Saba 7.2.10
Salamander
Sun 7 Feb 2010 20:37
|
No marina and no anchoring - you have to use the
nature reserve mooring buoys as this island is one volcano with vertical sides.
The old customs house is close by our mooring and you used to have to climb 400
steps straight up to reach it. This was the bad weather landing point! The good
weather point - Fort Baie, now has a small harbour arm to make it easier and we
cleared customs and immigration with the harbourmaster there.
  The nature reserve gives you a free whistle in case
of emergencies while walking.
What a place this is - The Bottom (cos its in a
'Botte' - Dutch for dish) is the lowest village - a massive uphill slog from the
harbour. All the houses are pretty, most with matching colours.
 Village of St John's
 This house on its own is a really really cute
holiday cottage. We looked longingly at the details as it has a bath and we
haven't had one since November (do they rent by the hour?)
If you can remember the fantastic scenery from the
last King Kong - that was filmed here.
The island is so steep that its Dutch owners could
not find an engineer to design and build a road on it. We thought that if
looking for an engineer to build a road on a volcano a Dutchman might not be the
first choice! A local - Lambee Hassell took a correspondence course in road
building and then, under his supervision the Sabans built the road with their
own hands. They now celebrate this by driving pick-up trucks really fast with
screeching tyres and loud music! Daytime electricity became available in 1970
(beating some Welsh villages by a couple of decades).
|