Our Airbnb host (Kevin) happened to be walking by while we had the doors wide open, so he stopped in to say hello. We learned a variety of interesting tidbits... for example: (some of) the reason Cruz Bay was crazy yesterday was due to inauguration activities for the new governor, and the donkeys on St. John can be aggressive. Kevin was a super nice guy.
Today's plan was to stay nearby and seek out a local, secluded beach. Specifically, we intended to get to Neltjeberg Bay. The biggest obstacle, and reason that it's secluded, is that the road leading down to it is primarily dirt.
Side note: The Nissan Versa has proven to be perfectly capable of ascending/descending the incredibly steep/rough paved roads, both on St. Thomas and on St. John. It's also been fine in the dirt or sandy areas, as long as they're flat-ish. We did not, however, want to see how it would handle a steep dirt road, the day after some rain, when the failure mode would involve an uncontrolled slide into the jungle.
The page linked above specifically includes "A jeep, or vehicle with high ground clearance and 4WD is very strongly recommended!" in the "Driving" paragraph, so that was pretty much out. The "Rock Scramble" option is a hilarious fantasy, so that left the "Hike from [the next beach]" choice.
Armed with more-detailed information that Sabrina found on Uncommon Caribbean, we loaded up the car and headed out just before 11 AM.
We had taken the "scenic drive" route a few days ago, on the way to Magens Bay, and had accidentally ended up at the end of the road to Dorothea Bay, so finding it again was easy.
If they were honest, these "steep grade" signs would be on every single road on this island. But then they would lose their significance, I suppose.
Dorothea Beach was essentially a pile of rocks and debris being assaulted by rough surf, so we didn't linger for long.
On the far side of the beach, I started looking for this mysterious path over the ridge. I found a path, and it went up the hill, so we took a chance.
It wasn't clear where the path was taking us, what with it being in a jungle, but it ended up taking us along the cliff towards Dorothea Point.
It isn't obvious from this photo, but we're a solid 30 or 40 feet above the water.
There was a path down from the point, which led us to this small beach. It was covered with broken coral and rocks, and wasn't the beach we were aiming for.
The beach we wanted to be on was on the other side of this house, at the top of the next ridge.
There was yet another path from this beach back up the hill, behind the house. It was obvious by this point that we hadn't taken the right path, but we figured we could salvage this adventure without backtracking, so we pressed on.
Total elapsed time was 25 minutes, from when we stepped onto Dorothea Beach to when we left this unnamed beach.
Cue 25 more minutes of hiking through the jungle, then down a dirt road (we were back on track), to Neltjeberg Beach.
Even at two or three times the expected travel time, it was worth the trip.
When we arrived, we had the entire beach to ourselves, except for a single surfer.
The rest of the afternoon was a mix of swimming, sunning, reading, napping, and walking the beach.
Around 4 PM, with the sun threatening to dip behind a hill (which would make our return trek through the jungle unnecessarily challenging), we packed up and commenced the return hike.
This time, we were able to find the shorter path back to the car; it took about 15 minutes.
If anyone stumbles upon this page through some perfect storm of Google keywords and misfortune, the short trail to Neltjeberg Beach starts behind the condo building labeled "B3".
By the end of this journey, we were again in need of a rinse in the ocean, so we moved the car one bay to the east, and parked at Hull Bay Beach.
We took a quick swim, changed into dry clothes, and considered a cocktail at the local beach bar. Instead, we opted to go a bit early to our dinner reservation at Thirteen Restaurant and enjoy a beverage there.
Tomorrow, we're sleeping in, packing up, and shipping out.
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