The Old Anguilla Well That May Someday Save Your Life
It’s always a good idea to have a plan for what to do when things go wrong when you’re traveling. During Hurricane Season in the Caribbean, of course, this goes double. Purchasing travel insurance is always a smart idea. Ensuring that your destination/hotel offers some sort of hurricane guarantee is good to consider as well. What happens, though, when you just get stuck and are forced to ride out a massive storm and endure the aftermath. Well, if you ever happen to face such a situation in Anguilla, this old well is the place to go.
Roadside Well For All
It’s located, appropriately, on Well Road just back of Sandy Ground. The AXA Brewing Company is a stone’s throw away. A tidy white picket fence separates the well from private property, allowing easy access for anyone and everyone who happens by along the road.
I came to know of this old Anguilla well during a guided ATV tour of the island with Freedom Rentals Anguilla in November 2019. We had just checked out Adam G’s cool street beach art among the ruins of the Mariners Cliffside Beach Resort. That was followed by a quick visit to Elvis’ Beach Bar, one of the prime seaside watering holes in Sandy Ground.
Atypical ATV Tour
Stopping at a well didn’t seem to fit our itinerary at first, but that’s the beauty of Freedom Rentals’ tours. They strive to show you the real Anguilla.
To be sure, few things are as real here as this well. Real, as in REAL necessary after a hurricane hits.
Fresh drinking water tends to be scarce in the aftermath of major storms. That has made public access to this cherished well a godsend to the people of Anguilla over the years.
Our guide told us about the steady stream of people – residents and visitors alike – who lined up here following Hurricane Irma in 2017. Water was shared among the crowd, of course, but so too were other resources. The well became a gathering place, providing sustenance in the form of water, but also connecting the broader island community in a way that made it easier for neighbors to help each other.
It’s not the kind of thing you’d expect to learn on a typical island tour, but exactly the type of information you might need…
If you go…
To visit the Anguilla well as I did, check out the great folks at Freedom Rentals Anguilla on Facebook.
If you want to visit the well on your own, it’s located just behind Road Salt Pond in Sandy Ground. Use AXA Brewing Company as a landmark to guide you, then duck in for a beer after enjoying the crisp, clean water.
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