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Barbados – Island Life
Our trip to Barbados was really quite a revelation. We still have plenty more to tell you about the diving, but as a light interlude, with thought we would tell you about some other aspects that we really enjoyed. Whilst most of our daylight hours were spent under the water, our evenings and our day before flying were spent seeing the rest of what the island had to offer.
What surprised us the most was the food. It was simply wonderful. Barbados is a gastronomic delight. Even better, there was loads of choice for vegetarians too. From street food to fine dining, Barbados has something for every occasion. We were only on the island for five nights, but managed to sample a little flavour of everything. One of our first experiences was lunch on our first day of diving, when Barbados Blue handed us each a roti, filled with either chicken or chickpeas, full of flavour and wonderfully messy to eat. On the same evening we dined at Cocktail Kitchen, where the chef was recently crowned “Chef of the Year” in the Caribbean. On top of this, as the name implies, they make a pretty mean cocktail too, with our favourite being the Mango Chow, made with scotch bonnet chilli infused rum, mango, lime, coriander and brown sugar! Located in the popular Saint Lawrence Gap area, you can go on and listen to live music and party the night away, but we were diving, so we had a couple of cocktails and retired to bed!
Friday night is the night to head to the famous Fish Fry in Oistins. You do not have to eat fish, there is a wide range of freshly BBQ’d food on offer, but it is the atmosphere and entertainment that brings the crowds here. Amazing live music, dancers and a vibrant buzz fills the place from early in the evening to early the next morning. Sunday, why not try a traditional Bajan buffet at Atlantis Hotel, with a huge choice of food and THE best Caribbean IPA we have ever tried (Round Rock IPA by Brew House). If fine dining by the sea is more what you are looking for, to celebrate a special occasion or simply to treat yourself, then we can heartily recommend either Fish Pot or Champers. Both have lovely settings, overlooking the Caribbean Sea, and both offer a very special dining experience.
The island of Barbados has lots to offer. It is the home of West Indian cricket, and whilst we did not get time to catch a game on this trip, we have done so once in the past, and it is a great experience. If you want to spend more time in or on the water, there are loads of sports to try. Barbados Blue also offer freediving tuition and the Carlisle Bay site is perfect for both beginners and the more experienced alike. You can sail, snorkel from a pirate ship, kayak, paddle board, pose on a speed boat and more. The beaches are pristine and uncrowded. We toured Harrison’s Cave, which is a great place to spend a few hours. The tour takes you through a large excavated underground section of caverns with stalagmites and stalactites lit up as you progress with your guide through the system.
We also visited the Mount Gay visitors centre, for a tour about how they make the oldest rum in the world, and, of course, to taste a few samples too! Finally, we also got the chance to tour the island, taking in the wild Atlantic coastline, as well as the gorgeous Caribbean shores. As we toured inland, and the vegetation became more lush, we came across a few mongoose and green vervet monkeys.
We could have spent weeks exploring and tasting our way through Barbados. It has so much to offer, and we have only just scratched the surface both with the diving and above the water. But what we have experienced, we have loved. In our next feature, we will get back to the diving, but we wanted to give you a flavour of what the rest of the island of Barbados has to offer. Talking of flavour … the hot sauce on Barbados is epic…
For more information and inspiration visit:
http://www.atlantishotelbarbados.com/
http://champersrestaurant.com/
http://www.caribbeanbrewhouse.com/
http://www.littlegoodharbourbarbados.com/
https://www.visitbarbados.org/
For more from Nick and Caroline, visit www.frogfishphotography.com
BVI Wreck Week allowed us to dive several of the wrecks the BVI has to offer, as well as sampling some of the best reef sites too. Our previous blog focused on the wreck of the RMS Rhone, so in this one we will try to give you a taste of the rest of the diving on offer.
And there is a great deal of wonderful diving to tell you about. Our first day of diving did not offer the best visibility due to heavy rain earlier in the week. However, we were taken to a rugged dive site that had Caribbean and Lemon Sharks swimming all around us. If we had been able to see the usual 20m+ I am sure we would have been able to talk of dozens of sharks on the site.
The BVI has plenty of artificial reefs, created from wrecks deliberately sunk. A couple of these are artistic creations from Beyond the Reef. The Willy T is a pirate themed party boat sunk in shallow water that now has skeletons of pirates duelling on the deck and going about their dastardly ways. It is a lot of fun and once you have had your fill, you can head up onto the shallow reef. Shark-plano is a series of three planes that were damaged in a hurricane, that have been turned into shark species and sunk. Both these sites are perfect for the diver that loves a bit of Instagram appeal!
Wreck Alley has a series of three boats sunk to create a super dive site perfectly aligned for a single dive where you can explore them all. Moray eels can be seen free swimming along the decks, huge stingrays back the sandy seabed their home. Turtles cruise past as you make your way around and then up onto the reef for your safety stop.
On every dive we did we saw sharks which absolutely delighted us. The local dive shops seem to be particularly engaged in conserving the reefs, taking part in coral reef restoration, lionfish hunting, cleanups and logging their sightings. We were filled with positivity at the end of each day.
We hope that we can return to do it all again at BVI Wreck Week 2024!
Watch out for our full feature on BVI Wreck Week in the next issue of Dive Travel Adventures coming out in July.
For more information about BVI Wreck Week 2024 visit their website here.
Nick and Caroline were hosted by BVI Wreck Week
The Moorings provided their yacht for the week
Host Dive Centres:
You cannot talk about BVI Wreck Week, or diving in the British Virgin Islands, without spending some time on the jewel in their crown of wreck diving – the RMS Rhone. So this blog is going to be dedicated to a wreck dive that we were happy to dive three times on our trip and would have been happy to dive every day!
The RMS Rhone was a UK Royal Mail Ship wrecked off the coast of Salt Island on 29 October 1867 in a deadly hurricane. Now it is the most popular dive site in the region. The dive briefings for the site are filled with stories of the fate of the ship and some eye-opening tales since.
The wreck and surrounding area become the British Virgin Island’s first national marine park in 1980. Many of the underwater segments of the 1977 thriller The Deep were filmed on the Rhone, requiring actors Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte and Robert Shaw to learn how to scuba dive.
You’ll need at least two dives to fully experience the RMS Rhone. The ship split apart on sinking and the bow drifted just a little before sinking. The two halves are about 100 feet apart with the bow sitting in deeper water (around 25 meters / 80ft). So you are best to explore the bow fully on a single dive and then head to the stern on your second dive.
Whilst the history, artifacts and stories from the movies are absorbing, as soon as we got underwater to dive her, it was the incredible marine life that had us hooked. Two seahorses had made their home right at the bow of the wreck. Stingrays lay buried in the sandy sea bed. The structure is covered in colourful corals and sponges. Schools of fish occupy the overhangs and metal remains. We saw sharks on all three dives and were treated to a huge spotted eagle ray gliding over the wreck. Lobsters waved their antennae at us from every crevice. Life is everywhere you look on this dive.
The marine park status has certainly ensured that this is one of the best wrecks we have dived in the Caribbean. Whilst we did not get the chance to do this – we bet it would make an awesome night dive.
Check out our next blog to find out more about the diving and watch out for our full feature in the next edition of Dive Travel Adventures Magazine in July!
For more information about BVI Wreck Week 2024 visit their website here.
Nick and Caroline were hosted by BVI Wreck Week
The Moorings provided their yacht for the week
Host Dive Centres:
Seahorse National Park announced on Eleuthera in The Bahamas
PADI Club invites Ocean Lovers on exclusive dive trip to Bonaire this September
BVI Wreck Week – Diving (Part 3)
BVI Wreck Week – Diving the RMS Rhone (Part 2)
Top 5 Caribbean Wreck Diving Destinations
Barbados – The Shipwreck Capital of the Caribbean
Caribbean Conservation in Action: Tagging Turtles in the BVI
Caribbean Conservation in Action: Coral Conservation during Covid
Jeff chats to… Christopher Bartlett, MD of Indigo Safaris, about scuba diving in Dominica and Mexico (3 of 5)
Curaçao Dive Site of the Month – Smokeys (Watch Video)
Jeff chats to… Dr Katey Lesneski from Coral Vita, winners of the Earthshot Prize (Watch Video)
