Bike ride in Barbuda

We headed up the coast to Low Bay so that we could experience the bright lights of the main town, Codrington.  Low Bay was another beautiful pristine beach stretching for miles.  

We beached the dinghy, then pulled it over the sand bar and into the lagoon.  Across the lagoon and to Codrington we went. 

The local school

For reasons known only to him, Gary decided he should take me on an island tour...by bike.  Despite my protests and strong suggestion that this was not such a good idea seeing that I can’t ride a bike, we rented two bikes sans helmets.

The bike rental place was well located so that my first attempts to get on the bike were witnessed by the entire town that had conveniently congregated at the town square for lunch.  It wasn’t just the sniggering of school children, or the outright pointing and laughing by the adult men and women alike that caused maximum humiliation.  It was also when the helpful bike rental guy called across the street to ask whether I needed my seat lowered so that I could put my feet on the ground. (I joke, but he was actually really helpful). 

After a few false starts we were on our way, off towards Two Foot Bay...well at least we thought we were.  We took a wrong turn, and then a helpful passer by directed us in the opposite direction of Two Foot Bay, thinking we wanted to go to Pink Sand Beach.  So, unknowingly, off to Pink Sand Beach we went. 

I was still struggling with this bike riding thing.  Straight lines were all right, but turns were impossible.  Whether I went around a pothole or straight through was pure luck.  I also have a big bone to pick with the bike manufacturers.  Whoever decided that it was intuitive to back pedal to stop is an idiot.  It is not intuitive.  By the time that I had though “shit, I have to stop, how do I do that?” and manage to stop pedalling, I was already off the road, across the paddock and into a prickly bush.  Alternatively, I would stop pedalling, which usually meant taking my feet off the pedals, and attempt to put my feet on the ground which resulted in one badly stubbed big toe (of course we were riding bikes in jandals, what other shoes do you think we have?.

Along the way we saw horses and donkeys roaming free along the roadside.  Well, I saw them when I wasn’t concentrating on the two metres directly in front of me, or when a donkey or horse happened to be within those two metres.  The land here is communally owned and, while there are fences, it seems that generally animals are free to roam.  The ones we saw all appeared happy, well looked after and well fed – a sharp contrast to Anegada.

We made it to a sign which pointed the way to Pink Sand Beach, and also towards Cocoa Point which we knew was in the opposite direction of Two Foot Bay.  Since we were there already, we took a look at Pink Sand Beach.

We also found a kitten there.  Despite being very friendly, Gary still refused to let me keep it.  

So back towards Codrington we went, a 30-minute journey, then towards the other side of the island and Two Foot Bay.

By this point I was missing potholes at a rate better than chance.  The bike riding became a mental game between me and the pain in my bum.  This meant we needed to make frequent bum rest stops along the way. 

But finally, with cries of joy, we made it to Two Foot Bay Park.  We took the bumpy rail down towards the beach, making only one stop along the way to admire the rocky foreshore.  Unfortunately, all of Europe's rubbish seemed to have accumulated there after floating across the Atlantic.

Two Foot Bay itself, however, was rubbish free and pristine.  

                                     

We made it back to Codrington by nightfall, just in time for the town to be again congregated in the square to witness my hobbling down the street back to the dinghy dock.

Note:  While we had a fun day out on Barbuda, not all cruisers did.  Our New Zealand friends and their three young children unfortunately witnessed an act of extreme animal cruelty.  They saw a dog, only it’s head visible above the water, struggling at the rocky shoreline.  They went to help and after managing to pull the dog out of the water, found that it had been tied to a brick and obviously thrown in.  It’s paws were cut up and bloody from it’s attempts to crawl up the rocks, and the rope had dug into it’s flesh causing horrible wounds.  A local tour guide happened to be at Two Foot Bay also, but refused to help saying that this was just what happened to dogs when their owners got fed up with them.  In good Kiwi fashion, they called up the tourist office and managed to get a ride back into town with the dog.  The tourist office took the dog in and promised to get it medical attention.  Whether this in fact happened is unknown.  We hope that this is an isolated incident and that Barbudans generally have a better attitude towards animal cruelty, or if not, that they get one soon.  The incident has been reported to the authorities and to WSPA.