Wilderness Adventure
The other day I went on a longer than expected adventure through the Wilderness area of the island. I started off a little before seven to check my beaches for turtle tracks. Feeling pretty good after doing that, I decided to head cross-country up Red Rock, the mountain behind Petite Cayes. At first, progress up a dry gulch was quite good, although things started to get pretty dense once the slope leveled out near the top.
Rather than turn back, I decided to push through and descend down towards Cul de Sac. This took several hours longer than I anticipated, through thorny scrub and fields of the bromeliad that has serrated leaf edges like knives. For a time I had to stop taking photos because if I stopped moving I would be swarmed by dozens of mosquitoes. I also became quite thirsty in the hours after I ran out of water.
Eventually, though I made it to the top of the ridge overlooking Cul de Sac and merely had to climb all the way down on a field of boulders to get to civilization. At four o’clock, covered with scratches and dirt, and having a large hole in the butt of both my shorts and underwear, made it back to the road, stopped at the first place I found and drank a liter and a half of water and immediately got severe cramps. Was it worth it? It’s hard to say, but I’m not going to try it again in the near future.
