We spend winter in Michigan planning for our next Out Island adventures. We scour satellite images of our next destination to find places we want to check out. Winding Bay on the southeast end of Cat Island gave me a lot to think about over a long, Covid restricting winter. We don't have a boat and I wanted to get there. My dream was to walk there from Greenwood Beach. Mind you, this was a secret plan because I knew it would be arduous. I hoped to get to Little Winding Bay from the north, have lunch, then find a walkable route to Winding Bay. I talked my husband into the trek to Little Winding Bay. I had a picnic planned and we were staying at Greenwood Beach, so no driving was involved. He's great about tracking tides, so I knew we had a good shot at it. Well.... the tides did not cooperate. More truthfully, we started too late. Technically, we could have gotten there, but my husband was not confident about getting back around the rocks before high tide, so we called it a day just short of Little Winding Bay. If only we had packed our cutlass (that's for you, DonK_00!). Undeterred, I asked the owners of GreenWood Beach Resort, Paulina and Antoinne, about how to walk to Winding Bay. They said to park at the small church, off the road in Port Howe. I can't remember the name of the church, but it's off the road, down a driveway. It's small. Pictures of the church are below. We parked at the church and followed the two track back through a place where land had been cleared. We could have easily driven back to the clearing and would do that next time. We continued on this two track until the road turned into a path. This path through the brush is wonderful. It's shady and cool. You will see things left behind by people crabbing and tending to the goats that use this path most often. This land was once part the Devereaux Plantation and you will see several stone walls that had been built by slaves. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the church, but this is what it looks like:In the picture below, the circle is the church where we parked and the arrow shows the path we walked.Everything was going great until the path ended in a bulldozer clearing. Figuring goats use this path regularly, we tried finding a place where the path continued on the other side. We had a feeling the bulldozer cleared route would lead us directly to Winding Bay and we were right. Thing is, it was horrible to navigate. The bulldozer left broken spokes of small trees and shrubs about shin high that cut and scrape you in both directions. The resulting ground is very uneven and difficult to navigate. Had we known, we would have worn long pants and tennis shoes. This bulldozer even plowed through the stone fencing in a few places. We later learned that a storm had stranded a large boat in Winding Bay and the dozer was sent to retrieve what was left. I think it took us an hour to make the walk each direction, mostly due to navigating the bulldozed section. The destination was absolutely worth the hike. The day we visited, the winds were strong, making the west end of the beach rough, but the east end was perfect. We enjoyed great swimming and some of the most fishy coral heads we've seen in The Bahamas. We saw no one but goats and crabs. *** Caution, there is a small cabin to the east of the bay. It appears to be abandoned. We started climbing out to check it out and noticed food containers and water bottles stashed nearby. There was not a good vibe in this place and we backed away quickly. I'd steer clear. Just sayin'. I compiled a short video of our day at Winding Bay:I just discovered that my husband made a video to share with his fifth grade students. His video shows the super sucky bull-dozer section. It also shows a pottery shard that I found on the walk. It's most certainly from the plantation days. There is no Cat Island museum (yet), but I left it with someone to pass to the island historian.I love this video from Roy Bowers. It's perfect for those times when you need a little quiet island time. I'm probably half of the total views for this one. By the way, Roy Bowers has several really good Cat Island videos on YouTube and adds more periodically. He's a good one to follow.
2 Comments
Don Kennedy
3/21/2023 02:13:37 pm
Ha ha ! The Cutlass , that’s funny and I can’t believe I am only reading thIs now , I will have to try this summer 😊
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Rebecca
7/25/2023 06:45:02 am
Thank you for this post. The islanders said we could only get there by boat. We found the church, Our Lady of Zion. When going toward Greenwood, it’s on the right. We parked at the church. Walked down the path until the bulldozer. Walked straight past it a bit more and there is a path to the right and left. We took the path to the right. Walked on what looks like a drivable road for 25 minutes. Looks like someone drives it often. Then got to a very rocky path. Where you see a lot of empty water bottles. We walked about another 25 minutes. When got to the second stone wall, we finally, with huge relief saw the ocean. There were maybe 4 stone walls. Then you walk into what looks like bush that we saw in your video. There is a path to the right and left. The hole thing has been bulldozed. Then we saw the hidden treasure. It’s the best beach we have found on the island. No one there. No houses anywhere, except the building you saw. It’s so worth the walk. We were drenched with sweat. Lots of goats ran on and off the road. You can hear then running around the whole time. We took a machete, but didn’t need it. Some annoying flies. It’s very worth it. We saw shoes along the way. Don’t know who would leave a shoe, unless you’re running from someone. We didn’t see much trash, like on some of the other beaches. We did decided we needed to leave before the square grouper started coming in. Thank you so much for your post!
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AuthorI'm a mom to two, wife to one, and a math teacher to many. We live on Michigan's West Coast, in the beautiful town of Holland. We love the people, natural beauty, and peaceful vibe of the Bahamas Out Islands. Archives
December 2021
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