Governor's Harbour - Who Let the Dogs Out?

Our agenda today was to hike over the hill to the eastern side of the island and hang out on the ocean beach in front of what used to be Club Med (now abandoned due to what appears to be severe hurricane damage). Along the way, we made friends with several locals -- of the four-legged variety. It started when we landed our dinghy in the harbor. Out of nowhere this brown dog came up to us, tail wagging, wanting to play. She had a collar, but her owner was nowhere to be found. She actually jumped in the water and for a minute it looked like she was going to jump in the dinghy. We left the dinghy beached and started walking along the road, and she just trotted alongside as though she belonged to us. Kevin finally said "Stay" in a commanding tone and she looked pathetically sad as she scampered off. The island is only a mile wide here so it wasn't a long trek to get to the eastern shore. As we were coming down the hill past a large house, these two big dogs came barreling out of the front gate. At first I thought they were going to chase us away from the property, but no; they too wanted to come along with us on our trip to the beach. It's as if they took one look at our beach bag and knew exactly where we were headed. No amount of cajoling or stern "Stay!" commands would get them to go back to their house, and once again the owners were not around so what could we do but let them tag along? As it turns out, we were pretty thankful they were with us when we arrived at a fork in the road. We weren't sure which way to go, but the dogs apparently had been to the beach many times before and confidently turned down the left fork, glancing back every once in a while to make sure we were following them.

The beach was gorgeous, with just a hint of pink in the wide expanse of soft sand. We had the place completely to ourselves. We could see why they'd put a Club Med here, the beach was definitely resort-caliber: nice and wide, lined with palm trees, with a big grassy area near the abandoned lifeguard tower. Numerous coral heads dotted the turquoise water, so Kevin got ready to snorkel. Our two companions could barely contain their excitement and went thundering into the surf at top speed jumping over the rollers and getting completely soaked. Then when they got tired of frolicking in the waves, they got out for a good roll in the sand and started digging a hole. I had to shake my head because when we first met them they were so clean and well-groomed. Both wore collars and obviously their owner took good care of them (aside from leaving the front gate open). So I was a little dismayed when the smaller one came up to me, sneezing, with his face encrusted with sand. I had just finished brushing all the sand off his snout when sure enough if he didn't just run off into the water and get all wet again. Eventually the two of them must have tired of our company because they disappeared down the beach and didn't come back. Considering that they practically led the way there, we assumed they must know the way home and would return when they felt like it. We figure this wasn't the first time they'd invited themselves on a beach trip with total strangers and it probably won't be the last.