Spring at Exuma National Park in the Bahamas

Mooring field at Warderick Wells, park headquarters

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park is the most pristine and probably the most beautiful area in the Exumas.  It is a designated replenishment area for all the wildlife in the Bahamas and it is made up of fifteen large and many smaller islands, called cays (pronounced keys).  It covers an area twenty-two miles long and about eight miles wide, including all of the water and most of the islands in the area.  It is a no-take zone meaning that nobody is allowed to catch fish, turtles, conch, or lobster or to remove shells or corals, either alive or dead.  Hence the park is as close to “true nature” as is possible in today’s world.  Last year we volunteered there for six weeks.  This year they quickly accepted our offer to help out again.  Our job was to be Harbor Hosts at Cambridge Cay, starting four days after we arrived at the Park Headquarters on Warderick Wells.

One of the “must do” things on this island is to hike the trail to Boo Boo Hill and to leave a sign with your boat’s name on.

The sign has to be made of materials that are found on the islands or ones that have been washed up by the tide.  We were lucky enough to find some driftwood, marked it, and then placed it on the pile of boat signs.



Our boat sign

We then moved the boat over to Hog Cay, also part of the park, and we stayed for two days.

Pirate’s Lair is located near the mooring balls by Hog Cay.  It is supposed to be the meeting place on shore for pirates who roamed these waters back in the 1700’s.  The land is cleared between the trees and it is easy to envision mats and other lounging furniture positioned between the cabbage palms and grassy sections with pirates talking and preparing to board incoming ships. 

 The palms and grasses are not native to the Bahamas and the seeds are believed to have been brought in on pirate ships.  The opening to the ocean is well camouflaged by rocks of which many have pirate names.

Hog Cay has a trail which leads along the shore and then up the hill and through lots of vegetation until one arrives at some old foundation walls and an awesome view of the Emerald Rock mooring area on the other side of the island. 

Path starts on these rocks

French Canadian hikers

Harbour Reach from Hog Cay

We hiked this trail with a young couple who had sailed in a thirty foot sailboat from Montreal, Canada and who were headed further south with hopes of finding work in the islands.  It was refreshing to hear their enthusiasm for the warm winter weather and for the beauty of the islands.  They were very self-sufficient.



A cloudy day view of Emerald Rock mooring field from the the high hillside trail

Bill on rocky trail