VIRGIN GORDA'S REMOTE RESORTS (original) (raw)
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- Nov. 13, 1983
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November 13, 1983
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Section 10, Page
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From the top of Virgin Gorda peak, a quarter-mile above the sun-diamonded sea, the island's two crablike arms seem to stretch toward the horizon. From this height, Virgin Gorda looks immense. It comes as a surprise to learn that the island, third largest (or second smallest) of the four major British Virgin Islands, extends at most 10 miles from clawtip to clawtip and at its widest is no more than two miles across.
The illusion of greater size may have to do with the varied terrain, an arid valley rising to a bulbous peak - hence the name ''Fat Virgin'' - and falling away in a succession of softly rounded green hills. It could be the wildness of a largely untracked island where getting from one end to another means taking a boat. Or it could be the frightening roller- coaster road around the peak that makes drives on Virgin Gorda seem longer than they really are.
The island of 1,000 residents, best known to travelers for its deluxe Rockefeller-created resort, Little Dix Bay, offers other surprises. One is another luxury hotel, called Biras Creek, fortress-like in its isolation and renowned for its splendid cuisine. Also startling to the first-time visitor is ''The Baths,'' a jumble of Gargantuan boulders where the surging tide forms myriad secluded bathing pools. Around Virgin Gorda, the shores are scalloped with lovely beaches, some 16 by one count, screened from the roads by steep trails and thick stands of sea grape and tamarisk. There are echoes of history, a ruined copper mine said to date to 16th-century Spanish colonizers and, on the grounds of one hotel, five early gravesites. The same small hotel also boasts an extraordinary library, conceivably the finest private collection in the Caribbean, where guests and outside visitors with permission may browse among hundreds of rare first editions and hand- printed works assembled by the bibliophile- proprietors.
Getting to Virgin Gorda is half - well, maybe a tenth - of the fun. Visitors may sail in on their own or leased yachts or ferry over from Tortola, the parent island of the British Virgin Islands, some eight miles to the southwest. There are also air connections through Puerto Rico, about 90 miles to the west, and the closer American Virgin Islands.
''Did you ever stop to think what would happen,'' mused a fellow passenger on the little Crownair plane that was flying us in from St. Thomas, ''if the propeller suddenly broke off?'' After that it was hard to think of anything else. In a moment though, the nine- seater was bumping reassuringly down the airstrip, the propellers chattered safely to a stop and the passengers, distributed aboard according to their weights, dismounted into the blinding sunlight under a flapping Union Jack.
For visitors who intend to see something of the island, a car is a virtual necessity, although for nondrivers, taxis are readily and inexpensively available. Little Dix and several other hotels are directly on the beach; the rest require a means of transportation. For most visitors that means renting a minimoke or a Jeep from Speedy's Garage for 30adayplusaone−timechargeof30 a day plus a one-time charge of 30adayplusaone−timechargeof5 for a license and $2 for insurance.
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