Holetown
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Holetown, a small town in Barbados is the spot where the British first landed in 1625, previously they had made a temporary stop in 1620 to get fresh water.
A Captain Henry Powell sailing the ship Olive Blossom came back to Barbados in February 17, 1627 with fifty British settlers and ten slaves to form a new settlement.
The settlement called Jamestown was up until 1629 the only town on Barbados.
The town got the name Holetown from a very small body of water called "The Hole" which provided safe landing and ship cleaning to take place.
The settlers arrival has been celebrated since the 1970's with a week long festival beginning in the middle of February with the opening celebrations taking place at the Holetown Monument.
This monument dedicated to Captain Henry Powells landing, for some reason has his date of landing as 1605 which is incorrect but has not to this day been corrected.
This historic town is located on the West Coast of Barbados in the Parish of Saint James.
Today it's one of the most popular Parishes for visitors to the island, Sunset Crest a unique resort complex that is spread over 130 acres is part of modern day Holetown.
For entertainment there's Lexy Piano Bar & cabaret on second street.
There are many different types of restaurants, three of my favourites are, Just Grillin in Sunset Crest, an open air grill and bar, Angry Annie's which is well known for its curries and Ragamuffins Bar and restaurant that serves Bajan food and also has a drag show on Sunday nights.
If you're looking for an interesting day out visit the Folkestone Marine Park.
Caribbean: Rum, reggae and sun in Barbados
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Ryan Parry checks in and chills out on one of the Caribbean’s most laid-back islands
Dazzling white beach, crystal clear water and a rum punch within reach – heaven on earth.
Most Caribbean islands evoke the usual cliches about “paradise”. But in Barbados the cliche becomes reality.
With its endless palm-lined beaches, luxury resorts and laid-back locals, it’s the dream destination for millions of Brits.
It’s also a firm favourite with celebrities such as Simon Cowell, Wayne Rooney and Sir Cliff Richard who has a house there.
It’s my fifth time on the island and I’m desperate to get back.
We stayed at the Almond Casuarina Beach resort on Dover Beach on the south coast.
This 10-acre all-inclusive gem in its elegant but natural setting is as relaxing as it gets.
There are three pools to lounge by and a stunning section of beach feet away.
The only brief interruption to my tanning came when a handful of pesky kids ignored the “No Under 16s” notice by the pool and plunged in. Ah well.
Just four miles from the capital Bridgetown, and five miles from the airport, the resort is a four-star, 267-room hotel offering snorkelling, windsurfing, sailing, kayaking, a gym and tennis.
It also has three fantastic gourmet restaurants serving an a la carte menu.
One day we popped over to the adults-only Almond Beach Club – literally a stone’s throw from the celeb haunt of Sandy Lane.
It’s also just spitting distance from St Lawrence Gap, a mile-long street teeming with clubs pumping out calypso, reggae, jazz and R&B.
Here you’ll find McBrides Pub which offers the perfect way to cool off after a hard day baking in the sun. With happy hour from 11pm to 1am every night and live reggae music, it’s a great way to unwind.
A short walk away you’ll find The Ship Inn, another favourite with Brits. Both are rammed at weekends so go midweek.
And after a few drinks you can’t miss Barnacle Bill’s BBQ which starts at 10.30pm for late-night munchies.
Food is a real treat in Barbados. With plenty of local fresh fish, shellfish and tropical fruit, it’s also good value for money.
But if you fancy a special treat, try the open-air Cliff restaurant in St James. It’s situated on top of a high coral cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea and has the food and service to match the scenery.
At night the tiny beach below is illuminated to add to the romance of the setting. But you’ll have to book early during peak season.
There’s more to Barbados than beaches and booze though.
This former British colony is obsessed with horse racing, polo and of course cricket. Then there are the plantation houses, botanical gardens and military forts.
The capital, Bridgetown, is one of the oldest cities in the Caribbean and offers decent restaurants and nightlife.
You can even combine culture with booze.
We stopped by the 250-year-old Four Square Rum Factory which sits amid fields of sugar cane.
Our guided tour was followed by a tasting session – although the owner’s son was less than impressed when we necked six test tubes of his finest rum and then stumbled around making inappropriate jokes.
Luckily, for shaking off a hangover, a visit to Silver Rock on the east coast is ideal. Here you will meet windsurfing legend Brian “Action Man” Talma.
He will teach you to surf, windsurf, kite-surf and just about anything else in the water. Always smiling, he bounces around his beach using the word “action” more times than strictly necessary, but he cooks a mean BBQ on the porch of his De Action Shop.
The east coast beaches have the biggest waves and are popular with surfies. But they also have dangerous currents, so swim at your peril.
Barbados is also known for its snorkelling and dive sites. I went out to Carlisle Bay with the guys from Dive Barbados Blue. There are four shipwrecks here teeming with aquatic life and near by sea turtles hang out looking for food.
Because the east coast is less built up, it’s easy to find a secluded beach.
A day out I’d definitely recommend here is Sunday Gospel Brunch at The Crane. You help yourself from a fantastic buffet while being serenaded by gospel singers.
After that you can stroll down to the stunning beach – voted one of the top five in the world.
On Friday or Saturday nights you have to get over to Oistins, a tiny fishing village in the parish of Christ Church. Hundreds of locals and visitors flock here for Fish-Fry. A ramshackle gathering of sidewalk stalls combine to make up dozens of tiny restaurants . Local arts and craftsmen display their wares while a reggae band keeps the party going into the night.
Our evening was interrupted when a power-cut swept across the island leaving Oistins in darkness except for the glow of the barbecues. Time to hit the generator-powered hotel bar. Mine’s a pina colada – with a sparkler please.
My top five..
1 Oistins fishing village – Fish-Fry Friday and Saturday night when every kind of fish is BBQd, fried or grilled.
2 The Crane hotel beach – breathtaking must-visit spot on the east coast.
3 The Ship Inn – guaranteed good night out in the St Lawrence Gap, pick a night with live reggae music.
4 Four Square Rum Factory – interesting distillery tour with rum tasting session at the end.
5 The Cliff – expensive special treat but worth every penny.
GETTING THERE
Seven nights at the four-star premium Almond Casuarina Beach starts from £1,059pp all-inclusive. Price includes return flights with Virgin Atlantic from Gatwick direct to Barbados and return transfers. Price also includes taxes and fuel surcharges which are subject to change. Prices are based on two adults sharing a standard room.
To book visit www.virginholidays.com/almond or call 0844 5573 859.
For more information about the hotel visit www.almondresorts.co.uk or call 0871 871 2828.
For more information on Barbados visit the Tourism Authority at www.visitbarbados.org.
Virgin Atlantic flies from London Gatwick to Barbados daily. Fares start from £449 inclusive of taxes and can be booked at www.virginatlantic.com or by calling 08705 747 747. Premium economy fares start from £759.
For kiting, windsurfing, surfing, fishing or just learning how to blow the conch shell visit De Action Beach Shop at Silver Sands. www.briantalma.com.
For diving visit www.divebarbadosblue.com or call (246) 434 5764
Websites for walking tours: www.hfholidays.co.uk/guidedwalking/barbados (020 8732 1220), www.ramblersholidays.co.uk
(01707 331133) or www.peachandquiet.com
Seven nights at the four-star premium Almond Casuarina Beach starts from £1,059pp all-inclusive. Price includes return flights with Virgin Atlantic from Gatwick direct to Barbados and return transfers. Price also includes taxes and fuel surcharges which are subject to change. Prices are based on two adults sharing a standard room.
Monday, week two: Island Safari
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Whether it was the pounding rain or the nagging reminder that I hadn't yet written the post about the races, I woke up very early this morning. I guess the rain was a part of one of the hurricanes that are out at sea somewhere - Hanna or Ike. Gustav had already been past Cuba and headed towards New Orleans. Maybe it was just rain.
Anyway, I woke up early and wrote my last blog entry. When I went online to upload it, I found that my hacked site and my 2 sites with the error messages were back up thanks to the hosting company. WooHoo! That takes a lot off my mind.
Today is Island Safari day. Island Safari is one of two 4x4 jeep Land Rover companies that takes people on off-road tours of the island. The other company is Adventureland. As we later found out, Island Safari bought out Adventureland recently, anyway!
My (Our?) favorite is the Island Safari because I like the places it goes better. The IS goes to more coastal places while Adventureland seems to go for inland places. In the past on Adventureland we have gone to Chalky Mount into a potter's studio (stuff was for sale, of course), Welchman Gully (rain forest), St. John's Parish Church (a nice, old, parish church on a cliff but too many souvenir hawkers in the parking lot), Mt. Hillaby (the highest point on the island), Hackleton's Cliff (Hackleton wanted to commit suicide so he and his horse went off this cliff. It is not known if the horse had wanted to commit suicide), and Bathsheba for lunch.
Ian, our driver, picked us up at 7:50AM. Although the "official" trip hadn't started yet, he gave us a running commentary of everything we were seeing on the say to pick up people from two other locations. 5 of the other people were other "O'Connors" from Wales. So, the O'Connors had the non-O'Connors outnumbered 7 to 4.
Ian told us all about chattal houses, various types of plants and much more as we headed to our convoy meeting place, the lion at Gun Hill Signal Station. This signal station was restored by the Barbados National Trust and has military memorabilia and great views. The lion was carved out of a single piece of rock in 1868 by a British Army Officer serving on Barbados. The lion has a large globe under it's paw, signifying England's world domination.
The others in the convoy were there already and had seen the lion and were just waiting for us. We had to exchange vehicles (Scooby-Doo for Garfield) because the Scooby was too low on gas. After getting our new vehicle, we took off to join the others.
Through the sugar cane fields, past crops of yams and eddoes, past the still-working Andrews Sugar Factory, through mud and ruts, the Land Rover took us all over. Sugar used to be a very important crop here and it was used in another important crop - rum. Now the main industry here is tourism but you can still see lots of sugar growing around the island. It's a rotational crop and they rotate that with the eddoes, yams, pumpkins, cassavas, peanuts and other ground crops.
We went past an interesting cliff that has been painted on over the years. Part of the outcroppings suggest a lion, so a lion was painted there and other areas features highlights of Barbados. Here's a painting of our jeep and it's headed towards Bathsheba according to the caption.
This section of a bridge is over a gully - a collapsed portion of an old cave. When this would happen, rainwater would leak in or be funneled in from the streets and birds would drop seeds in making a new forest or rain forest.
This bridge is particularly interesting. When they made it a couple centuries ago they ran out of building materials so they used what they had on hand - molasses, eggs and eggshells. And it still holds up to this day amazingly well.
Our next stop was on a high cliff overlooking Bath. It's hard to tell from this picture how high the cliff was but we had several warnings not to get to close to the edge - No Way!
I suspect that this cliff is part of the cliff that Hackleton and his horse leaped off.
Here are all the Land Rovers lined up ready for our next adventure. They all have the names of cartoon characters and the jungle stripes are different colors.
The sides are plastic and roll down in case of rain, as we'll have a chance to discover a little later. This reminds me of "The Surry With The Fringe On Top" from the musical, Oklahoma:
"...and isinglass windows that'll roll right down, in case there's a change in the weather..."
Looking over the banana trees into Bathsheba. This was taken from a solid - I hope! - bridge. To the right is one of many types of palms found on Barbados.
There are also several types of bananas, including plantains. The smaller, green ones are called "fig" bananas and they're cooked green and mashed up and used for their large iron content with pregnant women or people with anemia.
Banana plants are often used here to help prevent soil erosion. Also used to help prevent erosion are gabions. These are rectangular wire baskets filled with small rocks and strategically placed so that water can flow through easily but the soil is held behind. These gabions can often be seen near bridges.
Bathsheba and one of its curiously eroded rocks in the ocean. These are being eroded away from underneath as the tides come and go.
Bathsheba is a beautiful little seaside town. Although it is too rough here to swim here on the Atlantic side, surfers practice and hold competitions here. This surf area is also known as the "Soup Bowl".
Also here is Andromeda Gardens. Although on this trip we didn't stop here, we've been there before. The Gardens were founded over 50 years ago by horticulturist Iris (great name for a horticulturist!) Bannochie. There are 650 plant species there from all over. It's an absolutely beautiful, peaceful 6.5 acres of plant heaven. There are naturally-growing orchids, palms, flowering trees, lily ponds...and animals such as green monkeys, birds, lizards and fish. It's a fantastic way to spend an afternoon.
Bathsheba is also a place to pick up lovely beaded jewelry and island crafts. Here Tom is looking for a new band to replace the last one he got here.
The last time I got one was the year that Sue was with us. We all three had them and when mine finally broke Tom fixed it a few times. The last time mine broke and became unfixable I decided not to get any more, at least not for awhile. For me, the bracelet was a reminder of Sue (like Cocomos, in an earlier post) and when that broke, it was like a little part of Sue's memory leaving me.
And here come the rain! We didn't roll down the curtains, at least for a while. The rain felt good and cool on my face while riding along.
When we finally put the plastic curtains down they didn't help all that much - rain dripped off the corner of mine and into my molded plastic seat making my human seat soaking wet.
We stopped taking pictures because we didn't want to get the camera wet but we probably have some from a previous year that I can insert into here when we get home.
From Bathsheba we headed north on the Ermy Bourne Highway past Cattlewash (where they used to, well, wash cattle) Most cattle on the island is for dairy only. Most people here eat chicken or fish.
After that, past Barclay Park, a popular area for locals to take a picnic or relax for an afternoon. There used to be a railroad coming up to this point but it stopped service in the 1930's.
Further along was the side of the cliff that they call the Sleeping Giant. When looked at it from the right angle, I could see how it got its name.
At some point, we went through Joe's River Forest. This Tropical Rain Forest consists of 85 acres of woodlands situated in the parish of St. Joseph. With the imposing Hackleton's Cliff on one side and the picturesque Atlantic Ocean on the other, this site is a nature-lover's paradise!
Here we saw fiscus, white woods, cabbage palms, mahogany trees (used for high-end furniture and boats, and the bearded fig trees for which Barbados was named by the Portuguese. We also saw massive termite nests on some of the trees.
We went past the Morgan Lewis Mill, the last complete windmill on the island. Originally there were 530 windmills, used in sugar production but the others have all fallen into disrepair due to changes in the sugar refining process. The Morgan Lewis is kept in good running order now as a historical landmark and it's operated on certain occasions and for school tours.
Then up to Pico Teneriffe. From this point, the next point of land is Teneriffe in the Canary Islands. This is a very interesting part of a cliffy-beach with waves coming up through breaks in the rock as huge water spouts.
The rain let us and we could roll the curtains back up, thank goodness! Without the breeze, it was getting kind of muggy. But the good stuff was finished. We headed across the island to Six Men's Bay, down past the ritzy condos of Port St. Charles, through Speightstown, past Mullen's Bay, and into Holetown for lunch.
We had a nice lunch, similar to the one I described last week in the Cool Runnings post but with the addition of macaroni pie, in a very nice outdoor restaurant attached to the Sandridge Hotel. Unfortunately, this hotel is doomed to be torn down soon, to become the parking lot for the hotel going up next door.
After lunch it started raining a bit again and we were going fast on the ABC highway and the rain hurt. It almost felt like hail but I knew that couldn't be.
Finally, back to the Crane and some dry clothes! What a great day, even with the rain. I like seeing the various sights and hearing the local guides describe his/her island but what I like most is the ride, the jouncing up and down through the fields, over cliffs, into forests, though mud.
