New Ground

I took a drive yesterday with the intention of checking out some new beaches, particularly Josiah's Bay and Lambert Bay in East End. I decided to take Ridge Road to get there, and ended up getting distracted along the way by the numerous small coves appearing on the map along the North Coast, none of which I was successful in reaching. Apparently, based on the map of the route I took, if I'd been just a little more adventurous in my driving, I might have actually reached one or two, particularly Cooten Bay.

The result of my distraction was that I ended up exploring many estates that I not only hadn't been to before, but didn't even know existed. As used in the Virgin Islands, an estate is most synonymous with the US idea of a neighborhood or development. Most of the place-names marked on the map of my driving route, like "Fort Hill", "Pasea", and "Wesley Will" are names of estates.

Driving through Wesley Will, Baugher's Bay, and Purcell made me realize that while I thought I had explored and knew the places on Tortola quite well, there are plenty of pockets that are completely unknown to me, and that I probably never would have seen had I not been trying to get to Cooper Bay and Trunk Bay. Now, I have a new interest in taking sketchy-looking turnings on to dirt roads to see what other pieces of Tortola might be hidden along them.