Fun In Bermuda

We have finally found a place to stay! It took a guy named George from the Dinghy Club in Hamilton to finally lead us to a nice spot. After our introduction with him, we got right to the point by asking if he knew anywhere on island that we could pitch a tent. His response "Well, Bermuda is a weird place. You see, they think they are their own country." That sounds like a dumb comment, but it is actually pretty true. US dollars are accepted everywhere, and the exchange rate is always 1 to 1. A third of the people here are from the Azores, and the others are tourists.

But that is besides the point. He led us to Horseshoe Bay. On the map it looked like a row of beaches, backed by "national" parks. We hopped a bus and head out. The sun was setting as we got to the beach, and after seeing it I believe it when George told us it was one of the top ten beaches in the world.

After some running around on the beach, we looked around in the woods behind the beach and found the perfect spot:It is less than 100 yards from the beach, and close to a shower and bathroom facility. Perfect. We walked back down to the beach with our pads and sleeping bags, and fell asleep on a platform, directly on the beach. We were accompanied by a few wandering locals, and a nice couple who were enjoying wine and, well, each other by candlelight.

"Hey boy, its time to wake up!" I have no idea who said it, but that was what I woke up to. The locals are very friendly, and one was probably joking with me as he came down to the beach for his morning dip. Tawfer and I spent the morning adventuring around the beach, and seeing what we found.

We found a lot of rocks, all of which were very sharp. However, we also found cove after cove of pristine beach with no people on them.

We spent the morning rock climbing, rock jumping, and Portuguese Man-of-War dodging. The only problem with rock climbing around here is that you get to the top of a rock, and your feet are covered in blood. Not that you are really cut up, but you've got some good scrapes that have had some time to bleed and run around on your foot. After a particular rock tawfer and I both has one pretty mangled foot at the top. We decided that we should swim into shore very quickly, as to not allow the sharks time to get to us. Kind of kidding, but serious too.

There are more pictures of our mornig adventures on Flickr, including an awesome front flip by Tawfer off the rock pictured above.

Off to St. George's to look for boats.