A Beach Worth The Effort

One of the nicest beaches I’ve visited so far is at Rendezvous Bay. It is a long open crescent beach rimmed by tall palms. The white sand is soft underfoot and extends 20-30 feet at a gradual incline from the waterline to a border of hardy tropical beach plants. Below the waterline, the same sand extends 50-60 feet under the water before rocks and coral start to mount up into a good sized reef that begs for further exploration with snorkel and mask.  The beach faces in a southerly direction and therefore does not get the full Atlantic swell head-on which makes for smooth swimming. 

The problem with Rendezvous Bay is that unless you have a helicopter, a boat of some sort or a Land Rover on steroids, you are faced with a 30-minute hike to get there. Now my New England friends will be saying, “A 30-minute hike is nothing! What’s he whining about?”  So here’s the rub: the sun is relentless and makes you sweat through pores you never knew existed, the conservative amount of water you packed runs out in the first 10 minutes and the trail you’re following is not marked well and follows a wicked short-scale topography and is obstructed by all kinds of nasty thorn or spike-bearing plants, trees with dripping sap that raises welts, stinging nettles, vines with razor-like leaves and fire ant nests (do NOT stop too long to suck out the last of your meager water supply when you’re near one of these dens of frantic terror because they will be happy to see you doing the “Ow! Ow! Two-Step”.)

Some of you may be getting the solution to the equation by now.   Beautiful Beach + High Degree of Inaccessibility + Adventurous Neophytes  = Zero Occupants.  After Dr. N and I survived the trek to the beach, we were awarded with a pristine expanse of sea and sand that you only see in brochures and there was NO ONE ELSE. We basked in the sun , the solitary atmosphere as well as our pride in ‘making it there’ and talked about ‘The Beach’, the Leonardo DiCaprio movie about a Shangri La-like beach in Thailand that ended up being a secluded place where drug lords reigned.

The bay’s name has its origins in an historic place where pirates, French privateers and other nefarious types would meet to exchange contraband because it was out of sight of the reigning English Navy. That history still persists today as the spot’s remote location makes it a favored spot for modern-day smugglers. We both looked over our shoulders to the verdant hillsides unmarred by house or road and wondered if we were intruding. 

After a few hours of basking, swimming and exploring, we turned our thoughts to our return trek to the car and decided it would be wise to slow the pace down a bit.  I fell into a ‘step-breathe-step’ rhythm that I perfected in the thin air of past hikes in the mountains of the Rockies, Himalaya and Andes and less suitable for walking at only 500 or so feet above a sea that glowed with the cool, inviting shades of blue and green.

Suffice to say that we survived the return trip and are excited about returning, albeit, with a better-equipped backpack! Hopefully by the time that you arrive for a visit, I will have my own helicopter or at least a small dinghy to make access a bit easier but I will guide you up and down the same trail if you’re up to it.