AJAYA'S CRUISE - Last days at Warderick Wells

Last days at Warderick Wells

AJAYA'S CRUISE

Phil & Nikki Hoskins

Mon 3 May 2010 22:28

Written Wednesday 28th April

We participated in our daily snorkelling activity during which on the way back to Ajaya Nikki saw a shark and ray below her in the mooring field coral garden, having already seen numerous fishy delicacies on another reef. We showered and changed and finally made it to the Davis plantation ruins, which had been the intended destination before the storm had hit the previous day. This time though we cheated by taking the dinghy a mile down the island on the west side, leaving it on a beach close to where the ruins are situated. It was just as well as if we had hiked all the way over the rocky path we would have been pretty miffed finding what we did. The ruins were rather disappointing, the walls being no more than 3 feet high on any of the small houses, although there was a sense of the past lingering over the site as these houses probably housed the plantation slaves of fleeing loyalists from the Americas. We weren't sure of what the plantation was intended to produce - cotton maybe. But they did date back to the 1700s so we shouldn't have expected too much.

Some ruins !! The trails are rocky and full of lizards and snakes - well just the one snake actually

We moved on to a beach on the east side of the island named Slaves Dip and did our bit by picking up some larger pieces of plastic from the sandy beach and leaving it at the appointed place next to the beach signpost. If we had picked up the smaller pieces we would still be there! From the beach we could see the other visitors moorings at Hog Cay which looks a really attractive place to spend a day or so if we head back this way next year.

Park moorings in the south field at Hog Cay Those rodents even have their own road and hill !

It was an idyllic day. The wind had dropped almost away to nothing making it difficult to believe that this was the same place where we had struggled against the wind and rain to return to Ajaya. On the way back near the beach we startled a few Hutias causing them to rush through the undergrowth in panic.

Today (Wednesday) was our last full day in Warderick before moving on to Shroud Cay - still in the Exuma National Park. The wind had blown hard again overnight - correctly predicted this time but by lunchtime it had once again gone calm so we jumped into the dinghy and motored round to a small reef we had explored yesterday. Small it may have been but it was teeming with life, with fish of every description together with a resident population of very large lobsters which kept mostly out of sight in the rocky holes. The reef was like a lobster condo, you could see them jostling for the best holes and occasionally one would back into a new hole only to find a much larger member of the species ready to muscle it out again. Hovering over the reef almost motionless we could observe all these events with fascination. Up until now just seeing a lobster, apart from in the restaurants, was almost unheard of as they seem well aware of their frailty when the 'men in black suits' appear with long spears.

On the way back to the boat Nikki saw a fin poking out of the water on a nearby sand bank. It was a 4 foot long Nurse shark looking for its food in the shallows. Phil took the dinghy over to where the shark had been visible and saw it swim right underneath the dinghy. Anchoring the dinghy and standing in the 2 foot deep water the shark came almost alongside on its foraging mission, totally ignoring the human legs in the water. Give me a 4 foot Nurse shark over a 2 foot snake any day!

Here are a few more favourite memories from Warderick Wells Cay - it's a beautiful place to spend some time