Monday, August 15, 2011

Sea of Love - The Beaches

Midway through our B.V.I. honeymoon, we still hadn't made it to one of the top attractions on Virgin Gorda - The Baths. So we hired a taxi and bumped our way along the island's main road to the edge of the national park where a trail strewn with giant boulders hinted at what was to come.

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With a little effort, we reached our reward!

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The Baths! After hearing Mr. PaC's stories of this beautiful place, I fretted (needlessly) the real thing wouldn't live up to expectations.

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Surreal sea and sky. Daytrippers at anchor.

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It was so ungodly hot that our only escape was exploring "the caves" connecting the two beaches. Which is merely a denser concentration of granite boulders haphazardly stacked in such a way that it formed a maze-like passage over, under and between said boulders.

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Off we go! This first passageway required a crouch-waddle movement during which I may have shot Mr. PaC an incredulous look as I expected the caves to progressively become more difficult. Thankfully, this was it for tight squeezes.

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One of the serenely beautiful tidal pools with powdery soft sand. This would be a good spot to hide pirate treasure!

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Emerging out of the caves for a moment between the beaches, this was our view. See that the tidal pool in the foreground? It's home to a rather territorial little fish that enjoyed nipping our toes.

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Devil's Bay - the other side of the caves. We stood on the edge of the cave for a good minute surveying the view, stunned at how gorgeous a natural place could be. Nothing we've ever seen exceeds the B.V.I. in natural beauty.

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The salinity of the water made it ridiculously easy to float.

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Photographic proof I went into the water! I like to tell Mr. PaC I have a healthy respect for the ocean and all its creatures, especially sharks. (Thank goodness Shark Week had not aired before our honeymoon!)

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The following morning, we departed LDB via powerboat. Our destination? Mountain Trunk Bay, north of the resort on the west coast, for a private beach drop and picnic lunch.

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Approaching Mountain Trunk.

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Pinch me. Seriously. We're looking out onto The Dogs from here, specifically Great Dog and George Dog. Scrub Island, Great Camanoe and Tortola loom in the distance.

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More craggy rocks and beaches strewn with rock. In crevices, we found sea urchin, snail and crab. I had plenty of beach to explore and returned with a good shell haul.

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This spot was purported to have some great snorkeling so Mr. PaC brought his gear. But the water depth jumped from 2' to 15' almost immediately, so he couldn't help but wonder what size fish were in those depths if we had good sized fish and large sea turtles in our 3' deep protected bay. That and I wasn't going out there - as bait or lifeguard. No way. No how.

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So he built more rock sculptures.

Because you made it this far... here's your video reward, a panoramic view of Mountain Trunk Beach:


Our waterproof video camera rocks! It took all of the above shots and many HD movies. And not once did I ever worry about getting it wet, sandy or being rough with it. My (malfunctioning) dSLR stayed in the room safe for the entire trip.

Catch up on the PaC honeymoon: We arrive. We explore. We dine. We spa.

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