Moving out to Glover’s Reef
Cully | September 26, 2011Slickrock’s big move out to Glover’s Reef occurred in the summer of 1996. We had been running sea kayak tours in Belize for 5 years out of Placencia, on the mainland coast in southern Belize, doing self support week-long tours among the islands along the outlying barrier reef.
But the islands were starting to get crowded, and a few developed, so our trips were losing their wilderness character. Lucy was contacting various lodges around the country as part of a project to just get to know Belize better, when she ran across the folks on Long Caye out at Glover’s Reef Atoll. We already knew that the atolls had the best reefs in the country, and were much more remote and pristine than the barrier reef islands. When the family wrote us back and told us they had a “spare island” for rent, we couldn’t believe it! At that, we decided to go down and see for ourselves what the atoll was like, with the possible plan to move our operation out there for the next season.
When we took the boat out to the atoll, we were immediately impressed by the location, and decided to make the move. This entailed hiring the family’s sailboat and going to Placencia, picking up all our kayaks, and moving the equipment to NE Caye, the island we decided to lease. That was the easy part.
When we arrived on the island next Dec, having already booked trips featuring this location, we were surprised that the island had not been cleaned up and the few cabins present were in bad repair. But we dove into the project of getting things ready, and soon had a nice set-up in place with 3 cabins, a kitchen building, and tent sites ready for our guests. Having an island base dramatically improved our itinerary, and over the next 4 years our business increased by leaps and bounds. The stunning coral reefs, private island location, and comfort of not being exposed to inclement weather were all big improvements to our Belize experience!
Later we moved to the island next door, but that’s another story…
Click on each image to see the full picture. All images taken at Slickrock’s facility in 1996-1998.
