Walk With Us

Hope Town is actually the settlement on Elbow Cay and we're going to take you on virtual walk to the north end. At a later date we will go to the south end. As always, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them and see more detail.

First of all, no vehicles are supposed to travel the roads in Hope Town, so the residents of the north end have to leave their golf carts (their only means of transportation besides bicycles or boats) in a designated parking area at that end of town. The people who live in the southern end also have their own designated parking lot before getting into the settlement. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, and the small locked gate that prevents vehicles from driving through, seems to have more and more people with the combination code. At least most of the vehicles and trucks are smaller than ours in the U.S., in order to get down these tiny streets. As we walk along the road next to the harbor, the flowers are in bloom and you can especially see how narrow these cut through alleys are.
Our first stop is to look at the local constable's motorcycle, which is something new for Hope Town this year.Sometime when we see our policeman on the bike I will get his picture, because he is quite a sight all dressed up in his starched white uniform on this Yamaha.

Our next find on the walking tour is the remains of the first 1960's Land Rover fire truck on Elbow Cay, that came right from England.

As we head north away from Hope Town, the road is no longer paved and is more like a sand and rock trail.
It winds its way along the Sea of Abaco and the entrance to Hope Town.
As we meander down the road the island gets a bit wider and we pass through this beautiful tall hedge row.
How is this for a scary power pole? It looks like a power company's nightmare. No wonder almost everyone has back up generators!
There are also several bays and coves that we pass by. This is Crossing Bay where our friends Al and Gloria dynamited a channel from their dock out to deeper water back in the 1980's.
Next is Cook's Cove, which was dredged in the late 1960's by the Owen's Illinois Corp., who was responsible for the logging operations on the main island of Abaco. This was dredged in order to provide access for the north end property owners, who were executives of the company.
There is also a boat basin for the north end property owners called the Abaco Boat Club, which is a 20 slip co-op.

After this boat basin, the road splits and makes a big loop around the north end of the island. One way continues along the Sea of Abaco, and the other one runs parallel to the ocean. We walked oceanside this time and came across this picturesque beach access trail. This private path to a gazebo and the beach is interesting because it has all sorts of seas glass embedded in the concrete.
Since it was almost sunset, we decided not to complete the whole north end loop and walked back to Hope Town by way of the beach instead of the road.

This entire diverse walking tour is about 2 to 3 miles long and takes about an hour and a half to complete. Of course that depends on how much time you spend looking for sea glass on the way home!