TURTLEY TROPICAL
Clare Fitzsimons gets up close with the local wildlife on a dream trip to Barbados
With sun, sealife and a drop or 20 of rum, there’s more to Barbados than just beautiful white-sand beaches flanked by swaying palm trees…
Wonderful wildlife
Floating in the sea, staring down into the depths below, the silence was total. That is of course, apart from breath through a snorkel. Oh, and the incessant, slightly (very) panicked hammering of my heart.
This is the reality of snorkelling a Caribbean shipwreck for those of us whose swimming ability resembles a brick.
Why would you put yourself through it, you may ask. One word – turtles. They have always been one of my favourite creatures and the chance to see them in their natural habitat was simply too good to pass up.
So, life jacket donned, I dived in. Well, slowly lowered myself down the steps of the Cool Runnings catamaran.
Within seconds of bobbing over one of the two shipwrecks just a few hundred yards off the shoreline of Barbados, there it was, my first ever sea turtle. A quick flick of a flipper and serenely up the side of the wreck it went. Followed, rather less serenely, by me.
It meandered through the water until suddenly there was clearly a purpose in mind, heading to the surface. And there, just inches from my face, up it popped for a quick look before diving back into the depths and swimming off into the blue-green sea.
Bucket list ticked!
But it didn’t stop there. On the way back to the catamaran for an afternoon of sunbathing, a lovely lunch and rum punch (more on that later), another turtle swam by to say hi. If this was day one of my Bajan adventure, the rest was going to have a lot to live up to.
As it turned out snorkelling wasn’t the only way to get a glimpse of these beautiful animals. If you don’t fancy getting your feet wet there’s the Atlantis submarine. Yes, a real submarine, not one of the glass-bottomed boats I’d assumed.
The first moments submerged are admittedly
‘‘ Rum runs through every seam of the island and is taken seriously
a little nerve-wracking but as the 48-seat sub glides down to nearly 150ft, the coral reef on the seabed comes into focus and the huge schools of fish in every colour imaginable zip by – you can almost imagine they’re peering in the portholes as much as we’re gazing out at them.
A few minutes in, there it is, another turtle swimming along beside us, topping off a true undersea trip of a lifetime.
Underground, overground
This might be an island but the amazing sights don’t limit themselves to beneath the sea.
Whichever coast you stay on, Barbados has something to offer – from the white, endless sandy beaches of the calm (very expensive, and celeb-filled) west coast to the beautiful southern tip where I stayed at the luxurious Sea Breeze Beach House resort.
Right on the beach just outside the famous town of Oistins, the four-star hotel looks out over the Caribbean as far as the eye can see and the vivid scarlet of the sunrise from my balcony is burned into my memory.
Then there’s the more rugged north and east of the island. It’s there, on the wilder Atlantic side that the surfers flock in hope of catching a monster wave.
Snorkelling I managed, but surfing is definitely off the agenda. A little more my speed was the Island Safari jeep tour, exploring the interior as well as the famous coastlines.
Be warned though, this is no gentle tour, this is off-roading island-style.
Prepare to be bumped, dropped and thrown in every direction possible, usually while laughing slightly hysterically.
If that all sounds a little too energetic then a tram at
Harrison’s Cave reaches speeds of about 5mph as it takes you – and your stylish hard hat – deep into the limestone caves filled with stalactites and ’mites.
For those who want a little more excitement there’s a nature trail and zipline obstacle course.
And if you mostly just need to recover then there’s also an on-site rum shop and tasting room.
Actually, it’s quite hard to find somewhere without one...
A rum-do
Rum seems to run through every seam of the island and its people. Rum punch, rum cocktails and most of all neat rum. Forget fancy flavourings, it’s all about the taste of the spirit of the island. And it’s taken VERY seriously.
As our expert at the Harrison’s Cave rum shop says: “There’s no such thing as too much rum, just too little water.”
Something that seems to be put to the test on a daily basis and a rum tasting, sometimes even for breakfast, seems to be the order of most days.
One of the nicest settings for it was at St Nicholas Abbey, one of the oldest plantations on Barbados and once owned by Hollywood actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s ancestor Abraham in the 1700s.
Sometimes you don’t even have to move far. De Rum Shop, one of the many restaurants and bars at the Sea Breeze, do their own tasting sessions. And forget measures, this is freehand pouring all the way.
If you develop a taste for it (chances are high) the choice of rum-based drinks is mind-boggling, both in types of rum and the variety of cocktails. If you want