Bequia 1 Photos
Swiftwing
Tue 5 Feb 2008 11:24
We were going to sail to Blue Lagoon, at the south
end of St. Vincent, but the wind came round onto the nose so we bore off and
sailed the eight miles across to Admiralty Bay, Bequia. St. Vincent was covered
in rain cloud and Bequia had none, another good reason to abandon the trip to
Blue Lagoon. Swiftwing is in the middle of the picture.
Admiralty Bay fom the south. Again Swiftwing is in
the middle of the photo. The lighter greem areas are coral sand. The houses on
the opposite bank are part of Port Elizabeth, the main small town. The total
population of the island is 6000.
Closer view of the coral sand bottom.
We took an island tour in an air conditioned taxi @
£12 an hour.
All aboard. There were no roads here until a few
years ago. They are very narrow and made of concrete.
We went to a turtle sanctuary, one of only two in
the world, or so we are told. The other being in Cuba. These are
Hawkbill turtles which are almost extinct. They are bred in captivity and
released from the various islands that have good sandy beaches. They live
to be 200 years old and come back to their place of birth after 25 years to lay
their first clutch of eggs. They are released into the wild after five years, by
then they are big enough to sort out all their enemies, except for
man.
They are fed red flowers as a treat; they certainly
seemed to like them.
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