Bitter Guana Cay & Great Guana Cay Bahamas

This blog entry has been edited to add in some extra photographs of Black Point Settlement courtesy of Strevs and Nici.

A lovely looking house (or perhaps a small hotel) en route to Bitter Guana Cay

Having spent a lovely hour or so snorkelling in Thunderball Grotto we decided to spend the afternoon peering at the iguanas of Bitter Guana Cay.  The wind was not helpful to us and the area between Staniel Cay and Bitter Guana Cay is very shallow with several narrow winding passages so we had to take a circuitous route between one and the other.

Approaching Bitter Guana Cay

The quickest and easiest way to travel was under power, so Mr Beta got a bit of a workout.

We anchored off, ate lunch and headed ashore.

Even from where we were anchored we could see the iguanas on the beach.

Close up they are surprisingly large….

…..fast on their feet and keen to investigate new arrivals – presumably hoping for titbits (which we had not brought).

And they’re not scared to get close either, which is very useful for taking photos!

“I’m posing; have you got my best side?”

“Oh I do like that pretty blue boat over there.”  “What boat? Look, there might be food this way.”

BV from the high point on Bitter Guana Cay

Having spent long enough with the iguanas we set our sights on scaling the cay’s highest point.  Unsurprisingly it didn’t take too long – the most difficult part was working our way through the scrub on the dunes backing the beach.

Looking northeast

Despite the lack of height, we had great views along the line of the cay and across to Exuma Sound…..

The Exuma Sound side of Bitter Guana Cay in a brisk east-northeasterly……

……where the brisk wind was making everything a little lumpy.  It made for lovely views and fun at the cliff edge…..

…..and the Grand Bahamas Bank side of Bitter Guana Cay in the same weather conditions.  Barrier islands, don’t ya just love ‘em?

…..but the Bank side of the islands was definitely the place to be that day.

Approaching Great Guana Cay

After trying a different route down to the shore (it didn’t work!) we retraced our steps to returned to the dinghy. Once back on board BV we motored and sailed south along Bitter Guana Cay, past Dotham cut to Great Guana Cay where we anchored off Black Point settlement for the night.  The anchorage here is huge with a good, clear sandy bottom.  It has great holding and fabulous protection from the prevailing northeasterly winds all the way round to southerly winds, perhaps even from winds a little west of south.

Going ashore at Black Point Settlement [Photos by Strevs & Nici]

We’d heard that the settlement was worth exploring so we pottered ashore for a looksee.

Looking out across the anchorage [Photos by Strevs & Nici]

The Police Station and the Government Clinic [Photos by Strevs & Nici]

[Photo by Strevs & Nici]

It seems to be a nice little place (with the operative word being ‘little’) with a useful small store, a laundry, which is reported to be excellent, and a few bar/restaurants.

[Photos by Strevs & Nici]

[Photos by Strevs & Nici]

Dark and Stormies with coconut fried prawns for Happy Hour

In the excitement of deciding that we would do happy hour and then dinner ashore I failed to get any pictures, other than of our happy hour food, but the Dark and Stormies were very good and the coconut fried prawns excellent so we can safely say that a good evening was had by all.  A big thanks to Strevs and Nici for not only spoiling us with a lovely dinner but for also supply some extra photos for the blog.

Given the time that Nici and Strevs had available, Great Guana Cay was the furthest south we intended to go. The following day we planned to begin retracing our steps north but the great bonus of the Exumas is that there are so many places to see we knew that we would not be revisiting any of the anchorages at which we had stopped on the way south.

Bitter Guana Cay & Great Guana Cay, Bahamas