Thursday 28 Feb, Anguilla day 3: Last day of winter (for some). Road trip exploring the beaches of East End Anguilla.
We are not early birds today, finally making it off the boat by 11am. At the dinghy dock we meet the Swedish couple from the cat which is anchored next to us, Nelly and Bjorn. They are also members of the Ocean Cruising Club and they invite us for drinks this evening. We chat to them about the islands we went so far and future cruising plans as they are unfolding their bicycles to go for a cycle tour around the island. While Anguilla is fairly flat, it’s pretty hot and dusty to be cycling all day! And it’s a rather long island to cycle around.
Once in the car we set off to visit bays and beaches along East End and we start with the northern shore line. First Crocus Bay, which has a very nice residential complex, CeBlue, perched on the hill and overlooking the pretty beach at the bottom. There is a reasonably nice beach restaurant, daVida, and we attempt a coffee but machine is not working.
So we move on to the next bay along, Little Bay. Or try to. We can’t get to it by car. So we park on the side of the road and walk through some bushes on a very narrow footpath till we reach the edge of the cliffs. From here is descending on ropes. Tempting to descend, but we have other agenda today. Looking down we see an amazingly beautiful bay, with a very small beach under the cliff where we stand and sheer cliffs straight into the sea everywhere else. There are few people on the tiny beach, and unless the ventured down on the rope they must have come from the few boats which are moored in the bay.
On top of the cliff opposite from us there is an impressive residence complex, ANI Villas, and I fall in love with it. So we drive to it to see from up close. It looks like there are two identical houses, but maybe there is something else beyond them.
After that there are some small bays which are only accessed after long dusty drives down various dirt roads, only to find that we cannot actually get to see the beach because private houses have the access. And where we did find a public access to a beach, the properties next to the path had loose barking dogs and I thought better than to have my legs attacked by these dogs. So we make a u-turn and our luck changes when we get to the next big bay.
Shoal Bay has a long wide beach, and it’s another one of Anguilla’s picture perfect and paradise like beach. There are lots of hotels and beach bars along it, each one with a cluster of sun beds and umbrellas. But it is far from crammed or crowded.
First stop is into the Zemi Beach House. It’s a bit like the Four Seasons resort. Definitely my kind of place! Fancy, nice decor, infinity pool to the beach, nice gardens, upmarket. The buildings are very neatly done with multilevel pools between them and shady comfortable areas. We stroll through the grounds for a while, taking it all in and plan to return in one of the coming evenings.
Following that we go for a beer in the neighbouring Gwen’s Reggae Grill which is at the opposite end of the scale on my likes-list! Rough and dirty. The owners dog is even walking on the tables! Together with our drinks we also order a snack. For which we wait and wait. But after 40 mins of no delivery we cancel the order and move on, thank goodness!
At the opposite end of the beach there are several nicer restaurants and a couple of boutique hotels. Manoah Butique Hotel stands out with an interesting design and a very inviting bar by the beach. Upmarket, of course. All very nice but we cannot stay long to explore in detail as there is a no-parking rule and we have been forced to park rather awkwardly.
Further exploration in the northern end of the island does not reveal any more nice areas or beaches. The beach that is supposed to be good for kite surfing is, as usual on these windward coasts, completely covered in sargasso seaweed. And some of the bays along this side of the island are reached only by foot. We do get the hire car adequately dusty driving on all sorts of dirt roads in search of more nice beaches, and our quest gets to an end once we have circumnavigated this East End of Anguilla.
Back onto the main roads we make a brief stop at Best Buy, a surprisingly large and well stocked supermarket. Then we head back to our bay and stroll along the beach hoping to grab a beer for sunset. But most places are either shut or very quiet. So we settle on going back to Cloudy Bay for a nice cuppa tea.
In the evening Glen goes over to socialize with the Swedish boat next to us, while I remain onboard for some admin tasks, mostly to bring the blog up to date. The rest of the evening is relaxing and reasonably early to bed.