THE CARIBBEAN SERIES, DAY 2
ANTIGUA
Sir Vivian Richards & don’t hike in flip flops. A packed day today heading to some of Antigua main attractions and best beaches, what more could you want?
ALL THESE AMAZING PLACES AND NO ONE TO SHARE THEM WITH.
Being a sports enthusiast I always make an effort to visit a stadium or watch some local teams play. For Antigua, the Sir Vivian Richard’s Stadium was right up there. Known as one of the all time greats he has been well established in the hall of fame and lorded all over the West Indies.
DAILY INFO….
- HOTEL – Dickenson Bay Oasis, Antigua village 6.5/10, £125
- ATTRACTIONS –
Sir Vivian Richard’s Stadium
Beth’s Hope
Devils Bridge
Galleon Beach, Pillars of Hercules, The Blockhouse, Shirley Heights
Half Moon Bay
Nelsons Dockyard, Fort Berkeley - RESTAURANT – Beach Bum Bar & Grill at Half Moon Bay
- ATTRACTIONS – Lobster
SECURITY
Unlike stadiums at home you are fit to walk around the square as your please. I even asked the policeman if I could take photos only for him to look at me and wonder why I wasted his time with such a question.
Sir Vivian Richards & don’t hike in flip flops
DAILY TRAVEL STATS….
- Steps – 7,400
Sir Vivian Richards & don’t hike in flip flops
DEVIL’S BRIDGE
Beth’s Hope sugar plantation was next but being a Sunday it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. In hindsight I wish it was closed on Mondays too 😏
Devils bridge is an infamous area on the Far East of Antigua and it’s history is shrouded in tragedy. It’s said to be a place where enslaved Africans would go to commit suicide in a final effort to escape the horrors of slavery.
The arch (not so much a bridge) got the name “Devil’s Bridge” because people at the time believed that the devil must live there. It was known that anyone who fell off the bridge would never make it out alive.
It is believed that the enslaved Africans knew which direction they came from, and jumped from Devil’s Bridge in hopes that the raging current of the Atlantic would deliver their bodies back to the cherished Motherland of West Africa. Absolutely tragic!
Sir Vivian Richards & don’t hike in flip flops
SHIRLEY HEIGHTS HIKE
One thing you must do if you visit Antigua is the Shirley heights hike. If you leave before the midday heat it’s not so difficult, up and down should take you at most a few hours and is flat for a lot of the way (exc first and last parts).
PILLARS OF HERCULES
Taking the Galleon Beach entrance, your first sight will be the pillars of Hercules at the end of the first trail but don’t be making the same mistake as me. I left at midday when it was hot as hell and high tide, which meant the beach wasn’t accessible and so the best photo of the pillars was only possible from Google.
If you do make it across the beach, you’ll see the naturally occurring limestone pillars on the coastline. These are super impressive formations naturally carved into the cliff face by nothing but wind, rain and crashing waves.
THE BLOCKHOUSE??
The next stop was what I thought was the Blockhouse but after the hike I found out I was only half way there! All was not lost though as another 20 minutes hike wasn’t possible in this heat and to make things worse a fairly horrible stubbed toe.👸🏻 Photos not to follow!
SHIRLEY HEIGHTS
After crawling up the loose rock in my slippery, sweaty and swollen feet, I made it to Shirley Heights – after a 5 minutes regen under a tree. It was some serious heat for an Irish body.
Shirley Heights is an old military lookout with the best views of the island, so good I had to come back tomorrow (you can drive if you don’t fancy a hike or if you have a stubbed toe). It was named after Sir Thomas Shirley who requested the outpost be built to protect the Naval Dockyard in English Harbour. For a different aspect, visit during sunset.
HALFMOON BAY
After chatting to a couple from Birmingham at Devils Bridge, I now had to check out Full Moon Bay on the far side of the island. A great thing about Antigua is that there’s no such thing as private beaches, no matter the resort. I find a lot of the best beaches in the world have been taken over by resorts leaving just a handful for the rest of the island.
WORLD’S BEST LOBSTER
But anyway, it was a bit of a choppy day, but there is no doubt this beach would be top 3 in Antigua when it’s chill, and a bonus was the shack right beside it that serves, by a country mile, the best Lobster I have ever had! This will be one of the few decent meals besides my ham sandwiches and pot noodles!
NELSONS DOCKYARD
The last place I hobbled to on this epic day was Nelson’s Dockyard, an 18th century harbour used to protect ships from some of the worst hurricanes around the Caribbean. It was the only dockyard in the entire eastern Caribbean large enough to hold British naval ships. In the 1950’s when it was undergoing major restoration, the harbour was renamed after Horatio Nelson, who was sent to Antigua to enforce British Law among the colonies of the Caribbean. He also served as captain of HMS Boreas in the 1700’s.
SUMMED UP….
- HIGHLIGHT – The lobster
- LOWLIGHT – My toe!
- MVP – The local who stopped 👍🏻
FINAL THOUGHTS
The beach life is very much the best life!
NEXT UP
Revisiting Bettys Hope and the Blockhouse before a few hours checking out some of the islands best beaches!! Click to read.
SAFE TRAVELS, DS x
145/229
This is part 1 of The Caribbean Series, click here to explore the series.
To watch the video of my trip, head to my highlights on my Instagram.
