After leaving the Staniel Cay (key) area we headed south to one of our favorite spots, Lee Stocking Island. LSI used to be home to the Perry Institute’s Caribbean Marine Research Center. The CMRC has been closed for several years now and their website has not been updated. www.perryinstitute.org We spoke with the caretaker who told us the institute had leased the island for years but it has since been returned to its owners. The island has beautiful beaches, great hiking, lots of coconuts, and the decaying remains of the CMRC. It is sad to see such a beautiful place with such a meaningful mission die and fall into disrepair. The caretaker told us that until he is instructed otherwise, he will continue to allow people to explore the island as long as they stay out of the buildings and respect the owner’s property. So off we went!
There is quite a bit of history here that is connected to the United States. I believe this island was settled by colonists who were loyal to the king of England, around the time of the revolutionary war.
So we hiked the loyalist trail:
The trail, which is getting quite overgrown, winds across the island:
Fun:
Wall built by the loyalists to keep their livestock from wandering too far. The wall runs almost all the way across the island. I can only imagine the effort it took to build that during that era:
So the loyalist trail runs along the loyalist wall out to the…loyalist runway…? No…wait…
Paved loyalist runway…maybe I’m mixing up periods…
Loyalists left a lot of trash, and a John Deere Gator:
Respecting the caretaker we did not go in any buildings, just walked by. These were along the runway:
We walked across the runway and took another trail to this amazing beach:
Then back to the runway, headed to the southeast end and onto the:
View of the overgrown (loyalist) runway from coconut beach trail:
Down the trail back to our starting point:
Coconut beach:
Coconut beach, so named because:
Soooo goood:
Then we walked the road to the north end of the island:
This is the lizard lounge, the former cafeteria, so named because of the abundant population of curly tail lizards on the island:
Road continues to the north end:
View is amazing:
Buildings at the north end:
Another beautiful beach:
Not sure if this is loyalist trash:
Then we took a shortcut back across the runway:
Down the road back toward the former lobster building:
Lobster pens:
Continues to the former main administration building:
Dock:
Former admin building of the CMRC:
Then we went back to the boat and had some awesome Mahi Mahi:
