Thursday 24 January, St. Barth day 4: Road trip around the island, ticking off most of the beaches.
Road trip time! And despite being on a fancy island, what we get from the rental car company is a wreck. Probably the wreckest rent-a-wreck, it is completely damaged all around: side mirrors, doors, bumpers, wheels, all with big scrapes and dents. I would be embarrassed to offer for rent such a car, but they just smile and couldn’t care less. While it looks bad on the outside, it does actually drive OK and more importantly, on these roads, the brakes work!
We start driving clockwise, and soon we experience the up the hills and down the steep slopes driving on narrow roads with stone walls either side, and oncoming traffic that zooms passed, missing us by centimeters. Everybody is driving way too fast for the conditions. Yes we are definitely in France! No wonder the cars are so damaged, it is quite tricky driving.
As we head towards Anse de Public we go through the industrial area, which also has a few useful shops. One of them being electrical appliances. Wonderful find, as we have been hunting for a new 220VAC kettle since we left Europe. And as it happens, they do have quite a few to chose from. We pick a nice small one, can’t wait to boil water without burning my fingers! Lots of good stuff in this shop, and it reminds me how much I miss Europe and having everything we need within easy reach.
The Public Beach itself is quite nice, and as we glance to the small sailing school located there we comment just how well equipped the French sailing schools are, in both boats and materials on sailing.
From there we carry on to the next beach, Anse Corosol, up and down the hill again. A very small beach with brownish sand.
After a very short stop here we head towards Colombier, where on the side of the road we find an amazing boulangerie, with very inviting smells. Couldn’t resist, so we go in for a small sample. Which ended up being our second breakfast: quiche and croque monsieur, and the best coffee we had yet. And right next to it Bannaniers, a nice restaurant which was recommenced to us for the pizzas. We’ll have to come back and sample that too!
Stuffed, but very happy, we drive to the most northern point where there is a view point on top of the hill, overlooking Colombier Point to the north and Anse des Flamandes to the east. Plus a great view over the neighboring islands and we can even spot Anguilla in the distance.
Speaking of view points, it is a bit disappointing that we don’t get to see much as we drive along, hardly any spaces between all the developments or view points. All we see is fences and concrete walls. Not used with that. This island is getting well overdeveloped if you ask us.
Anse des Flamands is a very nice long stretch of beach, and today a wild sea was roaring up it. Sadly, most of the properties along the beach have suffered badly from the hurricanes and are still not rebuilt.
We walk it from one end to the other, and at the south end of it we come across a very nice hotel, Cheval Blanc. Very chic and classy. And despite the waves which were coming well under the sun beds, the guests were out there in large numbers. Nice to see a hotel with high occupancy for once.
This hotel also suffered from the hurricane, and lots of their villas are still not finished repairing. But the front row facilities are all redone and look fabulous. What a work that must have been.
As we drive back south and pass the airport we were hoping to see a plane coming in. But not our lucky moment.
St. Jean is a pleasant surprise, at first sight I think I like the feel of it better than Gustavia. It was way too hot to have a proper walk, so we settle for a very short stop on the south side of the beach to have a look at Nikki Beach and the Eden Rock Hotel (still under reconstruction).
The beach itself is nice, but not our favorite. The side near airport looks much nicer, but we didn’t stop there today. We’ll check it out tomorrow.
In Anse Lorient we would have walked on the beach too, but there wasn’t much beach to walk on, with the waves coming all the way up to the walls of the properties there. And we wonder if the sea is always like this in these bays or it is a particularly bigger swell these days.
At Pointe Lorient we come across Cristopher Hotel, which is another upmarket resort and very nice. And out in the sea quite a few surfers were riding the big waves, offering us a bit of entertainment while watching them. I was clenching my teeth each time one of them was getting close to the rocky shore.
Then the highlight for Glen, Anse de Grand Cul de Sac, the kite-surfing beach. A relatively thin beach, but long enough, bordered by two very fancy hotels at either end: Le Sereno to the north and Le Barthelemy to the south. This bay is sheltered from the swell by a reef, and there are lots of small boats moored in there, most probably fishing boats.
In between the two hotels there is a small water sports center and kite-surfing school. At 145Euros / hour I will pass the opportunity, thank you. My lessons will have to wait till Dominican Republic.
But Glen is quite taken with the place and would fancy a day of kiting, so we inquire in both hotels if I can buy a day pass to use one of their sun beds and umbrella while waiting for him. Sereno has a “not possible” as an answer, and Le Barthelemy said I could use one of the sunbeds on the beach no problem if I find one available, but note that they are at 100% occupancy, so highly unlikely.
Heading along the south shore we notice how the vegetation is much drier and significantly less development. Interesting rock formations make us feel we are all of the sudden elsewhere – like a Mediterranean island.
Anse de Saline is a beautiful beach, and quite special the way you get to it between sand dunes. The classic Caribbean beach, with fine white sand and blue water, backed by wild vegetation on the sand dunes. Wonderful. We arrived here late afternoon so didn’t quite get the feel of it when it is busy with people, but surely it must be very popular.
As we drive from Saline to Anse du Gouverneur we feel we are again in a very upmarket area, as the driveways into the properties are quite set back and we get glimpses of the villas here and there.
The Governor Beach is a wild and unspoiled beach, our favorite together with Saline. And it has a shady tree at one end, which makes it quite unique.
From here we are ready to head back to Gustavia and start hunting for a parking place. Which we manage to find on the south side of the port, but at least we got one. There is a dinghy dock near it too, so tomorrow we’ll dock the dinghy there for convenience.
Back at Cloudy Bay we are ready to put our feet up and enjoy sunset with a cup of tea. And decide to remain onboard for the rest of the evening, saving our energy for another day of road trip tomorrow.
