St. Barth 2000 - Driving Around

One of many lovely scenes along the coast

Alas, some of the most beautiful scenery we saw could not be photographed. There simply was no place to stop the car. The roads on St. Bart are narrow (in some places requiring that one car back up to make room for one going in the opposite direction), mountainous, curvy, and rough. They lack lighting, curbs, guardrails, or shoulders. They are often bordered by open trenches and barbed wire, and in some cases, sheer drops. The going is slow -- we never got out of second gear! But the island is small, and it never took more than 30 minutes to get anywhere, even in the rain.

A nice little beach at Gouvernour

There are many public beaches, most of them small. We were fortunate to be on the island just before the start of the high season. We never ran into big crowds anywhere. Here I am, moments after having fallen into the surf. The warm breeze soon dried my clothes.

Prickly!

This is a great place for plants of all kinds. I was interested to see so much cactus on the island.

It's like being on the freeway!

This stretch of straight, flat road is extremely unusual. We encountered this on the "wild" side of the island, where there are no sandy beaches. Some of the biggest and most beautiful homes are hidden in the hills.

It's almost a straight drop from the road to the rocks below.

We saw quite a few domestic animals, including dogs, cats, goats, cattle and chickens. Except for the birds, who come and go as they please, there don't seem to be many wild animals on St. Barth. We saw some small lizards and a few spiders. There are also a lot of mosquitoes. The insect repellent (kindly provided by the hotel) kept them away from Steve, but apparently I am so delicious, they were willing to brave the chemical shield to bite me anyway.

From a high, windy, stone platform at the Marine Reserve, we had a terrific view. The big island in the distance is St. Martin.

This was part of our view from the terrace of the Isle de France Hotel, where we stopped for drinks.

It's for rent!

There are some very glamorous villas at Point Milou.

You don't need a big house to have a great view.

This is the entrance to the public beach at Saline.

Colorful flowers blossomed throughout the island.