Reef Bay Hike: What I Was Doing Last Thursday

Last Thursday morning I wasn't dissecting cows, I was going on a beautiful hike on St. Johns.
Above: Plant tree frogs live in but you can only see them when they come out onto the leaf at night.
Below: Termite mound in a tree and ruins of an early Dutch/Danish settlement.



Above: Tiny lizard.
Below: Lichen growing on the trees' bark made them look camouflaged.



Above: Beautiful springs.
Below: Ancient petroglyphs at the springs. The most blown up one supposedly stands for frog!




As we got closer to the beach (our final destination), we started to see hermit crabs.
Above: Incorrect way to hold a hermit crab.
Below: The correct way to hold a hermit crab is to give it a piece of stick to grab onto so that it doesn't pinch you!


From Reef Bay Sugar Mill it was just a short, hot hike to the completely deserted Genti Beach.
Below: I've never been so excited to see a boat before-- this one was here to pick us up and take us back to Cruz bay so we didn't have to hike back up the three miles of steep hill to the road.

Below: Me on the beach, fully dressed. I then quickly stripped down to a jogbra, zipped off the lower part of my hiking pants and got in the water. Heavenly (see my even bigger smile). Then I swam out to the boat with several other hikers, though some took a dingy out.




Above: Me onboard the boat, very pleased with myself for making the swim.
Below: The view back to the hills we hiked down as we pulled away from the shore.

Below: My first brown booby (a type of gannet)!



Coming into Cruz Bay we went right past Gallows Point where they used to hang people (pirates).
Above: Ominous black ship at Gallows Point.
Below: Gallows point.

Below: Pulling into the Cruz Bay harbor.