Customs and Immigration
in Anguilla permits you to check out up to 24 hours prior to
departure, so our first order of the day was a visit to the charming
ladies in the office to complete our paperwork. This would avoid us
having to launch the dinghy and make the trip in on Saturday morning
before heading off to St. Martin.
Prior to actually
leaving though we have the rest of an island to explore and the
wheels with which to do it. Having been a little disappointed the
day before by limited access to the beaches we set our final
destination as Shoal Bay on the north east end of the island. On the
way however, we headed up to The Valley where the St. Gregory RC
church is quite an eyeful. I guess having outgrown the first church
the parish decided they had at least a conversation piece going for
them so they copied the facade for the new church.
We were diverted in The
Valley at the round-about due to a road-race but this fortuitous
redirection gave us a fabulous view of the north coast of Anguilla –
the colours were absolutely stunning.
After taking this photo
of Henry and the rental car, we were amused that it looks a little
like we came to a skidding halt and wrapped the front end round the
phone pole. Rest assured there were no 'additional' scratches, dents
or dings added by the end of the day.
Carrying on along the
north shore we came across a number of gorgeous little bays with the
surf crashing on the coral shoreline and then once we'd had our fill
of the rugged beauty we headed inland across the rolling landscape.
We criss-crossed the island and now feel that we can recognize most
junctions by the landscaping of the various round-abouts; and,
they're proper English ones that rotate in a clock-wise direction!
However, some roads were debatable on how public they really were...
We visited a very
interesting little museum on the history of Anguilla all lovingly put
together by a local scholar and author. The museum was established
in his mother's house where he had grown up and he had some wonderful
artifacts on display. On inside information from Ted and Louise we
stopped at a Lolo in the middle of nowhere for some delicious wings
and ribs. We took them to go and found a parking spot at Scilly Bay
overlooking the local fishing fleet.
We wrapped up with a visit to Shoal
Bay and a walk along the beach – finally a beach with a nice blend
of tourism and nature, lots of open, accessible space, a few beach
bars but not invasive and plenty of incredible beauty.
Back on Mowzer for the evening and we are preparing to head off to Marigot in the
morning.
