End of the Line

Great Inagua is as far south as

you can go in The Bahamas

Text and photos by Kimberly Grant

Would you believe there’s a connection between Great Inagua, the most remote Bahamian island, and James Bond? This southernmost island, known for its West Indian flamingo population and its record salt production, is closer to Haiti and Cuba than its nearest Bahamian neighbor. With a population of 800 clustered in Matthew Town, most of the 40-mile-long island is a naturalist’s paradise, undeveloped and uninhabited except for a profusion of wildlife, including many rare bird species, wild boars and burros. This appeal created the James Bond link, but more on that later.
During the 1930s, the Caribbean flamingo population was nearly decimated and the colony on Great Inagua was believed to be the last breeding colony. In 1952, the Audubon Society hired two Bahamian wardens to protect the birds by enforcing existing Bahamian law.  Later, in 1959, the Bahamas National Trust was created to oversee the Bahamas National Park System, thus codifying the protection for flamingos begun through these earlier efforts. Inagua is an anagram for the reptile common to these shores, the iguana.
The result of this timely intervention and ideal habitat is the largest breeding colony of flamingos in the world. Today, the 287-square-mile Inagua National Park is home to around 30,000 breeding pairs living around Lake Windsor.

If you cruise to Great Inagua to see the flamingos, check your calendar as they mate and nest during the winter months and migrate annually to Cuba in the summer. Also worth considering is the mosquito population; it is best to visit during the dry season as the abundance of wetlands provide a mosquito habitat. On several calm days they forced us to abandon our beach walk, but with all the beautiful coral heads to dive, this was not much of a compromise. The Salty Festival is the island’s signature event. This year the dates are July 31-August 3.
So where does James Bond come into the picture? Author Ian Fleming, an avid birder, visited the island in 1956 to participate in a bird count to assess the results of the protection efforts. Great Inagua became his inspiration for Crab Cay in the novel Dr. No, which was made into the first James Bond film. Interestingly, Ian Fleming encountered the name James Bond through his birding as well. The historical James Bond was a prominent ornithologist and author of the book, Birds of the West Indies.
The conditions that make Inagua ideal habitat for flamingos, hot, dry and windy, are the identical conditions required for drying salt. Morton Salt is the most important industry on the island, and at 1,000,000 tons of salt harvested annually, Inagua holds bragging rights as Morton’s largest production site. The salt pans cover 34,000 acres and as you approach the island from the northwest, the giant white salt mounds provide the first indication of landfall.
Another noteworthy feature is the Inagua Lighthouse. Rising 121 feet on the southwest corner of the island, it is one of the last remaining manned, crank-operated, kerosene lighthouses in the world. The works are kept in museum condition and throughout the night the keeper climbs the seemingly endless spiral stairs to wind the mechanism that keeps the lens turning. The lighthouse’s lookout platform provided us with a spectacular view of the island.
Anchoring at Great Inagua can pose a bit of a challenge. The Matthew Town anchorage is an open roadstead, tenable only in E-SE winds. There is a small concrete government boat basin, but it is often full of Defense Force and Haitian vessels and the surge inside is horrendous. During our three weeks on the island we had predominately north winds, so we anchored in South Bay, where we found a comfortable anchorage and could walk from Southwest Point, through the older salt pans, past some flamingos, into town.  There is also a reef-protected anchorage at Lantern Head Harbour where we discovered some amazing stone ruins and middens on the overlooking hill. In this outpost, the regular flyover of the Coast Guard patrol helicopter and the friendly local fishermen were our only links to civilization. When the wind went back to the east, we ventured to Alfred Sound where the tranquility and solitude were remarkable. There are neither cruise ships, nor resorts or boutiques. Inagua is not an easy island to get to, but if you love wildlife and tranquility, the rewards are well worth the effort.