Friday 15 February 2019

If you find yourself here, don't take the right-hand turning


I don't know why but I've been itching to get to Indian Creek. In Feb last year I made
an attempt to get to this quiet cove in Antigua but chickened out at the 11th hour (see post)

You can see Indian Creek from the Block House up at Shirley Heights. It looks like an Estuary but as there are no rivers in Antigua it isn't
The access is challenging for my wheels. Its a long drive with the final few kilometres on dry rough tracks.

It ends in a steep 50m decent over bare rock, storm cut channels and loose scree

This last section is what stopped me last year but determined, I forged my descent. The lessson learned is that Genny will descend to places it is unable to return from

I'm asking a lot from a mobility aid as I think a land-rover in 4 wheel drive would struggle on this section but finding limits and identifying solutions is how progress is made. I got out of this by dismounting and putting Genny into the Segway riderless balance mode, then guiding, pulling it up, clearing the worst of the rocks from the path. Riderless balance mode is a Segway function that allows you to get the Segway up steps for example but does it in driverless and at limited speed. It requires an exaggerated front to back lean to drive Genny. This is an issue as the foot-plate becomes the limiting factor crashing into anything standing proud on the path in-front. The solution is to weave Genny in a zig-zag path avoiding all obstacles, but it requires a lot of strength and may well be beyond many users caperabilities. A solution could be a folding foot-plate that I notice is used in many of the other Segway powered chairs. You would still need to dismount the chair but I'm sure it would make those difficult off-road situations considerably easier

In this instance the no-entry access chain was down indicating that although the way ahead was open, you weren't welcome. When I did get to the end of the path and onto the beach it was rough loose rocks and not sand, making access to the sea impossible anyway

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