Our last full day in the sun and the white sand of the island and we were heading out on an exploratory bike adventure of North Caicos. Everything started out perfectly pleasant – we were picked up from our hotel and chauffeured to the Leeward Marina on Provo where we checked in with Big Blue Adventures. We’d booked the North Caicos Biking Eco Tour, a 6-8 hour day of biking around the smaller, less inhabited North Caicos Island checking out the local and ecological sites.
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| ALL THE EXCITEMENT! |
Okay, to be fair, I don’t really know where the disconnect was in my mind because something should have clicked in my mind that 8 hours on a bike in the sun was going to be problematic for me and my inability to handle hot weather or direct sunshine. Nope. Brain was on vacation mode and thought this whole thing would be just peachy. Oh Past Ashley… you dumb, girl.
Anyways, the boat trip over to North Caicos was lovely! Small boats shuttling locals from island to island, marine birds, mangroves, small ship wrecks and ocean views greeted us along the way. We pulled into the marina and hopped off the boat, walking about a kilometre with our guide to the bike storage house.
Now our guide did the job that she was hired to do – she kept us safe, took us to the included attractions, helped repair the bikes when we had issues, kept us hydrated, and got us back to the boat on time. However, we had very different belief systems which made for some awkward moments and led to me not being comfortable asking questions or having casual conversation. Again, to be fair we are a fairly tough crowd if you’re on the far left, liberal spectrum. Two of us work in the energy industry in Alberta for an at-times controversial company, one of us is a medical doctor, and one is a stay at home parent. For an anti-development, anti-medicine, anti-vaccination, anti-traditional gender role, hard-core naturalist, eco-tour guide, we are not an ideal crowd… I appreciate hearing from different perspectives and challenging my beliefs through balanced conversation – diversity of thought is extremely important and valuable. However, I do not appreciate being lectured or attacked for my beliefs or told that there is one right way and one wrong way to live. So unfortunately, while I appreciated hearing the basics of the sights we were visiting, I did not enjoy hearing eight hours of skewed rhetoric and opinionated judgement of others. Sadly, we just stopped paying attention and stopped asking questions, which made for a fairly long day.
Enough of my complaining, on to the bikes and on to the sights!
Up first was Cottage Pond, an inland blue hole 76 metres (250 feet) deep and about 46 metres (150 feet) in diameter. It’s a sink hole that opened up over an abyssal salt water chamber below. While the top of the blue hole is relatively fresh water and home to many a duck or grebe, it apparently becomes saltier the deeper it descends and has tiny tunnels connected to the surrounding ocean.
In 2001, a technical dive team successfully reached the bottom of Cottage Pond.
| The dive team did not include this lizard to my knowledge. |
Mounting out bikes again, we zipped to Kew Farm where we kidded around with baby goats and hung out in the orchards.
| You've goat to be kidding me. |
| These puns have goat out of hand... |
It’s a government sponsored farm that produces the produce for North
Caicos and grows the local conservation program through native plants.
Back on our bikes, we drove* to our next trip* destination.
Next up was Wade’s Green Plantation – the best preserved historical plantation in Turks and Caicos. The cotton plantation was established by Wade Stubbs back around 1789. The land was a gift from the British government to compensate Stubbs – a loyalist – for his losses in the War of American Independence. The plantation workers were slaves, likely from both Bermuda and brought over from America by the loyalists.
Due to soil erosion and market changes, agriculture declined in T&C starting in the 1820s. Stubbs died in 1822 and slavery was abolished in 1834. After slavery was abolished, the plantation slaves became a major population on the islands and their descendants constitute the majority of the current native population of Turks and Caicos.
The plantation was largely overrun by vegetation but restored by a group of grant students. Down the pathway to the Great House entrance we passed plenty of local Curly Tailed Lizards basking in the sun. Along the way, we also saw a couple poisonous Coral Sumac trees.
| A perfectly perched and posed Curly Tailed Lizard |
The buildings on the property include the kitchen, the overseer’s house, slave quarters and storage buildings. Mostly just the stone walls and some distinguishing features remain, like the stove and chimney in the kitchen, the water well, and etchings in the walls by the slaves.
| Inscriptions and pictographs by the plantation slaves |
| Well, well, well... What do we have here? |
There were some local residents to visit as well. Lizards, snakes, razor sharp aloe plants, cacti and some Cuban Crows making the most interesting and weird call! I didn't get a good enough audio recording, but check out this short video to hear their crazy laughter-like chortle.
| An inappropriate cactus. Watch out for the little prick! |
| Some kind of aloe... I'm very mad I forgot this plant. |
| A little Caicos Dwarf Boa |
| A pair of Curly Tailed Lizards NOT living up to their names |
As per the Wishart family tradition, no tour would be complete unless we broke a vehicle. So Erin was happy to oblige by blowing a tire on her bike. Stopping on the dirt road in the scorching sun, dad and our tour guide replaced the tire relatively quickly and we were on our way again.
| Typical construction. One working, three "supervising". And one crouching under a tree to try to be even partially in the shade. |
Next stop was Kew town. We wound through a few residential roads and came to a couple stops to learn about a few trees and their miracle medicinal uses (I'm sure the doctor in the family was completely done listening to the hippy guide by this point). More importantly - LOOK AT THE BIRDIE!
I seriously spent at least 10 minutes taking photos of this hummingbird in his tree. He's a Bahamas Woodstar Hummingbird. Lookit his little face!
Non-bird nerds thoroughly annoyed at my fangirl act, we were back on the road making a quick stop for water at the local convenience store. Apparently, we had seen all of Kew Town. I honestly didn't really notice that we were passing through the "town". I didn't really make note of anything much like a school or church or anything. Guess we were too busy with the birds and the trees?
Down a long, dry, hot stretch of road, we headed for the Pelican Beach Hotel on Whitby Beach for lunch and a rest. The hot lunch was massive and delicious! The rest of the family headed to the water for a swim. I was already feeling burnt to a crisp and sun sick, so No-Fun Ashley took a nap in the shade.
Good thing we were done biking in the full sun in the hottest part of the day. Ha ha! Just kidding. The rest of the ride back was along limestone, unpaved roads with no shade along places like Flamingo Pond (read: no bird stinky bug slough), Pumpkin Bluff Pond (read: all the biting bugs live here), and Mudhole Pond (accurate). It was not fun. I was bug bitten, sunburnt, heat sick, annoyed with our guide and my butt hurt. All in all, I couldn't wait to be back on the damn boat.
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| Not smiling. Just bearing my teeth. |
After what seemed like hours of this torture, we arrived at the bike shack. Turning in our helmets, it was a hot walk back to the marina to wait for the boat. Yeah boat rides!
Despite this not being my favourite adventure here, tomorrow we sadly have to head home.
*A group of goats is called a drove or a trip. Puns are always funniest when you have to explain them…
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