I’m back with more travels in my journal, photos on my camera and tan lines in unexpected places.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks here on Tortola and the temperature is certainly starting to turn up a notch. My porcelain skin has taken quite the battering and I’ve been under house arrest a couple of times to take a break from the rays due to my scorching. I know Baz told me that life can be hard but it’s ok as long as you just follow one rule, just one…”Wear Sunscreen”.
God, Baz I’m sorry! I tried, I honestly did… I was wearing Factor 50 smothered all over me like a mud mask but then, I went in the sea and something happened. I’m burnt, grilled and scarred so I got what I deserved *hangs head in shame*.
So, living on Tortola is awesome but being surrounded by so many equally beautiful and exotic islands means you quite often want to get off island… you know… to visit another island. There are ferries that take you to pretty much any of the islands that you choose to visit, be it for the day, for the weekend or like us, a staycation during the week. Mainly because many of the beaches and resorts that you visit will be a totally different place without the weekend rush. One weekend, a month or so ago, we took an early ferry to the island Jost Van Dyke. We visited White Bay super early and we were pretty much the only people there so had the crystal waters all to ourselves. The famous Soggy Dollar Bar and Hendo’s Hideout rule the roost on that strip of beach so you’re spoiled by food and drinks on tap. Not to mention a delectable little ice-cream and gelato parlour further down the beach, ManJack Creamery.
As always, be prepared to be bitch-slapped in the face by photos of turquoise waters, hammocks and sea life galore. One of my favourite ever underwater experiences to date was swimming with a sea turtle at White Bay. When I say swimming with, I mean we really did actually swim together, side by side. I’ve never been in the water with one before and it was just indescribable.
We said our goodbyes to Floyd, gave him a cheeky bit of duck, a head pat and reassured him (in case he was ever in doubt) that he was indeed…
“A very good boy”
We started with a smoothie and coffee from the D’Best Cup coffee shop at Soper’s Hole. This is one of our favourite spots for coffee but because I am just WILD, I decided to mix things up and go for a fruit smoothie. The ferry was only around 20 minutes long in total and we were at Jost Van Dyke before we knew it 🙂
Once our feet were on the sand, our first stop was Jost Van Dyke Scuba to sort out our paddle board for our stay…
Next up, a short taxi ride to our beachside retreat, the Sandcastle Beach Resort; it’s as adorable as it sounds on paper trust me! The resort is associated with the infamous Soggy Dollar Bar, the birthplace of the original BVI speciality beverage ‘The Painkiller’ (Jason, the awesome bar man will sort you right out!)
Back when we visited White Bay for the first time, I spyed the adorable little pink beach apartments through the palms and decided instantly we should come back and stay in one. Plus, each beach house has a hammock… so SOLD!
Adorable little place buuuut… we wanted to head straight out…
Also, directly next door is Hendo’s Hideout! Another awesome bar and amazing place to have dinner and cocktails! When I say next door, I really mean next door… it takes you about 11 seconds from Soggy Dollar to get to Hendo’s Hideout…
#BIGFAN
As I’m sure you can imagine, when you’re spending all your time at the beach, it’s actually tricky to take lots and lots of photos. Partly due to suncream, sand and sticky fingers but mainly due to the fact that electronics and water don’t mix very well, I learnt that the hard way. So that will explain why most of our photos are taken with the GoPro underwater. Just thought I’d point that out.
6AM SNORKELS AND SHOWERS
Christian was riding solo as I was so sunburnt from the day before I figured it might be a good idea to just take a nice walk along the beach. As if a sign from the Universe, later on in the morning it became totally overcast and started to pour with rain. Everyone else was running in for shelter but we were running out and spent a good three hours in the water with the pouring rain on our faces and sizzling on our burn marks, so you’ll notice how the photos seem to fade from bright blue to grey.
As if in a the blink of an eye, the sun hid and the clouds came out to play…
FINAL DAY!
Those who board together, stay together 🙂
Most of our photos of the wildlife will be on on my GoPro video, either uploaded with this blog post or in a few days 🙂
Until then, we’ll just cock around in the water and pretend we’re fish…
I went for some hammock time, in the SHADE! Whilst Christian continued to tan himself. We were due to get the later afternoon ferry but at this point our tummies were starting to rumble. So, we decided to head to Foxy’s, a must see, must visit beach side bar/restaurant near the ferry. This was an EXCELLENT decision. Despite BBQ food never being in short supply when you live somewhere like the Caribbean, I was yet to have a bloody good burger! After visiting many food joints and sampling many burgers, the title has now been claimed… Foxy’s does the best burger!!!! Just what we needed to aid our burnt skin and sunned out souls…
And there we have it! A ruddy awesome staycation on Jost Van Dyke. Of course, we just stuck to a few corners of the Island and there’s so much more to see. Hopefully, we’ll be back to explore another part with equally as serene waters and lively underwater friends.
So a final big shout out to The Soggy Dollar Bar, the Sandcastle Hotel, Hendo’s Hideout and Foxy’s for making our stay so memorable.
Keep in tune with the blog to see our video footage from our ‘Staycation on Jost Van Dyke’.
Much Love
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Gorgeous photographs!! Your swimming turtle adventures reminded me of mine when I was in Tobago Cays. So close to touch and they just cruise by like you are one of them ♡
Thanks for sharing ♡
Loved the photos! I just wanna live on a tropical island for the rest of my life!
Love the pictures!! More stay-cations to come!
OMG such beautiful pictures and that burger just got me hungry all over again 😂😂
OMG such beautiful pictures and that burger just got me hungry all over again 😂😂
Your photos are GORGEOUS! Wish I could head down for some island life!
OMG, your photos are absolutely gorgeous! What an incredible looking place! I’m pinning this to my travel board on Pinterest so I remember to come back to it when I’m looking for vacation spots 🙂
OMG, your photos are absolutely gorgeous! What an incredible looking place! I’m pinning this to my travel board on Pinterest so I remember to come back to it when I’m looking for vacation spots 🙂