Exploring The Park By Land and Sea

Day 320  |  Warderick Wells  

Our first stop of the morning was at the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park office to pay our mooring fees. We pulled the dinghy up on the beach and secured it for the morning’s falling tide. On the beach is a pieced-together skeleton of a 52-foot sperm whale found in 1995. Hard to imagine how big these creatures are until you're up close. This “little guy” is significantly larger than Crossroads. The view from the office was incredible. Once done with business, we were ready to set out on our hike across the island. We picked up the Causeway Trail outside the office and were on our way.

The trail snaked through mangroves and crossed Banshee Creek over a precarious little bridge. A slow and methodical transit of the submerged rock in tidal water got us to the other side without incident. The path was well marked with signs and yellow blazes painted upon rocks and trees. Hutia Hill was a rocky climb with many crevasses – some rather large. I’m not sure if the ladder was meant to invite exploration or escape from the hole should one fall in. The trail transitioned from rock to sand as we neared the turquoise ocean water.  (Note: Hutia are nocturnal rabbit-sized rodents indigenous to the Bahamas. We did not encounter any during our stay.)

We continued along the rocky coastal trail and descended Hutia Hill before ascending the trail to the top of Boo Boo Hill. Another great view was found off to the east.

On the peak of Boo Boo Hill we picked up a bit of cell service. Barry downloaded our weather forecasts and I called my mom before crossing a short distance over to the famous collection of driftwood mementos left by passing cruisers. Withing the collection spanning many years we found the piece left by Flip Flop just a month ago. I placed our little sign in a safe place. Maybe we’ll see it on a return trip. The Freebird sign caught my attention and brought back good memories of the high school anthem. Well after noon, we returned to the dinghy beach via the Boo Boo Hill Trail, then made our way back to Crossroads for lunch.

Our afternoon was spent snorkeling a few spots. We saw the best combination of color, fish and coral at The Rangers Garden.

We returned to the mother ship and took a short swim over to the large sandbar not far from our mooring. It was freaky how quickly the water went from 10 feet to 10 inches at low tide. The tide, however, was flushing back in with a strong current. Our swim back to the boat required a little more effort than going out. We showered and cleaned up before heading back to the beach for appys at 5:30. Before returning to Crossroads for the evening, we sought out the sweet spot behind the office for one final download of our emailed weather reports. The sun set as we secured the dinghy on the top deck following another great day in the Bahamas.