Tortola, BVI

I set off solo today.  The destination would be 20 km across the Caribbean Sea to the port of Road Town in Tortola.

I walked around for the first hour or so.  I hit the bakery, got a fantastic coffee at a place called OK Cafe, and just generally got my bearings in a one mile square area.  But there was more to see and more to do.  Tortola is much bigger then Virgin Gorda, and so I went to a local car rental shop and hired out the cheapest road worthy vehicle there was.

So my ride would be a Kia, and I didn't get too involved much with the formalities of the transaction.  Or I should say the lady working wasn't too concerned or involved - she was much more interested in the television show rather then the business at hand.  However, it was all she could do to muster up asking me for a driver's license....  It was $50, cash, which was all she wanted to hand over the keys.  There was not the formalities, and especially paperwork, one would be used to in North America to rent out a vehicle for a day.

All the driving down here is left of centre.  All the cars are Japanese imports, and the steering wheels are all on the left, but driving is on the left.  I can say a time or too I wandered over to the right.  Parking lots are a bit more difficult to maneuver in, and my natural instincts are always to look right of course.....  But the biggest challenge was the roads and the overall terrain.

The roads are all paved, but they are incredibly steep.  Very steep in fact.  There are very little straight-aways, the corners are extremely tight.  There is simply nothing comparable to these driving conditions.  This is way more challenging then driving out to Whiskey Lake north of Massey, ON....  I can't even begin to explain the inclines....  Obviously not 45 degrees or more, but man it is steep...It wasn't very relaxing at all.

So the long and short of it is I drove a hundred clicks or so in 3 hours.  I got all around the island for the most part and it was quite nice.  The highlight was getting out to a beach on Beef Island called Long Bay.  It was just beautiful....  I had a swim out there and just relaxed a bit.  But I was looking forward to dropping the car off and returning it and me unscathed.  And I did.

I managed a 4:30 ferry back to Virgin Gorda....  Walked a mile and a bit up to the cottage.  Home by 5:30 for a quick swim with Molly....  It was a decent day.