Hopetown Too
21 March 2013 | Hopetown Harbor
What a great place. We stayed 8 days, met a bunch of great people, missed some great photo moments because we forgot the camera, and look forward to coming back here in April. Part of the Hopetown experience is walking along the quaint streets among homes that were built around 1785 by Loyalists to the British Crown who were not too happy with the Revolutionary War and how in ended. They migrated to the Bahamas from places like New York, Mass., Rhode Island, etc. Not a bad idea at least during the winters. The photo gallery contains a couple of pics of the streets. Not a lot of room for anything but a couple of people or bicycles.
The beach is another part of the experience. Miles of beaches on the Atlantic side of Elbow Cay, absolutely un-interrupted by anything. The dunes are very fragile after Sandy and everyone is doing all they can to keep the uninformed off of them. We came across a Conch that had been washed up on the beach. It was trying to pull itself back into the water. Pretty gross looking if you don't mind me saying so. I gave it a hand and was told by friends that we missed an opportunity for fresh conch. No thanks.
Other places that were on our must-see list were the beach bar, On Da Beach. A very cool place with good eats at a reasonable price. Also, the Hopetown light house was a must visit. It is the only working lighthouse in the Abacos. It uses a kerosene lamp that is magnified by huge Fresnel lenses, and can be seen at night from 17 miles away. I took some pictures from on top of it.
So on March 20th, we will depart Hopetown for Great Guana Cay. A pretty good storm is predicted for Weds. night so we will stay at the Orchid Bay Marina in Settlement Bay. Supposedly, there is good protection there. We'll probably stay there two nights and then move on. Stay tuned for more of the adventure.