USVI Day 7 - Annaberg Ruins to Brown Bay

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/26/2024	5.4 miles	6 hours 11 minutes	572'	2.1 mph	285.2 miles

Parking: 

• Taxi to Annaberg Ruins. Taxi from Maho Beach.

Map:

• Gaia GPS

Directions:

• Visit Annaberg ruins. Walk down road to water and take a right onto the Leinster Bay Trail to Watermelon Cay. Take a sharp right onto the Johnny Horn Trail. Turn left and visit ruins. Return to the Johnny Horn Trail. Turn off onto the Brown Bay Trail and hike to Brown Bay Beach. Return the same way. Walk the roads to Maho Beach.

Today we took a taxi to the Annaberg plantation ruins. There are a lot of well-preserved ruins left, and the plaques were very informative. We learned that slavery ended 10 years earlier in the British Virgin Islands, and some slaves tried to swim from USVI to BVI to gain their freedom. 

After visiting the sugar plantation ruins, we hiked with full sun exposure past Watermelon Cay, a beautiful beach. We then started climbing and came across a large group of wild goats on the trail. They make the funniest sounds. On to Brown Bay, stopping to see more ruins along the way. Brown Bay has a lot of seaweed in it. At this beach we saw an angry mongoose chase an iguana into the ocean. It was entertaining! I didn't realize iguanas could move so fast. We had lunch on the beach and then hiked back to Watermelon Cay on the way back to Annaberg. It was so hot, the heat was getting to me. I sat for a while staying in the shade, not wanting to move. But people in the water said there were multiple sea turtles, so that motivated me to get in and snorkel. There was good snorkeling here, with a lot of interesting fish. Other snorkelers saw an octopus and rays. The beach is rocky here - again wishing I owned water shoes. We finished our hike to Annaberg, and I was starting to burn, despite being a sticky sunscreened mess. We walked on the road to Maho Bay (no shoulder), in order to get to a place with frequent taxis. 

Instead of a lecture at our campground tonight, they offered a dancing workshop. We learned basic traditional dance moves, and at the end, I got to try drumming, which was hilarious. I was a music major, so why was this hard, lol? The patient other drummer did an excellent job following my beat as we drummed together.

Mexican Prickly Poppy

Windmill

View towards the British Virgin Islands

Yellow Trumpet Flower, the official flower of the USVI.

Bellyache Bush

Gulf Teabush

Coral vine

Windy Hill historic structure

Prickly Fanpetals

Lots of seaweed on Brown Bay Beach

Iguana on Brown Bay beach

Sea turtle, popping up for air

Sea turtle eating sea grass. 
Best I can do trying to take a photo from above the water.
You must stay at least 10' away from the turtles.

Snorkelers - this group had underwater cameras

We saw mongooses every day, but they were hard to photograph.
They don't tend to stay still - always running.
They look a lot like squirrels but with a different tail shape.

Iguana at our campground

Cinnamon Bay restaurant