Every time I visit the J. R. O’Neal Botanic Gardens in Road Town and I wind up seeing something lovely. On one recent trip I had both my camera and a bit of time. Here’s some of what I saw.
The fountain always wants to be photographed.
Oh hey dragonfly!
Turtle family kicking it in the pond.
As you can see, it’s worth a visit!
The ruins of a 19th century copper mine in Virgin Gorda are a national park.
The Copper Mine in Virgin Gorda rules. It’s right off a nicely paved road, you can see the ocean, and you can walk all the way down to the beach from the ruins — as long as you’re not afraid of a bit of rock scrambling.
It’s also a geology nerd’s dream. You can see the veins of copper in some of the rock. Some are quartzy and others look like lava rocks and a whole bunch are giant boulders like the ones you see just the other side of this southern end of VG at The Baths.
I love the tidepool-y places
Of course I sat and watched the little fish and crabs and weird bubbly looking kelp for a while. I was surprised not to see any birds around. After we explored the Copper Mine, we hiked up the road and had a swell lunch — complete with tasty island drinks — at the Mine Shaft Cafe.
All in all it was a great day, but the last day of the 30 days of new project did not work out how I’d planned. We were supposed to get scooters, which I’d called about and then submitted a web reservation for, but when we got off the ferry, the scooters didn’t show.
So, we went off in search of an all-night bakery on foot. Some nice Virgin Gordians helped us find it, but when we got there, the baker was running down her inventory and there were hardly any treats left. Instead, we tried some vita-malt. It reminded of me of brewing beer because it’s so malty. Steve thought it tasted like Grape Nuts.
I wrapped up the project with a new hiking spot, a new bakery, a new beverage and a new restaurant in one day. Not too shabby.
Dateline: Paradise 