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| Looking down on the missing section of road |
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| And from another angle |
We decided to come home down the other (Caribbean, or west) side of the island. This is not the main road, it just follows the coast past some little fishing hamlets and off-the-beaten-path beaches, and as we left Charlotteville there was nothing to inform us that about 3 or 4 very windy, roller-coaster miles later the road was closed due to a landslide. We cheerfully rolled along until we passed a sign informing us that the road was closed, followed about 1/2 a mile later by a large chunk of missing road.
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| And looking up |
We had glimpsed a silver minivan ahead of us a couple of times, and had not seen him come back, so we guessed that he had somehow made it past the landslide on the very steep dirt track that looked like it had been made by a few 4x4s to get around the missing piece of road. While we were walking the track to decide if we could make it a car came up behind us and went ahead- his car was much newer than the van but he had 4 people in it and though he made it there was a horrible grinding noise as he scraped the bottom of it as he made it back onto the asphalt at the top.
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| Safe at the top 🙂 |
I decided to give it a go as it would have added about an hour to go back to Charlotteville and go back home the way we’d come, so everyone jumped out and walked on ahead and I gingerly rolled onto the dirt in low gear. I had to ride the clutch and then gun it to get up the steepest part, but the van made it up no problem and without grounding out at all 🙂 If they sold these in the States I would buy one in a heartbeat!
We stopped for a quick leg-stretch at Englishman’s Bay, one of the most stunning spots I think I have ever seen on the planet, and then headed home for for a home-cooked meal and a game of Bonanza. A round trip of only about 65 miles, but most of it was in second gear!
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| The little restaurant at Englishman’s Bay |
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| It is the perfect little tropical bay 🙂 |
