Caribbean Island - Saba

By David Ellis

The Dutch have a well-earned reputation for creating engineering marvels, but they met their match in the 1940s when asked to build a road around and over the tiny island of Saba in their Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean.

Their engineers studied the proposal long and hard and decided that with mountains rising and falling out of deep valleys at angles of 35 per cent or more, “Nee – this is impossible,” and went home.

The local Sabans, however, decided they in turn would not take “Nee” for “No” and that if the Dutch wouldn’t do it, they would build the road themselves.

They were led by a remarkable 40-year old carpenter, Joseph Hassel who knew nothing of road making, and so enrolled in a five year course in the subject… by correspondence.

And he and Saba’s just-1000 other residents planned out  their road to villages, isolated farms and scattered communities on their tiny eight square kilometres, decreeing that every able-bodied man, woman and child would contribute set hours of voluntary road-work each week

With little more than picks, shovels, rakes, buckets and spades they took 25- years to build their concrete masterpiece that some of Holland’s top engineers said “was impossible.”

The tortuous artery rises and falls at heart-stopping angles, and U-turns zippered to the craggy mountains almost double back over themselves: from the sea or air it cuts a similar line to China’s Great Wall, and thus is dubbed The Great Road of Saba.

Forty-odd years after it was opened, the road – that’s never been given an official name beyond The Road – links the little port of Fort Bay with its diesel power station, souvenir shop and a couple of dive shops, with The Bottom (the village at the base of the largest mountain,) the picturesque Windwardside, dramatic Hell’s Gate and the airport.

Just 1600 people live here today in delightful gingerbread houses of white-washed walls, red tiled roofs and green shuttered windows – enforced by law for conformity.

And old-timers will recall how, before The Road was built, they used a series of ladders with over 900 steps to get from the wharf and The Bottom to the mountain tracks and trails that led to their farms, homes, shops and businesses.

Everything from groceries to furniture and farm goods was hauled-in (and out) via these ladders and tracks, including with the help of dozens of locals, an enthusiastic local musician’s full-size grand piano.

Saba gets around 25,000 visitors a year who either come by ferry, a few small cruise-ships, or by air… with the airstrip another marvel of local ingenuity: once again when told it would be impossible to build an airport on the island, the Sabans simply said “No” to “Nee,” and carved the top off one of their many hills, pushed it into the sea and laid a runway across it.

You’ve got to have a stout stomach to fly-in, and no fear of heights to take one of the few taxi-vans around the island: The Road clings precariously to mountains that fall hundreds of metres directly into lush valleys below, and there are no such things as safety railings.

The Sabans don’t encourage large cruise ships for fear of damaging their environment and being “over-run” by gawkers. And besides, they happily point out, they’ve few beaches, no duty-free shops, no discount electronics or photographic shops anyway, and virtually no transport beyond the few taxi-vans.

But they do have spectacular diving, extraordinary scenery, wonderful little stores selling hand-made souvenirs and exceptional lace goods, a couple of interesting museums including one in a 160-year old house, little cafés with delightful island/Dutch cuisine including superb local lobsters, and “Dutch Tea” (Heineken Beer)… and there’s the opportunity to climb 1064 steps to take-in the spectacular vista from the highest peak.    

There are also a few small hotels and guest houses – and if they’re all booked out, Saba Police Station’s two cells have never housed a prisoner, so the entrepreneurial local police officers have turned these into an emergency peak-season Bed and Breakfast.

See travel agents about Caribbean Island ferry services to Saba and small holiday vessels like the 100-passenger SeaDream I and SeaDream II (www.seadream.com) that visit the island as part of Caribbean itineraries from November to March.