Blue Point - Postbox Walk #4

(July 23, 2023)

Yesterday Scott and I did our fourth Postbox walk to Blue Point, which is the southern most tip of the island, also called the Gates of Chaos. This walk was about an hour each way and the path took us through rocky, desert cliff environments which overlooked both the Sandy Bay Area on one side (Lot’s Wife Ponds - another box walk) and Manati Bay on the other side (which does not actually have Manatees).

This trail is the “newest” part of the island in terms of volcanic erosion. Meaning the geology and rock formations here are some of the newer ones found on the island since its first eruption from the sea 7 million years ago.

The path began in an open sandy area at the end of a 4x4 track at the top of a hill after driving through pastures with sheep and donkeys. The trail began on a wooded path with moss lined walls wrapping around the side of a mountain. This led to an open dirt and rocky path which caused us to feel very exposed to the elements. Luckily it was a beautiful sunny day out, but being this high up and between two hills and the sea caused there to be strong wind gusts flowing around us when we came out of a valley and the protection of the forest.

As we continued, on our left (the Sandy Bay side) we could see the rock formation known as “the asses ears” which is a stone column that seems to sprout out of the surrounding volcanic rock. While on our right was much more green, spreading all the way down to the sea. From the Blue Point trail we could also see the Manati Bay hiking trail which looked very steep on the way down and back up..

The earth along the trail continually shifted and changed in color and texture, in one section the ground was bright red and right after it was more of a grey color which I thought looked more like settled volcanic ash.

As we reached the end of the trail the ground became more pebbly. We dipped down and back up the ridges and made it to the end where we could look over the sea and got the postbox stamp. From the end we could also see Speery Island which is a white glimmering rock just off shore.