The Road Not Taken

My Road Less Traveled One Day

"Two Roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both,
And be one traveller long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth."

-- Robert Frost


We all know the poem.  I HOPE we all know the poem, and about the dilemma in paths, and the outcome.  Robert Frost had it rough.  I have 20.6 square miles, 5 years, and a scooter.  I get to take all the paths before I go.  It would drive me nuts to leave the island for good and see some photo in National Geographic of the world's most pristine beauty, and realize it was in my backyard and I missed it.  If that happens, I at least want to be the photographer.

As it happens, there is a road that I usually avoid because the derelict building on the corner gives me the creeps.  It's where the road curves just before the police station in Somerset, an area where I once thought to myself "I would hate to get stranded here late at night."  It is also, the precise location where I heard pieces falling off my old bike, Little Red, after dark one evening while driving to the movie theatre out in Dockyard.  As scary as that seemed at the time (in retrospect I was a little overly anxious for nothing), it did earn me some "street cred," because when I told two colleagues on Monday morning that I had dropped a tranny in Somerset, they later confided that in their Australian and Kiwi use of the terms they truly did not take that to mean a problem with the transmission of my bike, but rather thought for several days that I was the type to go around provoking and winning physical altercations with transvestites.  The easy part about my blog is that I don't have to make anything up, although sometimes I am remiss to admit that.

Anyway, if you don't follow the main road around the curve, but go straight past the dilapidated building, the first thing that you will come across is Cambridge Beaches, a nice hotel that I have only ever visited via sea aboard the Cactus.  I did not go on the ground to take any photos, but drove a little further around the bend an that there is a Somerset Long Bay Park (we also have a Warwick Long Bay).

Somerset Long Bay Park

This is another spot with a lot of grounds and a lot of open quiet space to enjoy.  This beach is in between Cambridge Beaches and Nine Beaches Resort, and right at the edge of the park in the photo above.

A gorgeous palette of pastels...and I cannot hide that my camera needs a good cleaning.

9 Beaches is currently closed for renovations.  A 55 Million Dollar renovation according to the website, but set to open in 2015.  The 9 Beaches concept is a good one.  They call these units "executive tents."  The structures are built on stilts, soft sided, but have all the amenities of indoor living, and yes that includes indoor plumbing.  The rare complaint that I saw on Trip Advisor from past guests was that the sound of the ocean was too loud to fall asleep to.

9 Beaches

The area was so beautiful that it was hard to pick which photo was my favorite.  But the series of photos is absolutely one of my new favorites.  The water had some greens as well as blues in this area, and reminded me of one of my favorite old songs by "The Cure," in which Robert Smith woefully sings "and so we watched the sun fall off the edge of the deep green sea..." lyrics I always loved as I had never thought of the sea as being anything other than blue growing up in Saskatchewan.

Adrift at Daniel's Head Road

Breathtaking Bermuda

And just as an added bonus, I found what I can only describe as another "duck sanctuary."  I parked the bike to look around and, believe it or not, a car pulled up behind me and the woman driving stepped out and said "Do you like ducks?"  I was wondering if she had read my blog, but then she pulled out a loaf of bread and they came out of the woodwork, plus a couple of geese.  There was this really interesting little duck in the mix...check this guy out as the last photo of the day.  This little pond and surrounding area by Daniel's Head Road is funded by the Bermuda Audubon Society.

Space Duck (aka Wood Duck or Aix sponsa, the red eyes are a masculine feature in this fellow)