Day 7 (February 22, 2017): Snorkelling for rocks on Antigua
Today we woke up with a different brand of “paradise”… and I'm not talking about the fruit juice. Our first full day on the island of Antigua began as we departed Anchorage Inn. It was hot, hot enough to boil our eggs…if we didn't boil them already. We made breakfast and packed lunches for the day’s adventures. Mr. 350 Kelvin Lewis will be our driver for the duration of our stay here.
The first stop was on Friar’s Hill, which provided us with a lookout point. We saw an exquisite view of the southwestern portion of the island. The day was clear enough to see the Soufriere Hills of Montserrat steaming in the distance. Closer by, on Antigua, we were greeted with the remnants of the old volcanic island arc rocks. These andesitic volcanics, of the Basal Volcanic Suite, (~28 Ma) are overlain by lagoonal sediments of the Central Plain Group. On top of these are the marine carbonates of the Antigua Formation (Upper Oligocene). The rocks young to the northeast. Furthermore, we could also see planation cut surfaces of the mountains, which may represent paleo sea levels.
From there we proceeded towards Wallings Trail, which was the site of an old reservoir dam. This stop was recommended to us by our driver Kelvin. It is one of his favourite picnic areas on the island and I can’t say I blame him. The trees were the spine covered “Sandbox” and the expansive “Silk Cotton” trees. We sat back and relaxed for a moment on the swing and appreciated the area.
Our first outcrop of the day was a roadcut near Wallings Trail. Here, we saw three distinct pyroclastic units. The contact was gently dipping, which provided an easily accessible view of all three units together. The lower and top units were well consolidated. It also contained the remnants of an old andesitic dome, which was the source of the eruption. The middle unit was more confusing. It consisted of an unconsolidated, fine grained matrix. At first, we thought it was the top of the lower unit, but we noticed it contained far larger clasts than either of the other units. This led us to believe it was an independent unit.
Our final destination for the day was yet another beach, where we decided to spice things up with a little snorkelling :). We saw an interesting shallow reef, and while we could not bring our notebooks in the water with us, our learning did not end. Sand dollars, starfish, and a shallow reef. Though this reef was bleached, many fishes still made their homes here. Some of us thought we saw Dory!
Meanwhile, the founders of the great Sandyland began construction of a beautiful castle. Our reinforcements against the treacherous waves stood strong and kept the castle safe, along with its ruler King Crab. We were sad to leave the beach and let the sea take Sandyland but our stomachs were pulling us onwards.
We settled into our new home for the next four days at the Catamaran Hotel, which has its very own beach. The group went for dinner at a local milkshake and burger shop called Sweety’s, and yes the milkshakes were spectacular.
Tomorrow we make our way to the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda. We will have a private tour and hope to see the legendary jadeite axes which Ed has been raving about for months. At the end of the day we hope to go to a local BBQ to partake in the activities and steel pan drum music.
To be continued…
For now
~Written by Sabastien Dyer and Joshua Nguyen
