people line up on the dock for their excursions
With an excursion title like Segway Sightseeing & Beach, you might think that would include sightseeing on Segways, riding them on the beach – or both, but it was actually neither. When the gangways on Enchanted Princess finally were in place allowing people to start heading out to the dock nearly half an hour after the shore excursions were supposed to start meeting we went out and found our tour, which was divided into two nearly equal lines. There were an odd number of people so one group had an extra. The other group was given black wristbands and ours sparkly silver. A little bus loaded them up and took off while we waited for a van. Somehow we still managed to arrive first, then had to wait for the other group to get there for instructions on how to ride a Segway. A lot of the people there had ridden them before, but we had not.
segway guide with off-road segways
As it turned out these were not city Segways. They had big offroad tires as we were to ride them on a rough mountain road suitable for small 4-wheel drive vehicles, though the bus did manage to struggle to the top. Instructions included how the segway worked with foot sensors and how to safely get on and off. Also how to make it go, stop, and turn. It stops and goes either forward or backward due to body positioning, which also controls the speed. Turning is done with the long handle that extends from the foot platform up to where it has the handlebars.
riding segways on a mountain road
The other group started with practice rides while we went off to their bus for the sightseeing part of the tour. This bit had many stops, none of which were at viewpoints, attractions, or historical landmarks. Instead they were all at places where various plants grew by the roadside. We had a driver and a guide so the driver stayed in the bus while the guide got out and then came back in with samples of various plants, mostly herbs. He also talked about other things growing along the roadside that we could see out the windows like banana, papaya, mango, soursop, and other things.
segway tour at a viewpoint
Things he brought back included oregano, lemongrass, bayleaf, a seed that is made into castor oil, something called moringa, and other things I don’t remember. One of them purifies water, but that’s one of the things I don’t remember what it was called. The oil from the bayleaf works as a natural bug repellent, and the soursop can help cure health issues like cancer, infections, parasites and other things. Moringa is used for nourishing hair and skin, treating swelling, protecting the liver, treating stomach upset, fighting foodborne bacterial infections, and improving eye health. They also mentioned something that fights against autoimmune diseases, but I can’t remember if that was soursop or moringa or something else. Most likely the soursop.
view of Rodney Bay
Our bus ride ended at the top of a mountain where the other group was gathered at a lookout point. They had ridden the segways up the mountain and we rode them down. We were near Rodney Bay, but that particular lookout had a view in a different direction. Lower down the mountain we looked out on Rodney Bay.
old WW2 bunker in Saint Lucia
At the top of the mountain there was an old American bunker left over from World War 2. Saint Lucia is an independent country that is part of the British Commonwealth, but they had American outposts there during the war. We passed two more bunkers on the way down the mountain.
posing at the viewpoint
After seeing the view and the bunker we all had a chance to practice a bit on the segways in a wide spot that was probably used for parking. Once everyone got the hang of it we headed down the hill in a line with each person to stay 6 feet back from the one in front of them. That’s to give you time to react if the person in front slows down or stops so you don’t run into them. They can set a maximum speed on the segways, which they had at fairly slow for going down the mountain. On the way down we had a couple stops at viewpoints, one of which had a smaller bunker than the one at the top, but bigger than a tiny one we passed by in between.
riding the segways back to their shop
At the last view stop while they distracted everyone taking photos of each pair of people (and one single guy) they adjusted the segways so they could go faster since it would not be so steep the rest of the way. Most of the ride had been on a rutted gravel road with patches of overly large rocks as sticking out of it, but near the end where the roads were less steep we went through a field and along a bit of some paved roads before reaching the place where we started by the tour company’s office.
beach at Rodney Bay
After the Segway part of the tour we went to the beach at Rodney Bay, which is a large sandy public beach. You have to pay to use a beach chair. The going rate was $10 each, but we got 2 chairs under a beach umbrella for the $10 instead of just one chair. People come out from the little beach bars to see if you want food or anything to drink. Other people wander by and try to sell you necklaces or coconuts or whatever else they have. One didn’t have anything to sell and just begged. The people selling things move on to the next person if you say no, but it took a whole lot of noes to get the beggar to go away.
blow up things at the beach
The far end of the beach had some large blow-up beach toys like slides and things anchored in the water. According to our guide there would be a bit of coral and some fish in that area. The waves that day were quite large with breakers sometimes rolling higher than a person is tall so entering the water meant timing it well if you didn’t want to get bowled over. There was also a pretty strong undertow. Once you get past the area where the waves swell and break over it wasn’t so rough.
big waves breaking on the beach
Over at the end of the beach by the breakwater next to the beach toys the waves weren’t quite as high or strong, but still fierce enough to churn up a lot of sand. All of that sand made for pretty murky water with little to no visibility. I tried to snorkel, but could barely see my own hands. If there were any fish in the area they would have had to come right up to me within inches of my eyes in order to see them so it really wasn’t a good day for snorkeling. It would have been a good day for boogie boarding, but there were no boogie boards there.
relaxing on the beach
I gave up on the snorkeling since there was nothing to see but sand-colored water. Relaxing on the beach chair with a pina colada worked well instead. Until the really big wave came underneath all the way to the top end of the chair and got my shoes that were sitting under it all wet. The tide was on the way in, but that one wave was the only one that came up quite that high. A couple others came up under the foot end of the beach chair, but no more went all the way under it.
After a couple hours on the beach the bus took the group back to the port. It was a fun excursion. It would have been nice to have a group half the size and ride the segways both up and down the mountain, but that wasn’t the way this excursion worked.
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