Tony’s Blog : The Bury’ed Treasures

Having had probably the best night’s sleep we’ve had thus far (except Miche that is who tried to sleep outdoors under a mosquito net until rain came down and wind picked up!). We all woke up around 9, to the disappointing sound of heavy winds coming in from outside. A front had moved in overnight and caused the sea to become very choppy. Fortunately we were not flying today but Tom had read that this front was due. Miche, Oli and Dom decided that before breakfast to go for a run. We ran down to the end of the worn runway and found a track which led off through the mangroves towards the north of the island.

After around 2 miles, we found that our enthusiasm didn’t match our fitness and levels of dehydration! We found Carlos Lehder’s house from where he ran his multibillion dollar drugs trafficking business, quite intimidating when we thought of all the stories from the area. Had the famous MacDuffs burger at for breakfast/lunch, it definitely lived up to its name!

After this we decided to go fishing at the end of the runway, again to no avail. Sometimes the fish just don’t bite!!

We had sampled a few conch fritters at lunch, so we asked where the best place would be to find them, and were driven to ‘the pond’ where they lived. Conch for anyone who does not know are what live in those massive shells that were used in ‘the lord of the flies’.

We searched the shallows for them, and found 5 that were large enough to eat. While looking for the conch I was gliding along sifting the sand on the bottom, when suddenly a sting ray, concealed under the sand, sprung up in front of me. I was pretty scared, but more so when 10 minutes later, when swimming towards another stingray, a massive barracuda swam past, and as I was wearing a belt, and owing to their penchant to shiny things, thought it would be good to vacate the water as quickly as possible!!

For dinner we had rice and vegetables, and conch, with Ollie killing it and myself filleting it. As well as this we found a couple of Coconuts from a tree, broke them open, and used the milk to cook in.

Right now I am sat in the bar, having a couple of beers and talking to the other few guests….. real nice.

Possibly one of the finest days thus far in my life, and if it continues like this these blog entry’s may get substantially longer!!

We boarded their boat at 11am, and cruised along the island, anchoring off what is commonly known as Thunderball Grotto, an amazing anomaly in the geographical landscape. It is a massive cave in the middle of a small island, only accessible through small underwater vents. We snorkeled through these into a fish filled cavern, with the cave having holes in the ceiling, allowing rays of sun to pierce. We stayed here for about 30 mins before returning to the boat. From here we had a quite an incredible experience, with Jonathan taking us Bahamian spear fishing. With a long steel spear, and a bungee to pull it back, you dive down towards the fish about 10 feet or so, pull back your weapon, and then unleash it towards the unsuspecting prey. It is a hard art to master, proved by the fact that I, Miche, and Tom did not catch anything. Ollie however managed to catch 3 fish!!! Obviously a bit of luck was on his side, or he was a natural.

Spear fishing is dangerous but such a thrill, with your hunting instincts really coming to the fore. After this amazing activity the evening would be hard to beat, but Norman’s Cay came up trumps.

It is renowned as being the most beautiful island in the Exuma chain. It did not disappoint. To eulogise, mere words cannot express the beauty of this place. A small island, it is located on the northern tip of the Exuma’s, and the population consists of about 5 or 6 residents, who look after MacDuff’s Beach club, a resort with only beach huts and a bar. We have one of these huts to ourselves and it sits on the shoreline, with the waves pretty much lapping at the veranda’s feet. I would say it is probably the closest thing to paradise I have seen on earth. Perfect white sand beaches, set against brilliant blue seas, and the remoteness of the place, and the minuteness of the population compounding this.

We cooked an evening meal of macaroni cheese, which was ably prepared by Miche, Tom and Ollie. It was a good meal, and was very sufficient. After this we went night fishing for an hour or so in front of our beach hut, unfortunately failing to catch anything, although one of the lines did get caught by something big and broke off. Despite the brief excitement of this bite, we conceded that nothing was there for us to hook, and so left it. After that and the last couple of days and nights, we were too tired to head down to the bar, and so chilled out with a few beers on our veranda.

A perfect end to a perfect day.

From Bimini we flew for 50 minutes or so to Staniel Cay, our first and most expensive port of call. However Staniel Cay is utterly beautiful. We arrive on a short runway, with blue sea and a catamaran moored on our right. There was no airport; no-one took any notice of us what-so-ever, all very chilled out maaan. We caught a little golf cart to Staniel Cay Yacht Club where we were shown our gorgeous blue two storey house! It overlooked the marina and sea. It even had little fairy lights!

We spent the remainder of our day on the beach and exploring the island. None of the locals ever sit in their shop and you have to go find them on the island to get in. We met one lady who owned the boutique and asked her how she ever made any money if she was never in her shop. She laughed for ages and said “I don’t know maaan, I should stay there one day, (very loud laugh), I’m never there!” We loved the locals! Bought our first local coconut rum, and shop owner told us “maaan this stuff will mess you up” when Dom said he liked rum.

Watched the most beautiful sunset from the balcony of our house, drinking our rum and feeling very lucky. Spent the rest of the night in the yacht club bar eating and drinking. Miche then showed her massive skills, and got talking to these two guys who we were sat at the bar with, Jonathan and Angus. Jonathan was slightly older than us at 24, and is sailing around the Caribbean for 5 months, and his Uncle is there with him for 3 weeks. They invited us on board their 34 foot sailing boat, where we sat for a number of hours listening to music and debating Barak Obama’s impact upon America, and their staunch Republican views were really quite enlightening from an outsider’s perspective, and also rather compelling. They invited us out on their boat for the next day, which was very kind, and were thrilled at the idea, so agreed.

We woke at 4am, to see a sight I will probably never see firsthand again. That morning a shuttle bound for the International space station took off from Cape Canaveral.  We were about 40 or so miles from the launch site, but it still lit up the night sky fantastically well.

After this novel occurrence we returned for a couple of hours and got to the airport early, as we needed to be at Fort Lauderdale, in time to clear US airspace by 11.30. We were greeted in Miami by a rich man’s car park, with the airport jam packed with private jets, sandwiched in wherever possible. The reason for this was simple. The super bowl attracts the rich and famous, and they need somewhere to fly into. Before we arrived, Bill Gates and Chris Rock’s planes had taken off, to put some scale to the cast of stars that had assembled.

It is also important to note that we flew over the Everglades. Possibly one of my least favourite places to crash land.

Once we cleared American Airspace, we flew for a short distance to Biminis, where we had to clear customs for the Bahamas. We had arrived in the Caribbean!!!!!!

There is nothing much of Houston to report, it is a relatively drab city despite being the largest city in America it clearly has no culture, as I have observed before. From Houston we flew over Louisiana, dropping down into real Hillbilly country, and being greeted on our refuel at Houma airport by some very welcoming locals, who showed as all around their hanger, before getting out their prized possession they had got out for the Super Bowl.  A sculpture of a flying pig, which being New Orleans Saints fans was quite apt.

Following on from our refuel we travelled down to Orlando Florida across some more amazing scenery. We were greeted here by Ollie’s Aunty and Uncle, who were over here in the states for a few days checking on the development of the complex where their holiday home is situated. Owing unfortunately to the miscalculation of time zones on our behalf they arrived to pick us up 2 hours earlier than planned!!

Their house is very nicely done, and was a perfect reprieve from travelling for the last 2 days, and American fast food. There was at last some greenery on our plates. For the first time also we also got excited about the Super Bowl, supporting the saints was after all a worthy cause.

The Super Bowl was expected to be a one way affair, with the Indianapolis colts expected to trounce the saints. And the match started as if this would be the case, the colts 10-0 up after the first quarter. This was only to be a minor blip however with the saints storming to a 30-17 win.

Well fed and watered we hit the beds for 5 hours or so.

This morning was one we were not looking forward to as it could potentially determine the outcome of the next 3 or 4 days of our trip. If it was the alternator then the likelihood was that we would have to stay in El Paso until Tuesday due to them having to order a part, which despite the lure of the Hispanic populations fine cuisine, we would not appreciate. Meeting the mechanic at about 9.00 he took the airplane into the local maintenance hanger while we went back to the hotel.

One hour past by and the phone call came, that we had been dreading. Thank god the report was good, and our worst fears were alleviated. The electrical failure turned out to be the belt on the alternator, and not the alternator itself. This understandably was an immense relief.

Two hours later we took off, plane repaired, and rather apprehensive, heading for Houston International.

To put it lightly the scenery at 11 thousand feet flying across America is stunning. Starting with the mountains due west of San Diego, which were snow capped and a luscious green, the land dropped almost immediately into the lee of the rain shadow. From here we passed over a vast stretch of desert, which took us past El Paso, and on towards Houston.

As we flew towards Houston below us we could see the oil fields that Texas is so famous for, along with rather interestingly a large number of wind turbine farms, with turbines sprouting 100’s of meters out of the desert on rocky outcrops. As the sun began to set over the desert, we past Austin to our left and San Antonio to our right, both brilliantly lit up on our decent towards Houston.

So that was quite the experience, and I am aware that all family members were told.

A little shell shocked and appreciative of our luck and Tom’s expertise we left the plane at the airport, and got a shuttle to a local hotel called the hawthorn inn and suites. Dumping our bags we went to the local steak house, where we sampled the delicious burgers and steaks. Tom to our surprise avoided the steak, and went for a burger. After this we went to Appleby’s for a couple of beers before heading back to the hotel for a well deserved rest.

The day of our maiden flight came, and we were understandably excited. We packed and ferried our baggage to the plane, taking off from Montgomery Airport at around 12pm. From here we flew over the local mountains at 11,000 feet. It was expected that there would be some severe turbulence, but there was not any. The flight was a good one, clear and with a strong tailwind we made our first refueling point, demining.  Here we met Burt, the charismatic Ex U.S Navy man turned plane fanatic, with a handlebar moustache to rival no other. He gave us a good talk about his experience which was all caught on camera.

After refueling we took off into the sunset, cruising due east heading for Galveston.

We had been in the air for about an hour when by chance Michelle and I noticed that the fuel gage was strangely low, considering that we had just refueled, at first we just thought it was a fluctuation, but as it continued to descend towards empty, we were increasingly more worried. 2 minutes later and the plane had no electrical power, there were no lights on the normally well lit dash board, and we could not communicate on the intercom. Needless to say Michelle and I, not being able to hear the conversations that Tom and Ollie were having in the front were more than a little nervous.

We were 100 miles out over uninhabited desert with no GPS, no landing nights, and only a hand held radio, a small torch, and a map to go by.

Tom had noted our position just before the lights went out, and we quickly swung around, heading for the lights in the distance that was El Paso.

After about 10 minutes Tom managed to make radio contact with the tower at El Paso, and we immediately requested an emergency landing. El Paso is a major international airport, and as we came in to land, having flown for 40 minutes over lifeless desert, we could see the runway straight ahead, with all other runway lights turned off, and commercial 777′s waiting for us on the runway.

Amazingly Tom managed to guide us on with no landing lights, and we touched down essentially blind, with only the end of the runway to concentrate on.

Very relieved we taxied to the local cutters airport, for small private planes. The experience was very scary, and Tom clearly demonstrated his flying prowess, and clear calmness under extreme pressure to guide us in to land safely…..

Dom

Tom et al left SD yesterday at night for Galveston. They had complete electrical failure three hours out so no lights or communications. Tom contacted El Paso International Airport on his phone. Skies were cleared and all lights turned off except for landing strip and made emergency landing at high speed. All shaken but apparently ok and are leaving for Galveston now!

Rising early we bought breakfast and lunch stuff from Ralphs, an American supermarket in the centre of town. We found it rather odd that every possible item in store was vacuum packed, but learnt this is what you are to expect, along with the check out girl looking positively shocked that we wanted to save money by getting a free discount card.

Hiring a car is much cheaper per day in San Diego than taking taxis, and seeing as there would be a lot of driving required, with trips to Wal-Mart to buy amongst other things our camping equipment we elected to do just this. After our trip to Wal-Mart we went to the hanger, where we took the plane up for a quick instrument check, before which Tom gave us a fascinating safety brief that was recorded so we could replay it at our leisure.

The beach in San Diego is across the large central bridge (where coincidentally for those lovers of Anchor man is where Ron Burgundy’s dog gets kicked off). Tom showed off his surfing skills, while myself, Ollie and Michele decided to stay out of the water due to it being rather cooler than expected.

In and out burgers are synonymous with America, with dinner consisting of just this, and I would recommend them to anyone, as at $3 a burger you can’t go wrong.

Tom’s friend Mary has kindly volunteered, or was coerced into holding Tom’s surf board, while we are away, and we met her for a beer in the evening, with only two of us making it inside the bar, due to a certain lack of ID.

The time is now  9 AM, and we are about to head off on our first long trip down to Galveston. The weather is set fair, and although a little nervous, am very much excited.