There was a light rain throughout the morning. First, we decided to find the trail from Dorothea Bay to Neltjeberg Bay (pronounced Nel-tee-burg) with help of "Nut," the fat little the neighborhood dog. After discovering the hidden entrance just off the beach, we packed up, and headed out on a little hike. Neltjeberg Bay is only one bay over from where we're at. By boat, it's just next door. But by land... The trail through the jungle followed the beach at first. But to get around the nice home on the cliffs, the trail took us inland a ways, up and down, past the giant termite nests, over the creek, through the hermit crab crawl-way, and past the incredibly old ruins of the original Neltjeberg plantation buildings, before bringing us to the huge, sandy, completely empty bay. It's no wonder. The roadway to get there is not on any map and would only be accessible by a four-wheel jeep. There were though, several dilapidated campsites, chairs, tables, grills, and fallen tire swings from over the years. After the rain lightened up, we took out the camera and took quite some number of sunless, yet good, beach pictures. We used our miniature tripod with bendable legs, which, with the camera's self-timer, allows to take plenty of pictures of the two of us together. We composed and took several such shots. We then explored the ruins of the original plantation, built around 1690, which were completely overgrown by jungle, before heading back for lunch.
We then took off to explore the beaches of the east side of the island. A missed turn at the beginning of the tour took us over the top of one of the mountains. It was significantly cooler and breezier up top. There were some pretty neat views, and pretty neat cliff-side villas, too. After finally getting back on track, it was time to take a break at the infamous "Udder Delight" ice cream and shake stop. Very good, but like all food on the island, twice as expensive as in the States. The sun started to make its way out, so we stopped at the only beach that has an entrance fee on the island. And worth the cost. Very nice. The birds were a little tame. They fished right where us, and few other people were swimming. They fly around up above, and then do a dive straight down 10 feet away. Two seconds later, they pop up, sometimes, with a little fishy in their beaks. After soaking up our first rays of sun, we took off to finish exploring the east end beaches before dark. The east end was built up with condos and beach houses, and not so many easily accessible beaches. But it was neat to see. We stopped for dinner at Duffy's Love Shack on Red Hook Bay, the American Yacht stopping bay, and had quite a good Polynesian pu-pu platter. After dinner, we went to see the party at Hull Bay, just down the road from the condo, where we enjoyed some nice live music. After letting Curt beat me at a ping-pong game at the bar, we attempted to make our way home in the dark. The lack of signs and roads that look like driveways caused us to miss the shortcut. But we made it back. Bedtime.
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