Caribbean Cruise - Barbados

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Our final port of call and as there seemed to be quite a lot on the island we decided to rent a car for the day and share with another couple, Matt and Sheila from the ship. It cost US$ 125 including the petrol, insurance and licence so was a relatively cheap way of seeing the island.

Eventually managed to find our way out of Bridgetown (Matt turned out to be an excellent map reader!!) and headed past St Ann’s Fort to Oistins, where we had a stop and a wander around the fish market watching the ladies prepare the flying fish for Friday nights fry up!

Our next stop was Crane Beach for a photo stop of the two coves and cliffs. On to East Point Lighthouse that turned out to be a rusty old disused lighthouse but still got some excellent photos of the ragged coastline.

Drove past St Margarets Church and onto what we thought was Bathsheba beach but an old lady advised us it was Glenburnie and that to get to Bathsheba we had to go up the hill and turn right! The roads are quite bad in this area with lots of potholes and subsidence, so the going is quite slow, but so glad we found it as it was an absolutely stunning beach with huge boulders in the sea and massive atlantic sea waves rolling in! Lined with coconut palm trees and little stalls with shell jewellery and colourful towels blowing on washing lines to complete the paradise!! It even had a little campsite right on the beach!

Decided to cut inland to Welchman Hall Gully (went past Sugar Hill where Cliff Richard has a property!) and saw a troop of monkeys cross the road and head off into the trees. Welchman Hall Gully, a National Trust property, was $12 each to go in and as it just looked like a 45 minute walk in a botanical garden we decided to leave it for another time.............

We were going to head up to North Point, at the very north of the island next and have a look at the eight miles of caverns at Animal Flower Bay but backtracked as Chris wanted to see the blowholes at Little Bay! Attempted and aborted a short cut back as the ‘road’ rapidly turned into a dirt track and drove back on Highway 1 to the road towards Chance Hall. Stopped roughly where we thought Little bay was, but after asking a local girl, jumped back in the car again and followed her directions!

It was almost a wow! Low cliffs with a small bay surrounded by massive low flat rocks, where everytime a huge wave came in, various blow holes blew water up in a huge jet! Also found the hole in the cliff where you could walk through to a shallow pool that is sheltered from the atlantic waves by more rocks! Quite a dramatic place and worth seeing!

As time was ticking on, we cut back across to Speightstown. A lovely little place with old colonial buildings and a few nice coves and beaches! Sheila had found a recommended restaurant that was really good! Had fried flying fish and plantain sat overlooking the sea – can’t get much better than that! Drove the car to the little cove at the end of Speightstown with huge coconut palms (and a humming bird and mongoose were spotted!) and sat on the beach whilst the others had a swim – unfortunately it was a short swim as someone told us that there were spiky, spiny fish buried in the sand!

Drove on, with the intention of stopping at Mullins Beach but there was no parking and the beach looked pretty crowded, so carried on to Paynes Bay where again the road runs right past the narrow beach with no obvious parking. We could have stopped at Crystal Cove that looked a slightly better beach but decided to just head back to Bridgetown and the ship where we had a relaxing drink to celebrate a successful days sightseeing!

The next day, after avoiding the taxi drivers, we walked to the Kensington Oval Cricket Ground and then back into town past all the market stalls and shops. Had a quick peer in St Marys Church and walked along the boardwalk, over the bridge and onto Carlisle Bay.

A huge sandy long beach that’s used by a lot of the locals as well, including the local stables as there was a horse swimming in the sea as well!!



Meandered back to the ship where we just sat around in the sun until it was time to disembark at 13.45pm, ready for the flight at 17.00pm. Landed at 02.00am, put clocks forward 4hrs, got the 07.40 coach back to Bristol arriving at 11.15am. Knackered!!!

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Caribbean Cruise
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