The Ruins at Coppermine Point {Copper Mine National Park}: Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands7/29/2011 Everyone's Travel Club heads to land for this post. I recently read a sailing blog where the author brought his family to the Virgin Islands, chartered a boat, and then sailed around looking for ruins to anchor by and explore. He ended up finding only beach bars. Well, there aren't many on Virgin Gorda, and for the two that we found you could sail to one, but not this one. Coppermine Point is a recently created National Park on Virgin Gorda (2003). It represents the only known site within the West Indies with ties to the British industrial revolution. Natives mined here in the 1400s. The stone structures that are here now are the remnants of the Virgin Gorda Mining Company (1835-1862). They mined copper ore and shipped it to Wales in the United Kingdom for smelting. Two-hundred people used to operate the mine here! We highly recommend checking out this park, just don't try and sail to it (it's on the windward and rocky side of the island). We had the site to ourselves and best of all, it's free. ~Paul, Ann, Jon ETC
1 Comment
One of the first things we did when we arrived on Virgin Gorda wasn't actually kayaking in the crystal clear blue waters. It wasn't snorkeling in the spectacular reefs or relaxing by the pool. It was hiking through the forest. A forest that felt like a hot, humid, jungle. Not to mention we had to drive up (and down) a scary winding road to get there. When I first looked at a map of Virgin Gorda I thought, well, we've got to hike up to the highest point on the island, the summit of Gorda Peak (1370 ft). I had heard they have the world's smallest gecko here (so small I didn't see any) and a great viewpoint platform at the top. The trail seemed nice and groomed at first but quickly turned into a stream bed, which had us saying often, "Are we really still on the trail right now?" We did meet some amazing friends along the way, orb spiders and tons of cacti...brought here from Mexico back in the day - they're everywhere on the islands. We made it to the top (it did take about 50 minutes like the sign said). It was a little overcast so the view wasn't all that it could of been - I've heard on a super clear day you can see St. Thomas far in the distance. The drive back down to the Valley had some almost-as-good-viewpoints and room to pull off the crazy road and park. To the Jimmy to take us back down the mountain! All and all a good little hike/trip. You would definitely need a car to make this happen - although the cab guys are so nice here they'd probably take you and come back and get you later after the hike if you had a cell phone to call them. The view from the actual platform wasn't that stunning compared to view from the drive there but it was fun to see some insect wildlife and search for the super tiny geckos! ~Paul, Ann, Jon ETC ETC on the road: Multnomah Falls Oregon. It's right along the highway, heading East along the Columbia River. We decided to hike to the top - it was pretty steep but didn't take long at all. Tons of water (duh), great viewpoints, kinda crowded at the bottom but not at the top (I think the straight-up hike had something to do with it). ~Paul ETC P.S. Check out a quick video from the top! 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 |
Follow us on Twitter and receive updates when we post (click the birdie).
Archives
March 2014
|