We haven’t been able to ride our bikes very often in the Exumas. Sometimes there are no roads on the cays, or the road area is very small. In Georgetown, there were good roads but crazy drivers. A cruiser was hit by a car crossing the street in front of Exuma Market while we were there. Luckily she had minimal injuries. Staniel Cay has very good roads and little traffic other than golf carts, so we took the bikes ashore today and rode all around the island. The photo above is at the airport. All the airstrips in the Exumas seem to have the exact same sign.
The road sign at the left says “This Way” and “That Way.” We went “This Way” towards the airport runway. This part of Staniel Cay is owned by a man named Burke. One of his arms stops at his elbow. He was actually hit by an airplane while crossing the runway in his pick-up truck! However, the story is not all sad as Burke owns quite a bit of Staniel Cay and has sold lots on the area where we were bicycling. The lots (we heard) sell for around $1 million and the houses built on high bluffs with unbelievable views are modern, solidly built, and probably owned as vacation homes by people who aren’t Bahamians. Burke is also the owner of the Isles General Store. He has waited on us and at the time we didn’t realize that he is a millionaire.
We had to go across some narrow waterways to reach the part of the island with the new construction. Then we found a road that went uphill to the houses and downhill back to where we started. The highest part of the road is sand. (below)
It turned out to be a beautiful day, in the 80’s, with little wind. We love riding our bikes as it’s very good exercise. I’m sure we’ll feel it in our legs tomorrow, as the hills were steep and not paved in parts.
We moved to a different anchorage on the other side of Big Major’s Cay this morning as the wind direction is changing. A front is coming in tomorrow so we want to be ready when it does. We are still a decent dinghy ride into Staniel Cay although we have no reason to go ashore there as the stores are tiny and there are no banks. We are getting fuel in our jerry jugs, however, rather than taking the boat to the marina.
We’ll probably be here a few more days. There is no hurry to move on as we still have plenty to see.
For more photos of second visit to Staniel Cay, click here.
Blog of first visit to Staniel Cay, 1/26/10, click here
Photos from first visit, click here
