The Baths

We found out that the blonde kitty with the dirty, injured leg is named Ginger. She looked so sick when I first saw her sleeping in the garden below our room. (She looked better later in the week.)

We took a taxi to Road Town to catch the 9:00 ferry to Virgin Gorda. The ticket lady was cranky, maybe because I was trying to use a $50 traveler's check to buy a ticket one minute before the ferry was due to depart.

In Virgin Gorda, a cheerful, friendly young man named William Penn offered to taxi us to the Baths. He was wearing a bright yellow sleeveless Lakers shirt, a gold chain around his neck, and a straw hat. We climbed into the back of his small pickup and sat down on the bench seats. We were surprised when a speaker in the back came to life and we got a quaint guided tour on the way. "On the right is Grandma's Kitchen, Grandma's Kitchen. … On the left are the Seaside Villas, Seaside Villas. … The shopping mall is on the right, the mall. … This is an elementary school. …"

("He's not jaded," Beth later remarked.)

When he dropped us off at the Baths, he asked about our return trip, and we said we planned to take the last ferry back. He said maybe we would get tired before that, "It's very hot at the Baths. I'll be back at 3:15. If you're not here by 3:30, I'll come back at 5:30." He repeated to make sure we understood. We agreed and thanked him.

We paid our $3 entrance fee to the BVI National Park Service. Liz got something to drink. As soon as we started down the trail to the beach, Liz and Beth stopped and sat on a convenient boulder and had peanut butter sandwiches.

 

Once we reached the beach, we went for a dip. It was starting to rain when we got out of the water. It rained pretty hard for a while. We sat at a picnic table under the shelter by the Poor Man's Bar and started to organize what we needed for the hike through the caves and what we wanted to store in the lockers.

Liz and I had each bought a locker token for $2.25 before we realized that we wouldn't be storing all that much and only needed one locker. We saved the second token, thinking we might use it later. (We didn't.)

The rain stopped before long. A group of school students arrived on a science project outting.

We squeezed our stuff into the locker. Then we squeezed ourselves between the two towering boulders that form the entrance to the caves.

Last year when we visited the Baths, Beth was afraid she wouldn't be able to keep up with us and declined to go into the caves. We had much less time then, and Liz and I felt rushed in our tour of the caves. This time we took all the time we wanted and enjoyed every minute. Beth was in awe, and said words -- our description to her of the caves last year -- could not describe it.

We wound around and between boulders the size of buildings. We crept under them. We climbed ladders over them. Shafts of sunlight broke dark chambers of rock and glowed on pools of shallow water.

In one boulder, there was a deep depression. I stuck my head in it, and my head disappeared. Liz stuck her head in it, and a bug flew out. Her head flew out almost as fast.

 

 

 

 

 

Once we threaded our way out to the shore, we waded out to a large rock just offshore and climbed up. While Liz sunbathed on the rock, Beth and I snorkeled just off the other side.

From a shelf of shallow water, we stepped into a deep, partly-enclosed chasm formed by large, surrounding boulders in the water. There was a surprising variety of fish right there, and we spent quite a while in that pool watching them. Finally we ventured through a crevasse between two of the boulders into another, deeper chasm, also surrounded by boulders. We could have gone farther, swimming between the boulders, but that was as far as we got.

On the rocks above water, we saw crabs scurrying.

We swam back through the crevasse and climbed back up onto the rock where Liz was waiting. We packed up and started back on the trail through the caves, again taking our time along the way.

 

 

When we finally got back to the beach -- about 2 hours and 40 minutes after we first entered the caves -- we went up to the Top of the Baths for dinner. Beth had a veggie burger, and Liz had Creole Mahi with fried plantains and rice and beans.

In the middle of our dinner, a lady mopped the floor in the dining area with floor cleaner that had a strong, nauseating chemical smell. She mopped and mopped. I told Beth and Liz that I needed to get away from the smell. I walked out to the souvenir shops for a few minutes.

When I returned to the dining area, "Hazel," as Beth dubbed her, was still mopping. I told a woman who looked like she might be the manager that the smell was bothering me, and she immediately told Hazel, "Stop." Hazel looked pissed. She stopped mopping.

Unfortunately, the smell persisted. I hurried through my coconut shrimp dinner and finally gave up. I couldn't stand the fumes. I went to the washroom to brush my teeth and then discovered why the horrible chemical smell persisted - the mop and full bucket were sitting just out of sight, around the end of the bar, still close to our table.

I left Beth and Liz to finish their meals and pay the check while I got away to the shops. In the shop in the building separate from the restaurant, I talked to a nice shopkeeper who told me she was originally from St. Lucia. She had BVI flags that were much more reasonably priced than the same ones I saw at Cane Garden Bay, and I told her I'd be back with some money to buy one. I went back to Beth to borrow money (mine was in the locker).

I caught up with Liz and Beth, who were just leaving the restaurant. Beth and I went back to the gift shop, and I bought a flag. On the ground outside, Beth found a small piece of rock or coral with a tiny stick embedded in it and tinier rock or coral "ornaments" on the stick. (You'd have to see it to appreciate how unusual it is.)

At Top of the Baths for dinner

Beth and Liz have ice cream at Mad Dog's

 

The three of us went back down to the beach. The beach vendor was packing up his wares, and the maintenance man may have been locking up around that time, because very soon we were the only ones left on the beach.

I went snorkeling alone in the water near the beach. In the sand below, I noticed a little donut-shaped nest of pebbles and bits of coral, with a hole in the sand in the middle. While I was watching it, a little head poked out of the hole and looked around. I don't know if it was a little fish or a little eel, because he never did more than poke his bony little fishy head out, a head about as big as my thumb.

He stuck his head out of the hole ... looked around ... blinked ... and went back inside. In a moment, he stuck his head out again ... I chortled in glee through my snorkel, and Beth and Liz heard it on the beach. I came out and told Beth she had to see.

Beth put on her gear and followed me into the water. I was able to find the little nest again and pointed it out. Beth was thrilled to meet our new little finger-puppet friend. We watched him for a while, and maybe he watched us, too, or maybe he was watching for someone else.

After snorkeling

William Penn's business card

When we surfaced, I said to Beth, why don't you lend your mask and snorkel to Liz? Beth did, and Liz was soon wearing the mask, standing in water up to her knees, bending over and peering nervously into the water for some time, like she was thinking about going in farther and putting her face in the water.

Suddenly, she cried, "Eeeek!" and ran out of the water. She said a fish bit her. Although we could find no mark on her leg, she said she felt the teeth, and it hurt.

 

We packed up. The washrooms were locked and no one was around. We changed just outside the washroom doors.

We went up the beach trail to the top and wandered over to Mad Dog for ice cream. Inga, the owner, saw me taking a picture and said I have to e-mail it to her. We sat for a while on the porch at Mad Dog, waiting for William, our taxi driver.

Liz asked Inga to call William to make sure we didn't miss the last ferry. "He's a man of his word," Inga said. When William arrived, he gently scolded us, saying he had not forgotten us. I told him I knew he'd come for us, and Liz explained she was a worrywart. (William was our favorite taxi driver of the vacation, we reminisced later.)

At the ferry dock, passengers sat on a low stone wall for a little while, waiting to board. After boarding, we waited a little while before getting under way. We sat on the top deck. The sky was wide around us; clouds rose majestically; other clouds shrouded the low sun and cast mysterious shadows in the sky.

Back at the hotel, we took turns showering and were in bed by 8:30.

Aboard the ferry, waiting for departure

M Y S T E R Y -----A U D I O Caveman (MP3) Liz, Beth, and I recorded this short audio at Mad Dog's on Virgin Gorda. In it are mingled two separate threads of conversation. 1. The first thread of conversation occurs at the beginning and the end of the audio: "Mmmmmmmm!!" … "Caveman!" "… had excitement in it." … Etc. 2. The second thread of conversation occurs in the middle of the audio: "Oh, here. Is that …" "Is that … I forgot what color …" "Yeah, that was bigger." "What color … it is red." "I thought it was blue. Well, … is a small … small." Later when I listened to this audio (one of dozens we recorded), I knew what the first thread was about, but I was completely mystified by the second thread. Liz solved the mystery - more than one year later! What were the two things we were talking about? Caveman (MP3) Hint: Both things have to do with events of the day in Virgin Gorda, as narrated above on this page. The answers are on the Virgin Islands 2009 Secret Page (AKA The Wild Parties Page). To see the Secret Page, you will need to correctly complete the Quiz at the end of this vacation journal.