Adventure: Jost Van Dyke, BVI, featuring the Bubbly Pool and White Bay

Sundays have become adventure day while I’m here in the BVI and I am hoping we won’t run out of places to visit any time soon! This past Sunday saw us heading to the island of Jost Van Dyke. Mr. Irie was a little hesitant as he kept saying “there’s nothing to do there” what with a population of about 200 people on the island. But I had done my research and my itinerary was packed as I am well aware by now that he makes a sucky tour guide! They say the island is the same size as Manhattan but I can guarantee you that is where any similarities end. We kept running out of road and made several u-turns! But I am getting ahead of myself, lets start from the moment we got on the ferry!

Passing by the Jolly Roger, a restaurant on the western tip of Tortola, the main island, with a yummy burger and a mound of nachos that will make Usain Bolt’s Tracks and Records’ mound back home look like a baby!

Sailing is what they do here in the BVI:

Mr. Irie theorizes that the island back there is either Little Thatch or Great Thatch, which is privately owned and so that must be the owner’s yacht. I thought the vessel was a little excessive but…I guess if you own an island. X_X However a quick wiki search explains that Great Thatch was re-purchased by the Government of BVI years ago and is now a national park and Little Thatch is a private island with an exclusive villa that can be rented for something like $6000 – $9000 a week per couple, depending on the time of year, so……maybe this was Little Thatch and some high rollers had sailed in to Sea Grape Cottage?

Anyway back to JVD…approaching the island, gorgeous right? The water is so pretty…

I dunno why a country with so many islands doesn’t offer a car barge service, but we rented a jimny and went exploring. Around here, we ran out of road but decided to keep going. I was a bit scared in that little jimny!

This part doesn’t look so scary but we had just gone over some very steep, very loose rocks. I was clutching my pearls. Anyhoo we didn’t venture much further because this is touted as an ATV track and I didn’t wanna push the jimny too far. We weren’t here for the hills after all…

The view was spectacular and totally worth a little pearl-clutching:

You know how kids play “my car” when they’re out on a trip or something? Well off in the distance there…that’s my island! 😀 From here we turned around in search of the bubbly pool. I’d heard of this little adventure thanks to Amelia’s BVI blog and knew it would be something my family would totally enjoy.

Some of the view on the way:

The little spot with the red roof off in the distance was to be our lunch spot. We stopped there first to get contact info so we could call ahead and order our lobsters before we got back. The place is called Abe’s in Little Harbour (284-495-9329, 284-544-9981) and the view was again spectacular:

One of these guys would be our lunch! Yummmm!

I’m never in the darn pics. Hmph

Anyway…Bubbly Pool. It included somewhat of a hike…I was totally “Are we there yet?”

After we passed these signs:

It was time to carry the tot:

We’re there! The bubbly pool is a little cove the rocks have made that the waves come crashing through. When the waves come in it really does feel as if you’re swimming around in some champagne or at least some soda water complete with nose-tickling 😀 It was a little cold, but totally worth it. After a bit of exploration, we just found a comfy rock to sit in front of and brace against as the waves came in and tried to thrash us about. Munchkin was totally in her element.

Munchkin found friends back at Abe’s. Meanwhile….lunch!

It was SO yummy! The lime and butter sauce totally set it off. I love a grilled lobster but this one hit the spot. Still craving a good grilled lobster though (drops hints at hubs)

Finally on this adventure was a layout on the beach. After such a meal there can be no other activity. White Bay I hear is a most spectacular beach and the Soggy Dollar bar is most famous for their painkillers so I had to get there. We ended up at the beach to the left of the Soggy bar, you can’t see it in this pic but you can definitely notice much less boats in this side of the water. We again had quite a trek through those rocks in the middle and over a little hill to get to White Bay!

Once there, totally worth it! But I have to say I am a little taken aback by all the boats. The beach is so beautiful! But do I want to swim amongst all this boating waste? We were beat anyway so we just laid out on the beach and enjoyed each other’s company. Munchkin had the right idea.

The painkiillers at the Soggy Dollar? I guess they were the best I’ve had? To be honest I think I had a much better one at the Trellis Bay Kitchen. At this point my favourite BVI drink is most certainly the bushwhacker. Mmmmm yummy! Those will surely derail all my fitness goals.

Last pics…shots from the ferry ride back:

An absolutely epic day. It almost beat out our trip to The Baths because it was a complete package, the food was better and relaxing on the beach before rushing back was a total plus. But….nothing beats The Baths! Wonder what lies ahead?