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The Great Road North
By mcdog | April 28, 2007
It was an unusual day, the temperature was cool, or at least cool compared to how it has been since we arrived on the Caye but then it was following a night of heavy rain, the first rain since we arrived. It was the last full day that we would have the golf cart and the plan was to make another attempt to reach the end of the Great Road North. We tackled the task in our usual manner, casually, not leaving until sometime in the afternoon.
We had made an attempt to reach the end of the road a few days before, but with five of us aboard and on a swelteringly hot day, we had turned back after a few miles. There was dissension in the ranks.
So we paid the toll and drove over the surprisingly steep bridge to the north island. First views of the north are of a wasteland-cum-building site but the heavily rutted road soon leads into a shady track with cottages amongst the trees. The big surprise to us was the number of pools of water on the road but the cart managed to plug it’s way through, splashing gobs of filthy water over the rain-washed bodywork. Hey, it’s a hire vehicle, who cares. We were stopping to look at a lot of building plots and buildings along the way. While looking at one plot two intrepid looking ladies dressed completely in white asked us the way to Journey’s End, it seemed a no-brainer to point them north, the only alternative was returning south. Journey’s End, we’d never heard of it.
Somewhere in a mess of pools of water and dumped and flattened building rubbish we met two golf carts, painted dark green, packed with men and dogs and shotguns. They waved, but didn’t stop and so we’ve no idea what they were hunting.
The road occasionally dropped down to the beach, which gave us smoother driving and a breeze off the sea but at some parts the beach was blocked to golf carts and we had to drive around houses and hotels, sometimes through people’s rubbish dumps, nice. Off to the west side of the road was the lagoon and brackish looking pools, mangroves and scrub. Somewhere or other we must have taken a wrong turning even though there only seemed to be one road, we came to a dead end, in a rubbish heap. Turned back and found the nearest hotel, The Blue Reef, and a bar on the beach. The barman told us that crocodiles came out of the bush at night to hunt for fish in the sea. No skinny-dipping here, he said.
According to the barman, the road continued north along the beach for about another four miles, but we decided we’d had enough and turned south. The first part was along the beach, we’d been on a really rough road further inland for this section, possibly only cut through the bush for the new electricity poles. The beach was much nicer, smoother and faster, but too soon it was blocked again by some hotel so we cut through the bush to the road we should have taken, signing our appreciation to the hotel as we passed.
As we were now returning, we drove as fast as we could through the pools and over the bumps. Have you ever seen a golf cart with a bow wave? Impressive. Over the bridge, and we were back in San Pedro Town for light refreshments ( beer and tacos).
Topics: ambergris caye01 | 2 Comments »
April 30th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Strangely, I know a road that looks a lot like that one – less the power lines.
Do those golf carts have 4wd by any chance?
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
No, no 4wd on any golf cart I’ve seen, but the trend in Ambergris Caye is for ATVs and at least some of them have 4wd. Seemingly you need it just to get about the more populated parts of the island in the wet season. Though the council has a cunning plan to pave the roads.