Killing Time on Great Guana

(12/28/17) It was Caroline’s request that we come to the golf cart parade on Great Guana.  Caroline is a travel expert.  She recently visited Barcelona, Portugal, and Ireland–some of this travel was alone while waiting for friends to join her.  She likes a site Atlas Obscura-Curious and Wondrous Travel Destinations.  The site allows the user to pick a point on the map to determine any interesting attractions.  I looked up Georgia and discovered that we have visited all the obscure sites in the St. Simons area.  She enjoys curious events when traveling so we were hoping the golf cart parade would be just the ticket.

Before the parade started we played a little corn hole at Orchid Bay Marina.  Lainey and Matt were playing against Katy and Steve when I walked up giving Lainey an out.  She was not enjoying the game.  Matt & I were down most of the game, but managed to eke out a win!  Go Matt!

There are four restaurants on the island Orchid Bay, Nippers Bar & Grill, Grabbers Bed, Bar and Grill, and Docksiders.  We have been to all but Docksiders.  This map below shows the tiny part of the island called the settlement.  The north end is made up of Baker’s Bay Development.  Baker’s Bay is a gated community which provides many work opportunities for the community.  The Nippers website offers the following description of Baker’s Bay:      

“Baker’s Bay Development is for very wealthy people and movie stars are located at one end of the island. You will not gain access there, but sometimes the movie stars and the sports idols would venture outside the gates of Bakers to see how other people live. You might meet your favorite movie star at the grocery store or at Nipper’s. Just remember – In Guana Cay we let famous people walk in peace, without harassing them or ask for autographs.”

When we visited Great Guana in 2013, we rented a golf cart and drove up to Baker’s Bay.   The guard allowed us to enter the exclusive member’s only club because we were having lunch at the restaurant there.  The community was just getting started when we were there, but it sounds like no visitors are allowed now.  

As you can tell from the map above, the settlement area is small and it is an easy walk from Orchid Bay to Grabbers.  We thought it would be nice to see the sunset at Grabbers.

In 2013 we anchored in this bay–it was much more crowded in April 2013 than in December 2017.  Beautiful sunset!

The parade was to start at 5:30 at Guana Lumber (#1 on the above map) then go by the post office to the first stop at Orchid Bay.  It’s the Bahamas–the parade did not start at 5:30–but it eventually got started.  About 50 golf carts with their best lights and decorations gave us quite a show.  Glad I wore my UGA hat because lots of fans cheered for the dawgs as they passed.  Seems like there are plenty of UGA fans in the Bahamas!

I have not yet learned how to photograph moving vehicles in the dark with flashing Christmas lights–so I hope you’re not disappointed.

A nice man named Darrell offered us a ride in his non-decorated golf cart back to Orchid Bay for the free appetizers.  We think he may have been enjoying some alcoholic beverages for most of the day.  He ran into a couple of curbs and just commented “yeah, that happens sometimes.” 

Orchid Bay was packed and the free appetizers were delicious.  The parade left Orchid Bay for the next stop at Grabbers.  We decided to bypass Grabbers and head on up to the final stop at Nippers.  More about Nippers tomorrow!

Joy