It was time for more sight seeing.
We drove to the far south side of the Island then turned on to this dirt--and muddy--road and followed it for a mile.
We came out at this camp located on Lameshur Bay, complete with very nice cabins--and a museum.
The Museum is centered around Tektite--an undersea project carried out by NASA in 1969. An undersea habitat was established to test the astronauts to see how they would do in a small confined space over long periods of time.
There is much more to the project and you can read about at.....
http://www.islands.org/Tektite/index.htm
The cabins were also built in the '60s but are in excellent shape and the camp is now part of a non-profit program called VIERS--Virgin Islands Environmental Resource Station. A very nice young man named Randy Fish is in charge and the camp is maintained by volunteers who really seem to be enjoying their stay at Lameshur. Schools, environmentalists, and marine scientists use the camp for seminars, conferences, etc.
And what a tough place to work! This is only a short distance from the cabins. And I snorkeled here! I saw an eel, a number of very colorful fish plus some wonderful coral.
Later we drove on to the Annaberg Sugar Mill. This is one of a number of sites that are ruins of the old sugar processing mills. At one time the entire island was devoted to the growing of sugar cane.
As usual--there was a view.
These buildings date back to the late 1700s to early 1800s. The wood has rotted away but the stone work still stands.
I marveled at the way plants can grow with no soil and little water and still look lush and beautiful.
The was the base of the windmill.
No comments:
Post a Comment