Eleuthera Part II, Governors Harbour April 12-13

Next stop on the Stray Cat Spring Tour of Eleuthera was the settlement at Governors Harbour.  This was the first capital of the Bahamas and I think it's now the capital of Eleuthera?  I had read about the lovely homes and the beaches over the hill.  There had been a Club Med Resort here so we knew to expect stunning beaches and more pink of pink sand beaches fame.

We arrived on Sunday--we seem to do that a lot--so after anchoring close in nearer the Government Dock on Cupids Cay, we went ashore to do a walk about.  Wow, they were not kidding about the houses.  Gorgeous Victorians and Victorian inspired homes up and down the hill.  And about that hill, it was steep, yes but the views down into the harbor then over to the ocean at the top were heart filling.  I'm not sure if heart filling is a thing but that was how I felt.  Getting back to the dinghy two little boys were taking out a micro sailboat and asked if we had any rope.  Well, we did and donated it to their sailboat activities.  It ended up being the perfect size and perfect length for what they needed to run.  I was watching them from the boat when another group of cruisers got back to their dinghy...the one little one went over and was talking with them too.  He didn't get anything off of them but I suppose it never hurts to ask.  He got rope from us and I was dying to know what he asked them for.  Speaking of kids, another refreshing and reaffirming sight in the Bahamas were children outside...playing and just being outside.  No phones no iPods no electronic devices embedded in their hands under hunchbacked necks from staring into electronic nothingness.  Yes I get the irony and hypocrisy that I've been posting the entire trip on FaceBook and blogging about it.  That is one thing that I have taken from this trip--get your face out of your phone and look up and around you.  I may not be perfect at it yet but it's a big change I really want to try to keep going.  We'll see how it works--I'm writing this back in the US and can tell you that I've relapsed so room to improve still.

"Sailed" to the Bahamas from the Caribbean by a British man then sold to a local...been in the harbour ever since.  Supposedly ;-)

Church and business on Cupids Cay

We anchored with the local fishing boats across from the Library and Anglican Church

There we are

Checking out a boat like Jon's

The well known Library--very pretty

Beautiful Church...holds Episcopal and Anglican services

Lovely view looking down the hill towards the harbour...so many beautiful homes lined the two hill roads...

This one was my very favorite.  It reminded me of a painting by Richard Matson.

Laughing Bird Cay

I have a draw towards old graveyards and the history and love and sorrow of loss immortalized in them.  This was the stone of a young boy and I liked that he had a little lizard with him to keep him company.

Such works of art...

Our little rope beneficiaries.  The one was quite a sailor and seemed to be teaching his pal maybe?  Also hitting up the cruisers who beached their dinghies near by.  Love it.

A view of the core town area and hill over to the beach side

That evening I sat on the front of the boat listening to hymn singing from the Anglican Church just ashore.  That was a special moment even if I could only hear the tones not the words.  It felt a little like eavesdropping but I don't know that they would have minded too much.  Fellowship and spirit take many forms.

The next day we got up and took the bikes up the hill and on a quest to find Tippy's.  This magical mystical place that is supposed to be a "you must go" sorta place.  But first a stop at the brand new coffee shop in town.  Very cute, very modern, very hippy artist quirky American/Canadian cool town kinda place.  The owner knew what he was doing when he got that location and set up his business--cruiser oriented for sure.

Good coffee, breakfast sandwiches, baked goods, "and other tings"

From there we set out on our quest.  Long but awesome bike ride with a detour to the closed entrance to the old Club Med, now part of the French Leave presence there.  They have the marina complex on the harbour along with vacation resort rentals and mooring balls that go for $50 a day.  It was creepy to see the beach resort and I didn't have the balls to go behind the chains at the side roads.  Very abandoned Jurassic Park feeling.  From there we biked along the Atlantic coast past super nice lots and super nice homes.  Hey! Tippys!!!  Hmmm, why is no one here?  Mark asked about lunch hours.  Uh, they are closed on Mondays.  UGH!  Dang it!  Well my back up was The Beach Club a little ways back so bummer but oh well.  We did go out on the beach and it was a beauty of a beach.  We rode a bit farther down that same road and found a nice lot for Jon's brother to buy!  Yay, now we only have to let him know about it.  Ha ha.

Closed on Mondays...we had 'great' timing huh?  Didn't get lunch but got great beach views and photos!

Pit stop to try to fix a funky noise coming from Midnight...spokes kept coming loose.

On the way back we stopped at Levy's Preserve which is part of the Bahamas National Trust system.  It is a botanical garden with examples of native plants and flowers including those species brought to the Bahamas by the Lucayans through to the settlement of Spanish and British.  Oh and spiders!  There's one photo that looks like a brown pool but it was canopied by so many spider webs that I couldn't count them all.  Smart little spiders--good way to catch bugs.  We walked quite a ways along all the trails and got a nice view from the tower.

You can't see them but there are spider webs and spiders all across this pool.  Eeek!

Ok, so don't touch or eat any of these I guess.

Another massive termite city

Plantains!  I love plantains and hope we can find them at home.

Bananas...not the same as plantains ;-)

View from the Tower

We were rewarded for our hard work and bike riding and trail walking with a fabulous stop at The Beach Club.  Fabulous food in a very unassuming environment.  Excellent beer discovery there as well.  Call me froo froo but sitting at a bar looking our over the beach eating out of this world flatbread pizza is a nice afternoon.

Well this is a wonderful pit stop

Oh the view

Pirate Republic IPA--very very good.  Could never seem to find it after this stop.  Also a nice rum...a bit upscale compared to good old Ricardo.

We headed down the hill past those lovely homes and made a beeline to the liquor store.  Jon and I were inside looking for Kalik Light when the older gentleman inside saw Mark locking up the bikes and asked "what is he doing, why is he doing that?" in a teasing voice.  I couldn't figure out how to tell him that where we come from, you have to lock up your bikes when you go in a store.  So we just chuckled about it.  I'm sure he thought we were silly Americans.  With a case of Radlers in hand, Mark bungeed them to the back of his bike and we peddled back up the hill to the Buccaneer Club.  If they didn't think we were silly Americans before, they did now.  We ended our dining day at the with, you guessed it...hamburgers.  Hamburgers is a big thing in the Bahamas and I can honestly say I ate more hamburgers while in the Bahamas than I did in the entire year before we got there (maybe two years).

So I've given you another long winded rambling post but, as always, I hope you enjoyed the corresponding photos.  Thank you for your patience because I am already forgetting so many little details and writing it all down is to help us recall the wonder and beauty and "heart filling" days of this amazing trip.  I know this was a favorite stop along Eleuthera for Jon...well, all of us really :-)

Off from Governors Harbour, next stop:  the Glass Window