Today marks the fourth week of my writing of these travel blogs and I have enjoyed having somewhere to log our travel exploits. Primarily I wanted to start these posts so that I had a recorded memoir of what we got up to each week that would act as a nice memory in the future but it also provides a nice motivator for me to actually edit the photos I take each week. Too often I would leave photos for weeks or months before editing them and given that a photography blog without images does not compute it has been really nice to have a little project to work on each week.
This week I am writing my travel blog from the island of Sint Maarten, a joint French and Dutch owned island in the Caribbean. We primarily came here for the beaches but we have found a whole lot of fun on such a tiny piece of land.
Weekly Round-Up
We started the week in Simpson Bay, on the Dutch side, which is the town where the main international airport is located. We stayed here for five days and were lucky enough to be in a beautiful AirBnB right on the beachfront. The end of the week saw us cross into the French side, the north of the island, and stay in Grand Case. This small beachside village was absolutely devastated by hurricane Irma back in 2017 but is slowly getting back to being a very quaint, tourist destination.
Travel
Simpson Bay had loads more to do than we had first imagined. For starters the beach that our accommodation was based on, aptly named Simpson Bay beach, was excellent for swimming. It is not one that gets a lot of attention in the tourist guides despite its huge size and so it was relatively empty every time we visited. It was predominantly all sand, had some decent waves for playing around in but did lack a bit of shade - luckily our accommodation provided a portable sun umbrella.
From our beach we were also able to walk to the famous Maho Beach, one you may have seen on Instagram or on travel shows. This beach is unique because right behind the sand (like literally right behind) is the international airport runway. Planes coming in to land do so over the beach and so it is completely feasible to be having a swim and watch a huge airliner fly in over your head. Neither of us are plane enthusiasts but the whole experience was quite a thrill. Even more exciting was watching tourists ignore the warning signs and stand directly behind a plane that was taking off... and then looking on helplessly as their belongings got jet blasted within a swirling sandstorm into the sea.
We also took a tour with Rhino Safari. This involved getting our own two person yellow dinghy with off board motor and steering wheel behind embarking on a ride all the way up the country's west coast. In doing so we got to see the island from a different perspective and passed alongside the huge mega yachts that the island is synonymous with hosting. It was the only organised activity we did whilst here but it was absolutely worth it - despite getting a little sunburnt.
Having crossed over to the French side of the island we opted to venture a bit inland and climbed the highest peak, Pic Paradis. The hike was surprisingly strenuous and involved some near vertical rock scrambling alongside the use of ropes along the trail to haul yourself up. At the peak we found a couple of viewpoints that gifted us with a unique aerial view of the island as well as allowing us to see the nearby St. Barts on the horizon.
We also took a drive to the capital of the French side, the town of Marigot where we visited the St. Louis fort ruins. This fort, situated atop a small hill, was used to guard the marina within the capital and, despite only ruins remaining, recent restoration work gives a good sense of what the structure would have been like. That's not to say we did not visit any beaches on this side of the island. The Grand Case beach is a huge stretch of sand with beautiful restaurants and bars lining the shoreline. It also has some overhanging buildings which provide a bit of shade on the beach (and saved us having to pay for expensive sun loungers). We also visited the remote Friar's Bay Beach, a smaller sandy bay with almost no waves that turned out to be a lovely spot to relax away an afternoon.
Wildlife
Wildlife spotting is not something that seems to be a prominent tourist industry within Sint Maarten but we managed to find some very interesting animals whilst on our travels.
The most intriguing sight of the week was when we were climbing Pic Paradis. We heard rustling in the trees above before seeing a small troop of green vervet monkeys swinging through the trees. These monkeys are not native to the island (they are originally from Africa) but a reasonably sized population has established itself within the island's green interior. We watched the troop feeding amongst the trees and clambering up and down the trunks. There are calls to cull this species on the island and the government on the French side actually put a plan together last year that would see the species eradicated from their side of the island.
The French side was also where we saw a number of green iguanas, with a number of them clambering over the ruins of Fort Louis when we visited Marigot. These large lizards love to bathe in the hot sun and can be seen in decent numbers within specific parts of the island. They are green solely in name however - the babies are born a vibrant green colour but as they get older they lose this colour and can be found in various shades ranging from brown to grey and, in some cases, almost white. The other lizards that are pretty abundant here are the anoles, small gecko-type lizards that vary in colouration and pattern. There are a number of different species found on Sint Maarten and it is possible to see them almost everywhere if you look hard enough. We saw loads whilst climbing up the mountain peak but they were also easy to spot along the roadside and in hedgerows.
In terms of birdlife we were lucky enough to see an Antillean crested hummingbird at the top of Pic Paradis. Having seen hummingbirds all throughout Costa Rica it was cool to see a species endemic to the Caribbean. In Grand Case, whilst sat on the beach we saw a large number of frigate birds. These huge black seabirds are sometimes referred to as the pirates of the sea since they are always on the lookout for potentially snatching another bird's fish catch. In Grand Case they were harassing a local fisherman who relented and fed them some scraps. There were also a huge number of egrets found on the waterways and lagoons on the island. The most common species were the cattle egret and great egret, both brilliant white coloured but with the latter about three times the size.
Other News
I also found out this week that, despite being awarded as a Finalist, my image of a green heron was not featured in the physical exhibition of winners from the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition hosted within Kew Gardens. Whilst disappointing to not be on display I guess it was not the end of the world considering I would not have been able to have seen it myself in person. You can view the winners from the 'Captured at Kew' category here and help me get over the disappointment of not being a part of the exhibition by telling me how great my photograph is in the comment section below!
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