Monday Bus trips

I had a lovely morning. I had decided to go to the sw corner of the island. (oaks bluf is in the ne) According to the timetable i have that looked like it would take 3 buses most of which run every hour. Could take a while. There are set stops in the towns but mostly you just wave at the bus and they stop. Turns out that the 1st bus connected to the 2nd ( the 1st driver radioed the 2nd to say he had a passenger - a common ocurrence i have discovered) and then the 2nd bus became the 3rd bus. I arrived at Aquinnah, in the SW corner at 10.11 and had an hour till the return bus.

Aquinnah is a collection of scattered houses, a lighthouse, a few shops ( opening at 11 I discovered) a pub ( closed for winter still) and a nice take-away shop. The main attraction is the different –coloured clay cliffs in the area. I went for a walk to the beach to get a look at the cliffs, being careful to stay on the path. There are big signs up everywhere warning people of Deer ticks that can cause Lyme disease. The beach is pebbly. It was quite attractive, but the whole point is very open to the elements. All the vegetation was stunted from fierce winter winds. The book Caleb’s Crossing was set in this area. The bus went into a Wampanoag ( the local tribe) settlement. When I got back onto the bus there was a lady talking to the driver about some locals. I had a half eaten lobster roll in my hand and commented on how good it was. She said the wife of the guy who served me was ‘tribal’ – her word. Turns out she was Wampanoag too. I asked lots of questions, she answered them. She said she had travelled a lot and she was clearly very aware of how our indigenous people have been treated. She has recently returned ‘home’ to live permanently and teaches kids in school the language, cooking etc.

I wanted to go to Menemsha – a small settlement North of Aquinnah but on a different bus route. I had about a 3 km very pleasant walk. It is a working fishing port, but not very many workers were working when I was there. The beach scenes of Jaws were filmed there. I had an icecream and apple juice sitting on a bench watching the seagulls ( about all that was moving) go past. I got home on 3 different buses – helped along the way by the bus drivers.