We’re anchored off Stocking Island (different from Lee Stocking Island where we were last week) where there is a monument on the top of the highest hill. Stocking Island is one of the islands that forms the George Town “basin” with many places to anchor, each offering protection from winds and seas from a particular direction. We had gone into “town” the two days before to take care of the usual cruising necessities- do laundry, dump trash, fill up jerry cans with gas for the dinghy and diesel for the sailboat, and do some grocery shopping. We also renewed our visas for two more months. With the chores out of the way, we were ready to explore the area a bit. With our friends Richard, Michelle, Amy and Ed we decided to go for a hike up to the monument.
Ed and Amy picked us up in their dinghy and we made the short ride to the beach, aptly named Monument Beach. Our friends Richard and Michelle were already there but not on the beach so Ed and I took the opportunity to create some mischief and carry their dinghy far enough up on the beach so we hoped when they looked at the beach from a distance they would think it had either washed away or was stolen!
There is a path up to the top of the hill, but Ed and I, feeling adventurous, went straight up the side of the mountain which was a fun climb. It is steep enough so that you have to pay attention and keep three points of contact as you look for the next foot or hand hold, but with moderate care was not dangerous. It would be more treacherous going down as many of the coral bits are loose. I continue to be amazed at how deep the water once was on earth. All of these hills are coral. This one is maybe 150 to 200 feet high, which is a lot of water to fill all the world’s oceans that much deeper. It is also possible that some of these cays resulted from tectonic plate movement, but I don’t think there was a lot of that here.
As we’ve come to expect in the Bahamas, there was no sign at the top telling us what this is a monument for, so it remains a mystery why this monument is here. Up close the monument is not so impressive. It’s made of concrete and has many patches on it so it looks kind of sad. It also leans quite a bit which is puzzling.
After taking in the 360 degree views from the top we walked down a trail on the back side toward the ocean beach. This was really pretty. The beach ends at the base of the hill and it is almost a sheer cliff along much of the ocean side. The surf was up, but you would take your life in your hands getting into these waves because they were breaking right off the shore and the sand is intermixed with areas of coral. While quite beautiful, we were not tempted to get more than our toes wet.
After a long rather aimless walk on the beautiful beach we were thirsty and our destination became a beach bar and restaurant called Chat n Chill located on Volleyball Beach. We knew which way to go, but we did not know how far it was or where to turn inland. We walked for a long time, and when we finally saw a path leading off the beach we took it. Ed and Amy have been here before and had a (as it turns out, not very accurate) trail map with them so they had a general idea of where we were relative to Chat n Chill, but things have changed since they were here. We ended up walking through a very nice little resort, than we waded around a point of land at low tide and came to a small beach where we were unfortunately separated from our destination by a small, but deep channel/river. We debated our options – wade across and get totally soaked, walk all the way back to our dinghies, or bum a ride across. Being the intrepid explorers that we are we decided on bumming a ride. We caught a couple of guys returning to their dinghies and they agreed to ferry us across two at a time (it was only about 30 feet across). I heard one of them mutter under his breath “bunch of pussies” and his reaction was priceless when he realized he had said it out loud and not just thought it. He was very apologetic which made it even funnier.
We eventually made it to Chat n Chill. We dug through everyone’s pockets and came up with enough money to buy us each one beverage (luckily Amy had found a $20 bill on one of the trails!). Small tour boats bring people over on day trips and people staying at local resorts wander over to this beach occasionally so it’s not just cruisers here.
Pictures of Chat and Chill area early one morning before the hordes descend at lunch time. It's a very pleasant shaded beach with lots of picnic tables, fairly inexpensive food and drinks, hammocks, etc. Below is a post with distance signs cruisers have posted to all sorts of different locations around the world.
The open question of whether we had to walk all the way back to our dinghies or not (a couple hour walk) was settled when we ran into a couple whom we had met in Little Farmers Cay. Ed and I bummed a ride back to our dinghies with them so we did not have to retrace our route on foot. We then came back and picked up the others with our dinghies.
All in all, a very nice outing and it felt great to stretch our legs on dry land.
