While the beach was the main draw, we did spend some time walking the complex a bit.
But mostly we just wanted to hang out on the beach.
I told my bud I wanted to visit more beautiful beaches like this, so he’d better get to work some more. He told me to work myself. I ignored that. I’m too relaxed to smack him.
And just like that, we’re headed back home tomorrow.
The next few days were pretty relaxing. My bud and I took many bearfoot con bear walks on the beach.
The day after New Years Eve, just about everyone filed out, leaving on a scattering of guests left in the club. The weather was very cooperative and everything was pleasant. I lounged on the sand when my bud went on a run, I lounged in the sand when my bud decided to walk across the shallow bay out to Sugar Cay, and I lounged in the sand when they went kayaking. The waters were so shallow and calm I didn’t have to worry about so many rogue waves like we did in Iceland, and it was warm enough to stay close to the waters.
So back and forth and back and forth we would stroll on the beach and across the complex.
When sunset came, we either watched it on the beach.
Or from the deck.
Pretty relaxing either way!
It’s New Years Eve! Just like that, it’s the last day of 2021.
And I’m going on vacation. To the Bahamas. There are nearly 700 islands in the Bahamas, and I’m going to one Great Abaco Island, though the airport we landed in was actually on Marsh Island? Our friends were kind enough to invite us to spend NYE with them. I’m looking forward to a change of scenery, after having spent most of the year in a bearrito.
Here’s the view from outside the plane as we’re getting ready to approach.
Our destination today is the Abaco Club. It’s a private club with a nice long fine white sand beach. Abaco Club’s had an interesting history with multiple owners. For the longest time it sat underdeveloped through multiple recessions, but the current owners seem to be putting a lot of effort into growing the community.
As we disembarked from the airport though, we were first greeted with giant swarths of dead trees. At first we thought maybe they were just dormant from winter, but it turns out this is the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 hurricane that struck Abaco Islands Directly on Sept 1, 2019. While the hurricane itself inflicted a lot of damage, it was the resulting flooding that left the soils too salty for trees to survive.
While most of the damage impacted northern Abaco, Abaco Club survived surprisingly unscathed. Much of the area might have been protected by a combination of the Winding Bay, and by Sugar Cay.
After about a 20 minute ride, we pulled up to our friend’s place. There’s a main house and we got to stay in the guest house.
Time to settle in and get ready for New Years Eve!