The Exuma Land and Sea Park

Warderick Wells is the island home of the Park Headquarters for the Exuma Land and Sea Park. When we sailed around the last bit of the  island so that the harbor within Warderick Wells opened up before us, I thought we’d sailed into heaven. 

view from Park Headquarters

How could one island display so many shades of aqua blue, so many shades of white sand and coral rocks? I was initially speechless. Shades of green and tans dressed the hills to the east which were hiding the Atlantic from our view within the harbor. A few twists and jogs within the harbor coastline only added to its’ beauty. 

dinghy dock at Warderick Wells

The few manmade structures housing the Park Headquarters and the Park Warden house were hidden to us until we were well inside the harbor though we talked with the Office in advance. We’d been assigned a mooring ball and advised to “follow the dark water in.”

The Exuma Land and Sea Park extends for 22 miles and includes all of the islands in between Wax Cay Cut on the north end and the Conch Cut on the south end. No fishing, lobstering or conching is allowed in the waters of the Park and no removal of any shells or coral. Water is so clear that we could see the bottom 20 feet below us, although that is not unusual in the Bahamas.  At Warderick Wells, in the stillness of the harbor, such clarity was even more stunning.

Jumped off the boat to swim; found this guy

When we took the dinghy to shore to follow a trail up to the top of Boo Boo Hill, we found the colors of the Atlantic just as breathtaking although in darker shades of turquoise. To be able to see gradations of color with the changes in the ocean depths from that elevation was spectacular. We’d been sailing on that very water, of course, but unable to see the great myriad of colors while so close to the water’s surface.  Do I sound as though I had fallen in love with a piece of the planet? I had. 

Warderick Wells harbor on left; Atlantic on the right

We felt somehow changed, lighter and buoyant. Our faces more relaxed and voices softer. “Wow……..this is……..wow……….unlike anyplace we’ve ever seen!”…..“How long can we stay here?”…….. “We are just going to relax and enjoy this.” Our very bodies smiled. 

Bahama Grouper. Note variety of corals all around

Before we’d even gotten into the water, before we’d seen the fish and the coral heads below us, before we’d seen the blowholes on the ocean side of the island, before we’d gone exploring we were in love. When I close my eyes now I can see the beauty of the place as if looking at a photo imprinted beneath my eyelids.  

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Another part of me, at that time, however, entertained the strange thought that perhaps this much beauty was more than I could take in. An odd thought—was I deserving of such visual pleasure? And still I felt a preemptory moment of sadness in knowing that no matter how long we stayed, it would never be long enough. Have you ever had such a vibrant reaction to a place of great beauty?

Blowhole on Warderick Wells

These were stronger reactions than I usually have to landscapes of land, sea and sky. Maybe it was my eagerness to snorkel that particular day.  Maybe it was my grateful faith in the protection offered by this national park for its fish and coral.  Maybe it was my medication—who knows? But what I do know is that I want to go back to that very same spot on earth again. I want to soak it in again, with that same sort of religious fervor. Maybe I should be embarrassed to admit this vulnerability to a place; a piece of the earth where all things came together for me in such a way that my breath was taken away. 

Shroud Cay, one of the many islands of the Park

Not everyone would have this same reaction to Warderick Wells but surely there are many other places on this beautiful planet where visitors find themselves reacting viscerally and strongly. I think back on the extraordinary beauty of many many places in my life and not once have I written about them in these glowing terms. I am thinking now that I could have. That I should have done so. Should have expressed this same enthusiasm for many beautiful places, big and small. Some of them right in my backyard. Why hold back on letting our appreciation for our beautiful planet be known?

One of many unusual corals found in
Exuma Land & Sea Park

We are no longer in the Exumas. We continued north and arrived in the Abacos (northern islands of the Bahamas) two days ago. Yesterday we snorkeled off of Sandy Cay, a place that had thrilled us when we snorkeled there three years ago. Picture a small mountain-like chain of coral just below the waters surface that has been building upon itself for centuries and with the largest corals imaginable at the top. The Elkorn coral reaches out it's enormous arms at distances greater than my arm span. 

Snorkeling off Sandy Cay. These corals were
beautiful 3 years ago--purples, greens, oranges,
reds, yellows. Few living Elkhorn remaining.

Yesterday was however, not a magnificent repeat of the experience three years ago. Large masses of the huge Elkhorn coral were dead or dying! So much had changed in only three years. So much beauty lost.  Heartbreaking is too small a word for this loss. This is a picture of the impact of man upon our climate and our planet. What will be left a generation from now? 

Atop Shroud Cay, at Driftwood Camp

With sadness after the devastation found at Sandy Cay, and with yet a spark of magnanimity after experiencing the beauty of Warderick Wells, I offer this: May each of us find our own Warderick Wells and fall in love with it without reservation. Hold onto it in wild appreciation of our beautiful earth, in full color, just behind the eyelids to enjoy at any time. Love it so dearly, so intensely that we not fail in protecting the gift.