Welcome to week 5 of my travel blog! The past month has absolutely flown by, probably because we have been having an absolutely blast exploring the Caribbean amongst some beautifully tropical weather. This week also saw us kickstart a new project (see other news below), one that I really hope you will be keen to help us out with!
Weekly Round-Up
We started this week by travelling back down to the Dutch side of Sint Maarten and staying in the capital, Philipsburg. This port town is where the large cruise ships dock and so it has a lot going on. After a few days there we travelled by ferry to the tiny island of Saba, part of the Dutch Caribbean where we undertook some truly rigorous hiking.
Travel
Philipsburg was a weird town in that it completely transformed on days when cruise ships were docked in port. On our first day there we dropped the hire car back at the office and spent some time on Little Bay Beach. This small bay is situated just in front of a large resort hotel but public access to the beach is available (if you know where to look). We went for a swim in completely calm, crystal clear waters and were lucky enough to find a spot in the shade under a palm tree since the sun loungers were for hotel guests only. The other reason we had headed down this way was because we wanted to visit Fort Amsterdam. The ruins of the old Dutch fort were found at the end of a headland and offered some stunning views out across the ocean alongside some abandoned canons and ruined buildings. It actually had more information boards than the corresponding fort (Fort St. Louis) that we had visited on the French side but the walls and buildings had almost totally disappeared here.
We walked back through Philipsburg, along the beachfront, and it was pretty much deserted in terms of tourists. We later learned that there were no cruise ships docked on that particular day but the following one saw five (with a total of 15,000 guests) arrive. As you can imagine the beach was heaving then and the price of sun loungers had risen exponentially from the previous day. We did manage to find a reasonably priced, quieter area right at the far end of Great Bay Beach where we spent a good afternoon swimming and lounging.
One of the real highlights for us in Philipsburg was the Sint Maarten Museum. Despite being situated down a side street and looking unassuming from the front, this little museum had a lot to offer. Inside we found exhibits detailing the colonial history of the island and the modern day relationship with its European counterparts, all of which was extremely interesting considering we had journeyed around the entire island in the last week or so.
The other great thing about Philipsburg was that, being the capital, it had access to a number of locally run food outlets. Not only were these significantly better value than the tourist traps on the beach, they also were incredibly tasty. Our favourite was Jimmy's BBQ, where we ate twice and enjoyed barbecued ribs alongside a local delicacy, the Johnny Cake (a fried maize bread). We also found an excellent ice cream shop just round the corner from our hotel - Philipsburg really did have some of our favourite eateries on the island.
We then travelled by a small ferry to the island of Saba. The journey took about an hour and there were only a handful of travellers on our boat. Saba is a tiny island in the Caribbean that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island is unlike most of its Caribbean counterparts in that there are no sandy beaches found here, only steep rocky cliffs and huge hills. The main reason people travel to Saba is for diving and hiking. We came for the latter and it was definitely worth it.
On our first full day we hiked up to the peak of Mount Scenery which, at 2,910ft, is the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The walk was very tough and involved climbing over 1,000 stairs, the majority of which were incredibly steep and somewhat slippy given the mountain is covered in rainforest. At the peak we were treated to some of the most spectacular views (in the brief moments where the clouds parted) and, for us, it genuinely rivaled some of the iconic hikes we had completed in Patagonia in terms of reward. The difference here is we hiked almost the entire trail without seeing anyone else...
We also climbed up the smaller Maskerhorn Hill, where we were able to see the islands of St. Barts, St. Eustatius and St. Kitts & Nevis on the horizon. On our final day we opted for a flatter walk given that our knees had taken a pounding and so we hiked from our hotel in Windwardside to The Bottom, the only other significant town on the island. The hikes here were genuinely some of the best we have completed during our five months of travel and we fail to realise how this island is not a renowned tourist destination! It was really incredible and most of the time we felt as though we had stepped onto the set of Jurassic Park.
Wildlife
Back on the Dutch side of St. Maarten there were not many wildlife spotting opportunities, especially within the urbanised capital of Philipsburg. That being said we did see a number of very large green iguanas whilst walking around the peninsula of Fort Amsterdam. One individual proved particularly friendly and opted to come and sit under our bench when we were having lunch…
Saba had some, surprisingly, good wildlife watching. We have seen anoles (a small iguana-related lizard) all over the Caribbean and this was certainly no different on Saba as they were absolutely everywhere when the sun was out. Again there were multiple different types but the most intriguing was the Saban anole, one of the island's only real endemic species (it is only found on Saba). The males are covered in distinctive spots, giving them a leopard-like appearance. Elsewhere in the reptile world we saw two red-bellied racer snakes, a harmless species but one that I almost put my hand directly on when clambering down a steep hill.
The bird life was also very intriguing. The most common bird we saw was the zenaida dove, commonly known elsewhere as a turtle dove. We would often see them in pairs and there was a duo that frequented the tree right outside of our balcony.
We also spotted a few purple-throated caribs, a species of hummingbird, whilst walking through the forest. These are quite a large hummingbird and you could audibly hear their wings beating when they flew nearby. Another common sight was the pearly-eyed thrasher. We could hear these birds everywhere we went given their distinctive loud call but we spotted a few on our travels perched in trees with their pointy tail often positioned upwards.
One of the most interesting wildlife stories on Saba is that a number of domestic animals have almost become wild. Chickens can be found all over and we even saw some near the peak of Mount Scenery. With no real natural predators on the island the chickens have established a healthy population and it was so strange to see them in a dense jungle environment. There were also a number of wild goats, especially in the mire arid areas of Saba. Again, these animals were previously domesticated but have now found a home in the wild. The latter has caused a bit of controversy recently with some wanting to eradicate the goats from the island for fears they are damaging crop stocks. We also saw a number of, very large, rabbits. These guys live in a small community near the Harry L. Johnson museum and are fed by locals. That being said they live outside and are free to wander the island should they so wish (for now they seem quite content to stay within the confines of their garden and the adjoining children's play area).
Other News
Probably the biggest side note from this week is the resurrection of the James Yates Photography Instagram page. I used to love posting on Instagram because it provided me with a space to share ALL of my work. I try to keep my website and portfolio exclusively for my 'best' images but with Instagram I was able to share photos I personally liked, had fond memories of creating and allowed me to experiment with new things (such as taking my first landscapes for example). What started out as a gallery that I could use to store memories actually became quite popular with others - I hit 4,000 followers at one point but then, like with most of these things, I stopped using it.
This week we decided to collectively resurrect this space and use it as a base for sharing some of our best memories from the adventure we started in September 2023. Not only am I sharing my favourite photographs, Cat is creating some wonderful video montages of our time. Whilst we absolutely hope people love it, it is predominantly to give us an excuse to sort through the endless photos and videos we have collected on this trip and put them into something that we can look back on in years to come.
If you would like to check out what we have been up to then head on over to my Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/jamesyatesphotography/) and make sure to give us a follow!