Barbados

The concept of the off season has never been prominent in my thoughts until I arrived in Bathsheba on the East coast of Barbados exactly one week before Easter Sunday.

I had just flown for 10 hours from Vancouver to Bridgetown via Toronto. I arrived at my hotel around 3:30pm and was told that the restaurant would be closing at 7pm, so I would have to place my order by 6pm. I declined this invitation, assuming that somewhere would be open in Bathsheba.

I unpacked, showered, and went downstairs at 7:20pm. The only person from the hotel still around was the pool attendant, who mixed me my complimentary cocktail. Apart from two couples, I was the only traveller staying in the hotel. I played pool on my own and noted how the sound of one of the balls hitting the stone floor resonated around the room.

I walked into Bathsheba but the restaurant had closed around three hours earlier. Then I remembered that this was the off season and walked back to the hotel accompanied by the rhythm of the Atlantic Ocean hitting the beach.
Bathsheba is close to the exceptional Andromeda Botanical Gardens, which are up the hill from the blue-coloured community centre. The Andromeda Botanical Gardens were created in 1954 by a local horticulturalist, Iris Bannochie, who was an avid plant collector and travelled the world gathering specimens to plant in her garden high above the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

There are two trails to follow in the garden, Iris’s trail and John’s trail. Each trail has an accompanying double-sided information sheet with plenty of stops to admire the plants and flowers. The trails do merge at their ends near the Hibiscus Cafe.

There are two special places in this garden. The first is the Bougainvillea garden on John’s trail, which has a spectacular setting. The landscaped gardens seemingly stretch down to the Atlantic itself.

The second place is the lily pond, which you walk by on both trails. It is so peaceful here and you can watch the fish chasing each other under the water-lilies. A weeping willow, the only one on Barbados, hangs overhead making this a shady place for both fish and visitor.

Harrison’s Cave is a major tourist attraction in Barbados. After you have paid for your ticket, you can either walk down to the visitor’s centre or take one of the three elevators that have been strategically placed so they aren’t an eyesore. Outside the centre some hidden tape recorders play the sounds of birds and insects to give the experience a more natural feel.

The story of how the cave system was created geologically is very interesting indeed as Barbados is made of coral limestone that has been lifted out of the sea by tectonic plate activity. Most other Caribbean islands are the result of volcanic activity.

Visitors are taken through the cave system on a land train and it’s probably better to sit on the left hand side as you are taken through the caverns, pools, and small streams that are found here.

Lying on the verandah of my hotel the crash of the Atlantic Ocean waves is constant. The view both ways along the coastline shows white-topped waves smashing into the boulders and beaches. In the late afternoon there were more people surfing that sitting on the beach. The waves are gradually eroding many of the rocks that sit proudly on the shoreline and the water has created spectacular sculptures for photographers. With palm trees along the coast and an absence of large-scale development Bathsheba is an ideal relaxation stop for the busy traveller. I fell asleep on my lounger by the swimming pool; the rhythmic sound of the waves is like Mother Nature’s heartbeat and relaxes you completely.