Barmy, balmy Bahamas
- clare961
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
During the summer half term, and before sailing the Oosterschelde to Chesapeake, Jo and Sheila and I had a wonderful week in the Bahamas. The pink sands, pirate steps, stingrays and snorkelling were spectacular and there’s a highlights video at the end of this blog😊. I hope you enjoy the pix between here and there, too.
We hopped between two islands which could not be more different.
Flying into Nassau, on New Providence, you’re swept along by the thousands of cruise visitors who crowd the rum cake factory and take bright coloured catamaran trips around the beaches.
Away from the capital, our little family-run hotel was enchanting. It was right by the beach, which accounted for my first adventure. Straight off the plane, I walked along the beach with Sheila and Jo and was so enjoying the conversation that I completely missed a big wave which threw me into the sea, fully dressed. Thankfully there are no pictures – but being knocked over in the sea became a bit of a theme for me and there’s a cute video to make you laugh, further down!
We had tuna and corn grits for breakfast and the vibrant flower colours were everywhere, even in the dramatic outfits worn by Miss Princess and Jamie, our taxi drivers (though we quickly realised it was much cheaper and just as easy to hire a car!)
Different moments in the history of the island are marked by “Jaws beach” where the movie was made – and the pirate steps, a secret way to bring in the booty without being seen….can you see Jo’s little head peeping out, half way down in the first picture?
Eleuthera, our second island, has a totally different vibe. To get to our hotel, you turn right at the big Kapok tree and stop when you reach the beach. Sheila, like Patricia, is a big tree hugger!
We found ourselves sharing the pool with a yellow-crowned night heron, which seems to eat crabs, by day!
Bahamian waters are and iridescent turquoise blue – and the Atlantic side of the island is French navy. You can see both, side by side at the Glass Window Bridge, as you go up the island ….
And when Cameron took us out for a day on his boat to explore the natural wonders of Eleuthera, we noticed that some of the bigger fishing boats have “arms” pointing up to the sky. These are called "birds" and they are brought down so that the floats at the end rest on the sea and stabilise the boat whilst the crew dive for spiny lobsters!
First of all we headed for the sandy cays where you can swing in the sun and find and feed stingrays.
The warm and shallow waters are ideal for sting rays, who love squid so much they knocked me right over to grab it from my hand. Don’t you just love the photos from Cameron and me as the ray approached me and before the inelegant tumble – but at least I kept the phone / camera out of the water!
In deeper waters we saw a nurse shark and actually picked up a better picture later, in Grand Bahamas where you can see remoras, or suckerfish using a modified dorsal fin to get free transportation, whilst helping the shark by eating parasites and left over food scraps….
Next stop was feeding the swimming pigs at Meeks Patch – they made a beeline for Jo!
Then to find and feed the turtles ....
These were the cutest little loggerhead turtles, with quite a ferocious snap, so you need to be careful of your fingers! Although I haven’t any photos, Sheila and I also swam with 4 or 5 huge Hawksbill turtles in Grand Bahamas – totally wild and un-interested in our presence, swimming alongside, they were typically 3-4 feet long and possibly 60 years old. On the boat trip with Cameron we passed by Harbour Island and returned the next day to explore the pink sands beach and to tootle about in our golf buggy!
Food here is delicious – Mahi Mahi and lobster and everywhere has conch fritters. We never found a pineapple, though the island is famous for growing them. But there was a lovely little bakery which made very English cakes: bread and butter pudding; ginger cake and banana bread….
Beaches and jetty's were all our own ...
We also got close to freshwater turtles in the Leon Levy native plant preserve – which gave us a deep dive on the medicinal value of some of the tropical plants the island is famous for.
And there were always amazing sunsets
I may not have thought about going to the Bahamas, were I not boarding the Oosterschelde there. But I would go back. The glorious, easy mood of the place is very embraceable and our trip was all over too soon….. Jo left for the exam season at school and Sheila and I set off for Virginia on the beautiful dutch tall ship, the Oosterschelde.
Oh – and here’s the little highlights video to sign off with! Enjoy!
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