A fun blog post from Sugar Ridge Resort.

I usually don't re-blog other people's posts but this one is a great blog post from Sugar Ridge and is speaks (just a bit) about Adventure Antigua's Xtreme Circumnav tour and some of our team mates. Stephanie Mack is a great Antiguan web publisher and I bump into her all over the new media highway. Sugar Ridge is lucky to have her writing for them. I didn't ask her permission to post this, but it is in the public domain so here goes:

What Goes Down, Must Come Up

March 6, 2012 |

You know how it always seems that no matter where you’ve gone, the return trip – though equal in distance – feels shorter? Some say this “return trip effect” is the result of “familiarity” while others say it is a mismatch of expectations, meaning that in the beginning, we are so optimistic about getting somewhere, that the initial journey seems disappointingly long. Regardless of what they say, we can assure you: when it comes to the Rendezvous trail, the “why” does not matter as the “effect” Does. Not. Apply. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
The story starts with us returning to Wallings Dam, this time to explore the Rendezvous trail. It started out well: flat in the beginning so that we were able to catch our breath after the trek up from Wallings, and then gradually rising and falling at regular (and comfortable) intervals so that we were getting a good workout without overexertion. Having never been to Rendezvous, we were feeling especially good: not only were we getting our exercise in for the week day, we were going to explore a new beach for the first time! I even dared to suggest that we had discovered the perfect hiking trail.

And then the trail started to slope…and slope..and slope some more, until forty minutes into the hike, we came to this point.

You can’t see the sliver of sand in this photo, but that little whitecap wave in the bay beyond the valley? That’s Rendezvous Bay – our destination. And that long, green stretch of hills and valleys in between? That is an area of Antigua some of us are content to never experience again. From this point on, the Rendezvous Trail becomes a very steep downhill trek, and our thoughts are consumed by the fact that when it comes to hiking: what goes down, must come up.
Despite this, we forged on, refusing to let our mission to “experience Antigua” be defeated by one ridiculously ambitious hike. Pushing thoughts of the return trek out of our minds, we instead focused on the sounds (was it the ocean or wind we were hearing?) and sights, which included “Alice in Wonderland-like” intertwined archways and soft grass that was an unusually bright, mint green color.

At the end of this pathway, the trail becomes a flat, dirt road which had us thinking we had made a wrong turn. We wandered around for a bit, eventually jumping over a chain that we at first thought was designed to keep us out. We walked in silence for a few minutes, wondering if we were on the right path, (and if not, who was to blame!) until finally we saw something: a faint blue color just beyond the trees. Was it just the sky again? A mirage? We glanced at each other in anticipation, and quickened our pace until it was clear that we had reached our destination.

And then we saw the jeep. Apparently you can now drive in to Rendezvous (we had always heard it was only accessible by boat, hike or horseback) and while the hike down was nice, we’re not going to lie: thoughts of the hike back up had us contemplating whether or not we should ask the owners for a ride out. In the end we decided
our car was at Wallings
we couldn’t quit halfway, so we simply said hello, and then spent the next hour exploring the beautiful Rendezvous Bay, an adjacent stretch of pink sand, and another small beach just beyond.



Within a few minutes of our arrival, our friends at Adventure Antigua showed up. They were kind enough to share some much needed passion fruit juice so we’d like to say thanks to JD and Natalie; that sugar helped us on our hike back up! (Note: one water bottle is not enough!)

The guests off the boat were amazed that we had hiked in, asking how long it took (an hour and a half) and how long we thought it would take us to get back up. We looked at the hill, looked at each other and said a silent prayer before confidently answering: about an hour and a half.

We were close; it took us about an hour and 55 minutes…but it felt like three and on at least two occasions, I had visions of my heart exploding. But you’re probably in better shape than I am, so if you’re accustomed to hiking and think you’d enjoy an hour-long vertical ascent, then we recommend this hike as a great adventure/beach day. Just pack plenty of water and energy bars. Or you could also just visit Rendezvous Bay with Eli’s Adventure Antigua. It was a nice day and all, but when we come back, it’ll definitely be with these guys!

The Adventure Antigua Team

Adventure Antigua has needed an updated crew blog for some time. Many of the old team have moved on to bigger and better things with skills they gleaned with our team and today we are proud to have another excellent fresh team who have been getting nothing but excellent, rave reviews on Tripadvisor and other online sites.

I am still here of course and in case you are new to Adventure Antigua, I (eli fuller) started this company using a small open, locally built boat back in 1999. I took a max of four people a day out on a tour i called "the eco tour". The tour is carefully designed to replicate adventures that I got up to with my siblings and cousins in the North Sound of Antigua. That's me on the far left sometime back in the very early 80s.

Also shown in the image above and in a better one below is Nell Fuller, my sister, and the person who maintains a link between the hotels and our company. Nell has been with Adventure Antigua for years and years and know the internal mechanics of it better than anyone. It's not always easy getting info about our tours to the guests that visit Antigua and Nell's job is a very challenging one indeed. She also takes most of our bookings that come in over the phone. She answers the phone 24 hours a day!
 

Also involved in working with the hotels but more involved with working with guests before they actually get to Antigua is Julia Fuller, my sister in law. Julia answers most of the hundreds of emails we get each week and spends quite a bit of time behind the computer as you can imagine. It's been a while since I have seen her on the boat actually (makes note). Here you see her with her son and my nephew, Alexander Jr., a third generation North Sound Fuller kid.

Also not getting on the boats nearly enough is the person who really keeps the business glued together. My mom, Jill Fuller, runs the office side of things. Thank goodness because I am not nearly as good as she is at keeping track of everything that is going on behind the scenes. She is one of those people who finds a few more hours in each day and when she's not working for us she manages to find time to do councelling. Read more about that part of her career here. She also finds time to be an artist too!! See some of her work here.  

 
Another family member who is part of the team is Ross Bloomfield, my (slightly) younger cousin. Ross was born in Antigua and grew up on Dutchmans Bay like the rest of us had done and spent his time as a youngster exploring all the islands and reefs of the North Sound. Like most of my team, he is more at home on the beach and in the sea and on land. He spent quite a bit of time in the UK going to school and then came back a few years ago with a Yacht Masters under his belt. He is a great captain and a natural guide showing people his beautiful home out on the water.



Another skipper on the team is Captain JD Hall. JD is a veteran Adventure Antigua hero like Ross spends most of his free time out on the water. I mean, you know you are in the right type of work when you go boating on your day off and that is what you do when you work! His family has a long tradition of going to sea here in Antigua and I don't think there has been a fishing tournament at any time over the past 40 years when one of the Halls wasn't taking home a trophy. They all learn about boating as kids and JD is probably one of the best at it. He's comfortable at the helm of either a powerboat or a sailing vessel.


Another Adventure Antigua veteran and one of my oldest friends is Trevor Erskine. Trevor and I spent quite a bit of time racing against each other during windsurfing competitions both here in Antigua and internationally. Trevor is another person who is at home on the water. That being said, you will also see him on land wherever there is a good cricket match going on. Until recently he spent most summers in the UK playing county cricket. On the pitch he's an all rounder scoring sixes and fours with ease and then later will be smashing wickets with fierce bowling. He now plays with the Stingray City gang for Seatons here in Antigua.
He has worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years and is the perfect tour guide while you are visiting Antigua. We are lucky to have him with us in our team because just like when he's playing cricket, Trevor is an all rounder on the tours as well. 

Nicola Nash joined the team a few years ago and we are so lucky that she did. Nicola is our main Eco and marine biology aficionado. She has represented Adventure Antigua at a recent Whale Watching conference in Panama, sits on the Environmental Awareness Group as a board member, spends heaps of time volunteering at night for the Turtle Project here in Antigua, and is always there to help when there are any eco type things going on. She loves nothing more than snorkeling and being in the water though. Her favorite thing in the world is the octopus, but she's passionate about all the other marine and terrestrial animals. She is our main Eco Tour guide and is perfect for the job as you can imagine. Originally from the USA, she lives full time here on island now.

The other lady team member working on the boats full time is Natalie Fuchs. Natalie also grew up spending most of her time in the North Sound. I remember seeing her take some of her first steps on the beach where I grew up. Dutchmans Bay was where her Dad and I windsurfed most days and Natalie was often there with her brother and her mom. She is an extremely talented and artistic makeup artist and cosmetologist but after quite a bit of perseverance we managed to get her to join the team. She is a natural tour guide on our tours because like JD, Ross and I, she grew up doing this. Showing people the beautiful aspects of our off shore islands, secluded bays and interesting reefs is something that she has done all of her life and you can see her passion when you are on the tour. This kind of "work" is fun for her!  



Jourdain Smith also joined the Adventure Antigua team recently and has shown to be very dedicated. Jourdain was working with the luxury Galley Bay Resort but wanted to be on the water more. He would see us passing the hotel each day and after getting powerboat course under his belt he approached us about being part of our group. We were happy to have him and like the rest of our team, Jourdain can be found on the water when he's having a day off. He owns a small powerboat which he goes fishing and snorkeling from whenever he gets time off work.

Noel Dubery is the newest member of the team. I first met him when I was general manager of the sports center in Jolly Harbour way back in 1998. He was a 15 year old kid who spent all his free time on the beach or out boating. When he was 17 he got a good job working as first mate with one of the premier private charter boat companies. It didn't take long before he was skippering and within a short time he was traveling with the owner to work with their day charter operation in Italy during the summers. Within no time he learned fluent Italian. After a few years he went on to work with the St. James club and ran many of their boats but the was the main skipper for Suzie Q, their sport fishing boat. Deep sea fishing is Noel's favorite thing to do and he is an excellent fisherman and boat skipper. Recently the St. James Club decided to get out of sport fishing charters and Noel parted with them to do some marine mechanic courses. We convinced him to come and be part of our organization and Noel is currently working in various positions within our company. He is as comfortable driving the boat as he is snorkeling or guiding. He is a great all rounder and we are delighted to have him with the company.

Itano Bachelor is working part time with us at the moment as he has started a little company of his own. I first met him when he worked at Sunsail's resort on the island here. He is a sailing lover and is an excellent tour guide. He worked full time with us for a few years and is now a great person to call on when we need an extra hand.

 

Of course there are many others who help to make it possible for us to provide what we feel are the best tours on offer here in Antigua. Thanks to you all!

www.adventureantigua.com