This beautiful island covers only 7 square miles with a population of 5000. The Wind Surf anchored at 9:00am in Admiralty Bay and we were soon off on a tour of the island. The transportation was “interesting.” Small Nissan pickups with bench seats in the bed and an awning over them. They seemed to be a standard form of transport on the island and were more comfortable than I anticipated.
Our first destination was the Moon Hole at the SW end of the island. It’s named for a natural bridge that supposedly frames the setting moon twice a year. The original owners of the property built their home underneath the arch of the bridge. When a large rock fell and damaged one bedroom (luckily unoccupied) they decided to move the house to the top. Now the house sprawls over the surrounding area where it has grown over the years.
Some people refer to these distinctive open-air dwellings as “Flintstones” houses. Built of local stone with all building materials carried up by hand including many bags of concrete. There is no electricity, phone, or other services. They do have a propane powered refrigerator and stove plus small solar panels that produce enough power to light a few lights and run the CD player/stereo. See this site for a lot more pictures and information.
Before leaving we had drinks out on one of the many patios. This one had a hammock strung up and there were several large tortoises wandering around. When our hostess got into one hammock a tortoise would crawl underneath and push with his shell, imparting a swaying motion to the hammock and occupant.
Next we went to the Model Boat factory in Port Elizabeth. Model boats of all sizes and types were made on-site. We even got to see the workshop with many models in various stages of construction. Prices are high but the detail and workmanship of the models was exquisite. From what I could tell, one of their specialties was building models of real yachts for their owners. I’m sorry I couldn’t get any good pictures inside but you can see some of the models here.
The next post will cover our stop in Dominica.
Beautiful area, model ships and house! Looks like the weather is so mild they don’t need doors!
Wonder how long it took to educate that tortise into the comfort of the master plan.
Moon Hole is neat and it would be fun to spend a few days there but I don’t think I could live there year round like the owners do; if nothing else, I would feel cramped in the kitchen which is quite small….unless you want to volunteer to do all the cooking, sweety?? But what a view they have; absolutely gorgeous!
The moonhole house looks great, but don’t they have mosquitoes? YIKES!
Alice: Yes they have mosquitoes but the prevailing breezes minimize the problem. They also have mosquito nets on their beds.