Cat Island

We arrived in Georgetown, Great Exuma, waited out yet another windy storm for a couple days and then headed 50 miles northeast to Cat Island. If you can only go to one place in the Bahamas, 
I’d have to say you should choose Cat Island.

Lucayans were Cat Island’s first native inhabitants. After the Spanish arrived and wiped out the population with disease and violence, Cat and most other Bahamian islands were depopulated until the 1600s when pirates and privateers found it a perfect location for preying on Spanish Galleons and trading vessels. Arthur Catt was one of these pirates and probably the reason for the name of the island, although another story says it is all the feral cats brought by British to get rid of rats.

In 1873, Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution took up residence on Cat. They had cotton plantations run by slave labor until its abolishment in the beginning of the 1800s. Freed slaves were sent to the north end of the island and today there is still a distinct difference of cultures between the north and south ends. The farther north you go, the more Bahamian it feels with some of the most open, friendly and generous people we’ve met. You can tell where someone is from by their last name throughout the Bahamas since slaves took on names of masters and deeded land stays in families for generations by law.  Cat Island is also the boyhood home of Sidney Poitier.

Our stay on Cat began at New Bight with a walk to the highest point in the Bahamas, Como Hill, a staggering 206’ above sea level. On the road there, we investigated a side path where we saw someone gathering something. Miss Paula is a 72-year old lady who was out tending her garden. This truly was a Garden of Eden. In the midst of the rocky soil, Miss Paula grows tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, pumpkin and watermelon. Corn was also growing which is ground to make grits.

She had 5-gallon buckets loaded and the guys offered to carry them out to the road for her where her daughter was going to meet her. Some of the produce then would be sold at her home; some of it also went home with us!

There were also papaya trees on her property and she told us to go pick any ripe ones we could reach.

Moving on up the road we headed to the top of Como Hill and Mount Alvernia Hermitage.

Father Jerome (Monsignor John Hawes 1876-1956) was born in England and was first an architect. After winning a design competition, he built his first church in 1899. In 1903, he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England and sent on a mission to the Bahamas where he designed and built more churches. Pictures of his work are on Wikipedia and they are beautiful. Father Jerome went to the U.S. in 1911 and worked as a laborer and railroad teamster while he studied for the priesthood. Converting to Catholicism in 1915, he was sent to Australia where he was priest, architect and builder. Ultimately he returned to the Bahamas in 1939, and single-handedly built the Hermitage where he lived the rest of his life.

The uphill part of the walk goes through the stations of the cross.

Pictures, as always, don’t do justice to the beauty of the place as it comes into view. 

Father Jerome must have been a small man as everything seems to be on a rather small scale.

 

The chapel was definitely built for worship for one.    

Father Jerome’s kitchen was a short walk away. 

While he was building the Hermitage, Father Jerome lived in a cave which we were told was hard to find. We love a challenge though and found and followed a side trail to his cave. This cave was previously occupied by pirates and slaves. 

Moving on north to Arthur’s Town, we had a nice morning walk around town and then met friends of Ryan and Renee who spend winters here. They took us to the far north end of Cat Island where, once again, you think the beach and the water cannot possibly get better.

Next up, Da Smoke Pot.  Every Sunday, owner Julian and a few locals and winter visitors hold a free brunch. Julian made mahi mahi in coconut sauce and conch with veges, while others contributed cole slaw, potato salad and garlic cheese bread and I took a spinach quiche.

Then, Rake ‘N Scrape.  What fun! Take an acordian, a drum and a saw and screwdriver and you have a band. An extra drum and an extra saw were handy for trying and both Tom and I got into the music and played. Great Bahamian music and singing went on for an hour thanks to Julian (on the drum), Franco (acordian) and Lyn (saw). Franco and Lyn are both retired teachers and all of them have their own bands that compete in an annual Rake ‘N Scrape Festival in June. We’re on the lookout now for an old, flexible saw to add to the steel drum percussion!

Our last night on Cat Island was spent at the government dock which is now closed to mail boats. This fellow lives on the hill right above the dock and he baked plates of pastries in the morning which were impossible to pass up. Some of the best croissants, danish, and coconut muffins ever!

                                                                                                                                

Finally, one more sunset and then a fond farewell to Cat Islanders.