cross-island trek

On the walk back from church, Lisa and I decided to join Jess and Inge on their hike across the island later in the afternoon. I'd been lazy earlier and missed the deadline for the guided trek our hostel was offering today, so I was happy to have another chance to go.

The trail went from the side of town near the airport up to the 423-m 'Needle,' a tower of bare rock near the center of the island, and then back down to Wigmore's Waterfall on the opposite side of the island. It was a tough hike – parts of it were more like rock climbing, and recent rains had made the trail slippery (or rather 'slippy' - one of my favorite new British words, at least when spoken with the accent!) so I ended up half-covered in mud at the end.

We were following the written instructions in the Lonely Planet guidebook – I think they keep the trail unmarked so you'll pay for a guide! We got lost several times, and it wasn't until we could nearly see the road at the end that we found one half-obscured arrow tacked to a tree to mark the trail. There were some gorgeous views from the top, though – I'm working on setting up a photo album for the pictures that don't make it into the blog posts, hopefully that'll be up in the next few weeks.

It was a good thing that the views were good along the way, because the waterfall was nothing to speak of and although all the guidebooks said we could swim in a refreshing pool under the waterfall, the pool was stagnant...and a prominently displayed sign forbade swimming since the waterfall fed island water supplies.

Photo: me at the base of the Needle.