Warderick wElls

Warderick Wells, Exumas, Bahamas

July, 2005

See the Birds of Warderick Wells or read more about the Exumas Cays Land and Sea Park

Most people who visit Warderick Wells, an island that is the Park Headquarters for the Exumas Land and Sea Park, stay in the mooring field in either the north or south anchorages. Here are two pictures of the north mooring field near the Park Headquarters buildings. The water is gorgeous, n'est-ce pas? It's pretty easy to differentiate the deep water and the shallow water and the sugar sand.

But did we stay there, in the mooring field where most people stay? Of course not! We went around the corner near Emerald Rock, a location we ended up affectionately calling our "Emerald City". We must be doing something right to appease the gods, because we had this beautiful anchorage all to ourselves for a couple of days - just us, the tropic birds, Jocko the laughing gull, and the ghosts of Warderick Wells. Here's where we stayed:

That rock on the right is Emerald Rock - it is a rookery for terns and also has reefs around it with excellent snorkeling. We saw all kinds of fish and corals and sponges and a nice sleeping nurse shark there. Here are a couple of views from the boat of our "private beach" - really just one of them - we were surrounded by beaches all around the island and no one else was there!

We went hiking on the island. There are some interesting ruins from when some people settled here just around the time of the Revolution. Also, some folks who lived on the islands in the Bahamas were shipwrecked there. The sign below reads "Davis Plantation 1780", and then there are two pictures of rock walls that are still remaining from that time.

We followed a different rock wall that had been built right across the width of the island, a distance of a mile or less (I'm guessing). We walked from the side of the island that faces the Bahamas Banks (the side we were anchored on) to the side of the island facing the Exuma Sound - where the Atlantic Ocean comes up between the islands and banks. Here's Ken peeking around the corner at the waves bashing against the cliffs on the Sound side of the island. In the far left corner of the picture is a beach called "Slaves' Dip" - I don't know the history of that name, I need to look it up.

It was not just loyalists, slaves, and shipwrecked persons who lived in the Bahamas and specifically on Warderick Wells - no, there were PIRATES, too! So along another trail off a hidden bay (now known as the South Anchorage!) we walked to the Pirates' Lair. See, here's the sign:

Apparently those pirates could sail into the bay hiding their ships behind the rocks and cliffs so no one would know they were there. Then they would take their straw mats and things to sit on, that they had gotten from other islands with different plants, and take them next to a fresh water pond where they could drink and tell pirate stories. All around this fresh water pond now there are types of palm trees that don't normally grow in this area - imported from the pirates' mats. We were the only ones there that morning - we did not see any pirates, we just saw a nice bird standing on a rock in the pond.

On our way back hiking across the island, we got a view of Ellipsis that just couldn't be beat:

And so, running low on water and food, we stayed another day in our Emerald City. We stayed and stayed, being forced to wash our laundry on the foredeck. And I refused to read my email here. Wouldn't you?

Ken does his laundry on the foredeck. I just put on my bathing suit and jumped in the water.