Beautiful Barbados

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.

Saturday, August 23 (the day we arrived) was supposed to be a race day but it was rained out.  So, we got lucky this year when the race was postponed to August 30, instead.  We've always known that they had horse racing at the Garrison Savannah but it never had happened while we were here.  So, we decided to go.

I found out very late Friday night that one of my sites had been hacked. I had contacted Tech Support for my hosting company and got nowhere, being the Friday night/Saturday morning of a 3-day weekend.  So, Tom called them before we went.  At $2.00 a minute, I didn't want to stay on the line while they restored a database so I trusted them to do this and we left for the races.

We got to the Garrison Savannah in plenty of time and parked about 1/3 of the way around the oval, trying for a place in the "shade".  HA.

The Garrison area, just south of Bridgetown, is also home to the Barbados Museum & Historical Society as well as the newly opened George Washington House and Museum.  We have been to the Barbados Museum a few times but not (yet) this year.  It's set on the grounds of a 19th century military prison and has several galleries such as:

• Amerindian Culture
• Barbadian social and military history
• Antique maps, prints and paintings
• New African Gallery
• Interactive children's gallery
• Natural history
• A research library of Barbadian and Caribbean history
• and, of course, a gift store

The George Washington House and Museum is just opened this year so we haven't been there yet.  Neither that nor the Barbados Museum was open on race day.  We did walk past both on the way to  the grandstand for the race. 

I was amazed that we could get in so cheaply - it was only $10BDS each ($1BDS equals $1.98US) and $5BDS for the program.  $12.50 US for both of us.

I have never been to any kind of race so this was all new to me.  We were very close to the track and we sat by the finish line.  There was a grass track and an inner sand track.  We had been told that the sand track was used sometimes but it wasn't while we were there.

We were kind of confused at first because they were describing a race but no one was running.  It turned out that they were broadcasting another race from Sarasota in between the individual races here.

There were 10 races in all and we stayed for 4.  In the second, I picked a horse that I liked while it was walking around the track before the race.  When I found out it had a musical name - Bold Ballard - I was hooked.  Too bad I didn't bet.  Bold Ballard, number 8, won.

 

 

The 4th race was all horses from the US and UK.  I chose one from Ocala, FL because I thought that one could best deal with the heat.  Guess which won?  The jockey was 19 year old Chris Husbands.  He'd just won something like 4 out of 5 races in Trinidad in July.  And he did very well on Saturday.

After the 4th race we decided to leave and walk the other 2/3 of the way around the track (well, going that way was Tom's idea).  He kept looking back, thinking we could catch one more race.  I was hot and wanted to get something to eat.

While we were walking, they move the start gate halfway around the track.  When we got there, the horses were right in front of us.  Tom got a great picture of Chris Husbands.  He said he was having a "good day".  Guess so - he won that race, too!

Finally, back to our car and off to Bubba's for lunch.  Not my favorite but it's a sports bar with big screen TVs and American-style burgers and fries. The food is good but it's just a little too much USA and not enough Barbados.

Then back home for a dip in the pool, a bit of reading and a nap.

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Sunday mornings Tom always has a meeting here and today was no different.  Actually, Sundays are pretty slow here since the stores, museums and activities are mostly closed. 

The Crane has a nice Gospel Brunch followed by a lunch buffet with steel pan drums.  We used to go the the Brunch but the format has changed.  It used to be a drop in thing up until about 11:30-12:00.  Now it's 2 seatings.  One at 9, one at 10 and we can't make either of those.  We have never been to the lunch buffet.

Someone at the meeting asked Tom to go to another one at night.  It was up in St John parish and we've always gotten lost there.  Luckily, the guy agreed to meet Tom and lead him to the meeting - and back again, since it would be dark.

In the meantime, we talked to MIchael and wished him luck with his upcoming move on Monday and new job starting Tuesday.

The website is not fixed.  In fact, 2 others are now not working.  They had been fine, not hacked, before the database restore.  So, there are 3 with 500 Internal Server Errors.  I guess it's better than having that hacker stuff but I hope these can be restored.  So much work was put into them and I hate to have to redo everything.

Then, Tom went to his meeting...and ran into someone from his childhood hometown.  Small world!  He always seems to run into people he knows, no matter where he is. 

He brought back Chefette roti for dinner.  Yum!