Boo Boo Hill
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sat 9 Apr 2011 21:04
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Boo Boo Hill, Warderick Wells
Cay, Exumas
  We left Beez to go ashore, we needed
to pay $15 to be on the mooring buoy, $10 for internet and then we could ramble.
On Baby Beez we passed this girl called Down Time and
for the first time ever, saw a mistress aboard - complete with rollers - yet another first.
  Tied to the dinghy
dock we went in search of the lady with the wonderful radio voice. Loved the Ranger Stuff and spare buoys
    Paid
up, ramble sheets in hand we went to the fabulously named Powerful Beach in search of the whale
skeleton, sadly died after eating rubbish bags.
I didn't have the heart to tell Bear it wasn't actually a
cannon.
  On the beach we saw
the first of many interesting plants with information
boards
  and a 'One Careful Owner'
The Lore of Boo Boo
Hill: On a wild, stormy day many years ago a luckless schooner sank off
Warderick Wells. All souls perished in the disaster. Not a single body was
recovered for a Christian burial. Local people say that if you climb say that if
you climb to the crest of the hill at the bloom of the full moon, you can hear
the voices of the lost souls singing hymns.
 A quick look back
at the girl and off on the trail
   Incredible how plants
manage to survive in these harsh conditions
Accessing fresh water is the
prerequisite to survival on Warderick Wells. There are no rivers or streams and
for nine months of the year, rainfall is scarce so plants and
animals have to be creative. Some plants have evolved to cope with salt
water. The edible seapurslane, common along the beach edge, survives with large
quantities of salt in its tissue. Mangrove trees deal with the salt problem in a
variety of ways. If you licked the back of a black mangrove leaf, you would find
it very salty. Black mangroves excrete excess salt through tiny pores on the
leaf surface. Red mangroves are able to filter out salt at the roots. A mangrove
swamp will have portions that are dry while other parts are much wetter. Flooded
by the tide every twelve hours, the sand here is always salty and wet, and this
permits a variety species to survive. Not all plants cope with salt as well as
mangroves. Fortunately for many, a freshwater lens exists under the island.
Rainwater percolates down through the limestone and collects at sea level. Due
to different specific gravities of salt and fresh water, the fresh remains
delicately balanced on top of the salt water, thus creating a freshwater lens.
This water is life itself for many inhabitants of the island. Natural sinkholes
in the rock act like wells and provide access to the lens for people. Certain
plants, including many grasses, have roots that find their way through cracks
and hollows in the rock all the way down to this fresh water lens. A common
alternative plant strategy is a vast network of shallow roots which are very
efficient at collecting what little rainfall nature provides.
 Bear crossing
Bamshee Creek
    Looking up the huge seventy foot
elevation of Boo Boo Hill
    We wandered up to the top and saw a
pile of driftwood labeled by many visiting crews
(must carry a felt tip) and blow holes on the flatter
area
  We couldn't explore this
northern area as it was closed due to nesting
tropicbirds
 The view from Boo
Boo hill, here looking out to sea
 A last look at the
girl (behind the cat) before we made our way back to the
office
 Nocturnal rodents, this stuffed one in
the office was a close as we would get to a Bahama
Hutia
ALL IN ALL A SMASHING RAMBLE
SUCH A BIG
HILL
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