Exploring the island

The last few days of our stay in St John we had access to a car! The reason why i got so excited about this is simply because the campsite is quite isolated - located on the top of a hill and at the end of a pretty bad road, we need to rely on a (sometimes quite unreliable) shuttle or on the island taxis who hate coming all the way out here so are generally quite expensive. The island is tiny (about 50 sq.km. in total!) but it is very hilly and walking around can be quite exhausting in this heat. Having a car (and especially an old, beaten up, sturdy 4WD) definitely makes exploring much, much easier...

First, we drove up to the Catherineberg ruins - it's the very well preserved and restored ruins of an old sugar mill: 

The place has an amazing history: in 1733, when a rebellion allowed the slaves to take over the island for 6 months, this place was used as their headquarters (side info: at the end of that period, a fleet of french ships carrying troops to help suppress the insurrection was sent over from Europe - stories say that slaves preferred to commit group suicides rather than allow themselves to get caught and once again enslaved). In the present day it's used as a venue for drum circles and full moon celebrations (it is also apparently occasionally used as a venue for other activities - we ran into a not-very-artistic nudie photoshoot when we drove by!! judging by the speed at which they packed up, and by the fact that you're not even allowed to sunbathe topless on the island, i'm guessing they didn't have permission for it....). 


Since the theme of the day was endless aimless driving around (and since our car of the camel trophy kind!): 

 we decided to take the small rocky, muddy road heading up into Bordeaux mountain right next to a place called Chateau Bordeaux (NOT what you'd expect it to look like - quite the funky shack actually): 

le chateau...

spectacular view from the Chateau 

The road winds up to the top of the mountain and leads to one of the most amazing (and least well known) viewpoints on this island:

even more spectacular view from higher up Bordeau mountain

Some more aimless driving took us to another viewpoint overlooking one of the south side beaches (wilder and more dramatic), Fish bay:

Fish bay

Since this was only a couple of days after the big storm, surf was up (a very rare occurrence!), so all of the island's surfers had come down to enjoy it. We found a small trail leading down to this amazing, kind of wild beach (it's not accessible by car) and had lots of fun walking around, watching the surfers and playing with the waves. 

M. fell in love with this house: 

Half moon house (on the right)

Turns out it's for sale! anybody got a few million to spare? 


After another long(-ish) drive, we checked out Jumbie bay (jumbie means ghost in west indian! apparently, slaves killed a plantation owner and his family here and stuffed them down a well, so the beach is supposed to be haunted. Didn't see any jumbies, but the beach is very pretty and quite secluded):

Jumbie Bay

We ended the day at Trunk bay, which is famous for its marked underwater snorkeling trail (not particularly interesting for experienced snorkelers..). As this is probably the most popular beach on the island, it's always best to go there after 4.30 pm, when the national park facilities close, access is free and the beach is almost deserted! 

Trunk bay

 I was amazed by how much there is to see on such a tiny little place! I'm looking forward to doing some more exploring on my last few days... i'll let you know what i find!