minutes of very leisurely hiking. When you get there there's an observation tower that pokes out of the Jungle to give you a 360 view of the surrounding islands. Kris revels in it. I conquer my (ridiculous) fear of heights and climb it to get some good pics.
We go back the alternate way to the second turn off on the main road. This is basically a straight descent with no level parts (or ascent if you're going towards the peak), and ends in a stair way down to the road. We walk back to our car from there - a bit hot, but well worth it. This whole part of the road faces the north sound with gorgeous views of Saba Rock et al.
After this we head into the valley - first the mine shaft for lunch, then Coppermine point.
The mineshaft is pretty cool and has good lunch food. A nice view of the baths and the northern part of the island can be had since it sits on a little hill. And like many bits of Virgin Gorda, it has little extras that surprise you. In this case, it's the mini golf out in front. The goats all over the course only made it more charming.
Coppermine surprised me - I expected something boring and stodgy but it's quite interesting. There are bits of abandoned buildings about, with many of the rocks streaked green from the copper ore. But what gets you is the setting - it's really quite dramatic. The mine is dug out of a hill side with boulders and rocks strewn all about, with a steep incline down to the water where the waves crash and boom against the shore. There's even a partial concrete ramp down that stops abruptly over all of this. People go on forever about the baths, but after hiking in upstate NY for years I have to say if you see one gigantic boulder you've seen 'em all. Coppermine to me is much more interesting and unique. The fact that no one seems to go there is a big plus compared to the swarms all over the Baths area.
Later in the day we tried a few snorkelling places to no avail until we go lucky with Mountain Trunk Bay. The snorkelling is easy even for a novice, the water crystal clear. The downsides were the itty-bity parking area if you bring a car, and a rather smelly garbage can. There was only one other couple so we nearly had the place to our selves.
Dinner again at the Rock. This time it was a bit disappointing - the service was off and they seemed to be out of several items (or unwilling to make them, hard to say which, the waitress seemed very new and uncertain). We thought at least the Karoke would be fun, but it ended up not starting until very late, so we gave up. Oh well, no place can be good every night..
Day 4 May 19th, 2008Today we tried for the dinghy rental again at Levericks, and this time we succeeded! If you're a boating person you will not be impressed. For a land bound pathetic soul such as mine, it was pure heaven. Dinghy's (more like a row boat with a 15 hp motor) were $90 a day with a 2 minute set of instructions on where you're allowed to go and how to work the motor. Easy enough that any idiot
can do it. Fortunately I know the basics of boating courtesy so (I dont' think) I embarrassed us with any untoward behavior.
You can go more or less anywhere in side of North Sound. We did Mosquito Island, tried the North side of Prickly Peark Isl, then lunch at Saba Rock, and off to bil Nut Bay in the early afternoon.
Mosquito was nice. Pull the dingy up a bit, create a makeshift "anchor" from some coral and rocks to keep it there, snorkel for about an hour. Very clear, easy snorkelling, lots of rays. Another couple we'd seen several times came out on the same route a short time later, Basil and Sarah. In one of those weird cosmic coincidences we would run into Basil and Sarah a total of about 16 times throughout our vacation!
After mosquito, we a did bit of tooling around, then we went for the north side of Prickly Pear. We rather botched this. You have to go around Saba Rock to the south, then go well beyond the rock past the reef, and then cut north east to get to the bay we wanted.
Except I short-cutted across that reef, and got stuck on it instead. At which point the motor cut out and would not restart.
Had it been just me I'd still be out there muttering and trying various crazy things until I died of thirst and/or starvation.
Fortunately Kris councilled patience and a cooling off period. After said period passed we got off the reef and figured out how to restart the engine, and didn't have any incidents afterwards.
Prickly Pear North was scenic but uninteresting from a snorkelling standpoint. We head off to oil nut instead.
Landing at the "Beach" there is a bit tricky - the opening in the reefs/rock is pretty small. But we managed. Snorkelling there is
the best so far - lots of variety and in a huge protected area. The reef is to the north and several hundred yards away, with coral
heads all between the shore and there. We get paced by a monster 3+ foot Barracuda for most of the time, which is unnerving as usual.
A highly recommended snorkelling site for an intermediate to advanced snorkeller, provided you can get there.
Lunch at Saba rock - good lunch, the grounds are simply amazing.
We return the boat and have dinner at Little Dix Bay. This is a major culture shock - after slipping into casual wear and attitudes Little Dix is money, formality, structure. The place is physically amazing, but all the beautiful people can be a bit to take.
Dinner itself is a seafood buffet - a pretty massive buffet, for around $90 a head or so. At first glance it was amazing. After reflection it wasn't quite worth it. They had lots of things that just don't fit or work well in the BVI - they had king crab legs for heaven's sake! Which had to be frozen and it showed.
Still, it was an interesting sliver of civilation. And I got to wear my one pair of slacks I brought along.
Day 5 May 20th, 2008The dinghy experience was so cool on the prior day we did again the next. This time we went straight out to Oil Nut Bay with the idea to really explore it, and it worked out extremely well. I can't say enough about the snorkelling out here, the water was very clear both times and there's lots of variety in the fish and coral you see.
Did lunch at Saba again, and more snorkelling at Mosquito Island. Even more variety this time - several spotted eagle rays, and nearly a dozen juvenile barracuda very close in shore. Also one turtle but we couldnt' get a pic of him. Turtles were scarce on this trip for some reason. Spent the rest of the day tooling around the bay. Was mystified by the wind socks north of Leverick's until we moved in closer and found out it was for a sea plane dock at Gun Greek.
Dinner was at Giorgio's Table at Mango bay. We found it mixed. Service was stellar - the best we've had in quite some time, including our home town of NYC. But food was only so-so. This was our last night on Virgin Gorda, the next day was the ferry to Anegada for a nine day stay.
Final ImpressionsI was worried a bit about Virgin Gorda. Our day trips seemed to show a semi-arid desert island with not much to do. But we learned that the Valley is not the whole island - the north eastern part and the North Sound are entirely different beasts altogether. Puttering around the North Sound in a boat alone made the whole trip worthwhile. The main weird thing (to me) about Virgin Gorda is that there are so many super-deluxe resorts for such a small island.
Nail Bay was perfect for us. The villas area spread out over a couple of square miles, and services are somewhat limited (e.g. no breakfast at the restaurant). But we loved it. The Mystic Water Suite was really big and the pool kept a big smile on our faces the whole time. Note: the pool isn't 100% private, in that it can be seen from the other Mystic Water Suite (there are two). But the other one was empty most of the time we were there, and it was effectively private for us. The kitchen was very complete with everything you might want, plus a very new barbequeue grill on the patio. The only disappointment was the satellite TV only showing a few channels, but we had about 30 movies on our laptops so this wasn't an issue.
On the baths - yep, we skipped it this time. We've seen 'em twice already and that was enough.
Bottom line: Virgin Gorda was great, one of our better vacations I think. But Anegada was even better....
Next: Part II, 9 days in Anegada.
