Today Im going to take you on another fantastic hike on the island of Saba. Actually this was my favorite hike of all, because it wasnt too rough on the body. The other hikes in Saba are steep up and down, and this one keeps you on a quite steady level around about 500 meters above sealevel.
The hike starts above the village of upper Hell's Gate on the East side of the island. Hell's Gate was renamed a couple years ago after a long protest of a part of the religious community. Nowadays it's called Zions Hill, but all locals still refer to it as Hell's Gate. From the beginning of this trail you walk all the way over the North side of the island towards the West. You can see it as the E-trail on the map
From here on the path goes up just a bit to get you out of civilization, and immediately my legs were in a gigantic protest due to the previous hike to Mount Scenery. The good thing about immediately walking again, is that you walk out the toxins of your soar legs. While getting back in the jungle spirit, my legs started to feel normal again, and I was able to pick up the pace a little.
It was cool to walk on the north side because you have a lot of different views compared to all the other hikes. This is almost the only one with views facing Sint Martin and Sint Barths island, and it was really cool to see my home in the distance.
The island on the left is my home, Sint Martin. The island on the right, Sint Barths, is home to the rich and famous who own all kinds of villas there.
Runway
Also from this side we were able to see the airport on its tiny little cliff. Again I was totally surprised on how short this runway was. Did I really land here??? Check out the Dtube video of my landing. We started talking about how suicidal you must be, being the first person who was trying to land here. Miraculously, there have never been any aviation accidents on Saba. This is still a bit of a mystery to me to be honest.
Easy walking
The path of this hike started off just perfect. Just gradually shifting in heights and walking in the shade. At this point its just a sand path, and it was easy to walk. Later on it got more rocky and also a little bit more slippery because we were all the way on the north, so the sun never reaches that point
Vegetation
The plants and vegetation we saw along this like were very different compared to the other hikes, because this is a north side hike. All kinds of strange trees, and even stranger parasitical vegetation was growing here (I mean a bush growing on a tree, using the tree as a host)
Saba Triathlon
This trail was also used two weeks earlier in Saba's triathlon. Maybe that was also why the trail was in such a good shape. While walking there we were talking a lot about how crazy you must be to participate in this triathlon. As the lonely planet describes this race:
An 800m open-water swim from Fort Bay, 7km road cycle (with a 600m elevation gain) and a 7km run on mountain trails (with a 350m elevation gain) ending in Windwardside make up Saba's arduous triathlon, held on the last Saturday in January.
That is just ridiculous. I could see the ocean banging on the cliffs, and the athletes have to swim to there. I am really paying attention to where I am putting my feet not to trip, and these athletes are running over this trail??? Endless respect for these guys. Sometimes there even was a rope next to the path where the rocks were overgrown and super slippery. And these guys are running over it. Just wow!
Getting back to civilization
Just before reaching back to the top of the village called 'The Bottom', there was a little bench all of a sudden. We took a bit of time to just chill here and think about life. We could see all kinds of catamarans just hanging around in the sea, most of them had divers and fisherman on board and this whole setting was so super peaceful.
I really loved this hike. We didnt rush at all and it took us like two hours to reach back our paradise at the Queens Garden Resort.
I would recommend this trail to anyone who ever decides to go to Saba, maybe even more than the Mount Scenery hike. Remember, Saba is Dutch territory but such a different world compared to flatland Holland.