Friday, November 27th

One of the highest points on the main island of the park is referred to as Boo Boo Hill. It provides an awesome panoramic view of the central Exumas. Legend has it that on a wild, stormy day many years ago, a luckless schooner sank off  of Warderick Wells.  All souls perished in the disaster, and  not a single body was recovered for a Christian burial.  It is said that if you climb to the crest of the hill at the bloom of the full moon, you can hear the voices of the lost souls singing hymns.

Tradition has it that leaving an offering to King Neptune and the sea gods at the top of BooBoo Hill will incur good sailing and safe passage. It has become custom for cruisers to leave something with their boat name on it (usually driftwood), and the date that they were here. We hadn’t run across any driftwood, so Scott painted a conch shell that he’d found while we were in the Berry Islands as our offering.

We’d planned to climb Boo Boo Hill on Thanksgiving morning, hoping to leave our shell and maybe find a speck of cell service to call home, but the winds were just too much to launch the Aluminum Princess. By today, things had eased somewhat, so we gave it a go.

To get to shore, we had to anchor the Aluminum Princess off of a beach and wade in. We left dressed in shorts, and then changed into long pants, long-sleeved shirts, hats, and hiking boots. Any visible body part was coated in bug spray, and we were off. The trails were far from what I would call marked. Scott has done a fair amount of backpacking, and he agreed that they could be much better maintained. We had more than one “guess” at which way to go, but always managed to come out in the right place.

After a short hike up the first, smaller hill, we were already enjoying amazing views (that included our boat!).

As I’ve mentioned before, the terrain on the island changes dramatically. We started walking across coral rock, that resembles what I think would be on the moon’s surface.

That led us into thick fan palms, and then we came out to more rocky terrain along the cliffs leading down to the Atlantic.

From there, we traveled across sand and shrubs, and then made our way up Boo Boo Hill.

Once there, it looked like someone had dumped a pile of reject wood. The pile is quite thick and spreads across the top of the hill.

People have found many ways to leave their name on wood and other materials.

Some coming year after year, to mark their trip!

We left our “mark” on Boo Boo Hill.

After a short rest and enjoying more great views, we made our way back to the Butterfly Beach where we started.

We changed back into our wading clothes for the ride home, and I successfully eluded the bugs this time, what a victory!

Here more pictures of the beautiful scenery we walked through, and the awesome views (along with the usual sunset photos!).

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”