Everyone's Travel Club recently took a little trip to the Island of Grand Bahama. On my last little kayak adventure on the island I headed out into the surf until I came to the first waterway (canal?) that went into the island. Grand Bahama has lots of these - this is where people keep their boats, safe from the ocean front. I also used my new Helios II rudder, a nice addition to help steer, especially when you are kayaking with two.
~Paul  ETC

OK, so we barely sailed on our recent Bahamas trip. But we did have a chance to check-out a Hobie Wave sailboat and take her for a spin.

If you haven't sailed before it's hard to go wrong with a Hobie Wave. If you know the basic points of sail you'll do great...do it!

~Paul & Amber ETC

Everyone's Travel Club recently returned from a short kayaking trip to the Bahamas. One of our stops was Lucayan National Park, which includes trails, underwater cave entrances, and what a local called the most beautiful beach on the island of Grand Bahama.

As you may have read from our previous Bahamas posts, I talked my wife into renting the coolest car on the island, a Chery QQ, and driving to the park. It cost $3 per person to park and enter the park. The caves are on one side of the road while a creek/mangrove swamp and Gold Rock Beach are on the other. The park is only about 40 acres so there are some trails but nothing too strenuous. 

ETC's final recommendation: if you come to Grand Bahama Island, rent a car for the day and head to the park. We agree with the locals who say Gold Rock Beach is the best beach on the island. It isn't too far from town (20 mins) and it's cheap ($3 per person). There aren't any restaurants near the park so I'd bring water and maybe some food in a pack to eat on the beach. Maybe throw in the snorkel gear?

~Paul & Amber   ETC

Welcome back to day three of ETC's Bahamas kayaking adventure! We took to land on Grand Bahama Island, rented a (very small) car, and drove from our resort 15 minutes over to Lucayan National Park.

The park is about 40 acres, includes a couple of really cool underwater cave entrances (with stairs down to them), and a boardwalk path over a creek and mangrove swamp towards one of the prettiest beaches on the island.

These caves make up on of the longest explored underwater cave system in the world. We actually saw some scuba divers (you need a permit or something) coming out of the water and packing it up for the day...awesome. There were some peaceful bats, hardly anyone there (a tour bus showed up but they didn't last long), and it basically felt like you were wondering around Jurassic Park (Amber didn't really feel the Jurassic Park vibe but she probably hasn't watched it as much as I have...looks like she has some catching up to do back home).

Here's the little car we rented - probably a cost effective idea (versus a cab) since our resort had them right there. I talked her into renting a Chery QQ instead of a Jeep Wrangler...I believe my words were, "this will make such a better blog post".

The Chery was pretty small but had enough room in the trunk for the inflatable kayak and all of our stuff. It seemed like most cars on the island had the steering wheel on the left (which made it a little tricky since they drive here on the left as well). Nothing like throwing your passenger out into traffic right before you pass a truck!

We drove all day and only used about 4 gallons of gas. Gas was $5.28 a gallon when we were there (at the time gas on the West coast US was $4.00), not too bad. Chery QQ!

The park wasn't that big, only 40 acres, but was totally worth the drive. There was someone there at the parking lot who you could pay the $3 entrance fee (per person), however, we had read that you needed to purchase the tickets in town before you get to the park, which we did. It was a nice mix with the caves on one side and the beach walk on the other. In our next post we'll show you the beach...it was sweet.
~Paul & Amber   ETC