Sights of Barbados 2021

Mile upon mile of brilliant white sand bordering sea at 28 degrees is a draw for Anne and I every winter alongside our dear friends Bishop Wilfred and Ina Wood. The selfie is taken at Carlisle Bay which is the longest stretch of beach, crescent shaped leading up to Bridgetown harbour. Snorkelling is a bonus, floating over shoals of fish who like the Bajans themselves seem to enjoy our company.

This bus stop outside Oistins in Barbados has a monkey-friendly theme. The green monkeys that visited our garden came from Senegal and the Gambia in West Africa 350 years ago. The 300,000 people on the island keep company with 14,000 monkeys which brighten and amuse life though they need care not exploitation. 

On 21 November 2021 Feast of Christ the King Anne and I were privileged to attend St David, Barbados when the Bishop, Fr Michael Maxwell confirmed 11 candidates prepared by our friend Canon Noel Burke. With days to go before Barbados became a Republic the Bishop mentioned he was happy to lose subjection to Queen Elizabeth but Christians remain subject to Christ as King. At the end of Mass Noel invited me to promote my new book ‘Elucidations - Light on Christian Controversies’ as I gave him a complimentary copy.

Visiting Bridgetown, Barbados as the island prepared for the 30 November transition to becoming a Republic. Anne is in front of the decorated Parliament and I am before the decorated plinth recently emptied of a copy of the statue of Lord Nelson that stands in Trafalgar Square, London. 

  

Where would we be without the invention of cogs? Until 1953 ships in need of repair were lifted in Bridgetown’s Screwdock powered initially by a twin cylinder 100 horse power steam engine powered from a coal burning locomotive type boiler and later on by electricity. Untidy, cumbersome, yes - but it worked for sixty years!

Up the hill from where we stayed in Barbados in Christ Church graveyard is the famous Chase vault. On three occasions when the vault had been opened for the burial of a family member it was found coffins had been moved from their places. On the next occasion of a family interment in 1819 the Governor General of Barbados, Lord Combermere attended the funeral, and on the vault being opened for the fourth time, the coffins were found to be disturbed. The vault was carefully closed with cement and the seal of the Governor affixed in several places. Various theories were put forth but the curiosity, instead of abating, grew.  After being sealed for nine months permission was given by the Governor to have the vault again opened in the presence of many thousands on April 18th 1820. The masons had difficulty getting the doorway slab lifted. An immense leaden coffin was resting against it on the inside. It required seven men to lift it, and yet it had been moved against the door. The other five or six coffins were scattered about. Truth is stranger than fiction

Being so familiar with Brighton in Sussex, Anne and I could not resist a visit to Brighton in Barbados. The plantation is no longer in use for sugar but it hosts a Saturday Farmer’s Market popular with residents of Bridgetown 7 miles to the south east. Anne is standing under the chimney, essential in former days for effluent from the furnace used to process sugar cane into sugar.

Waste disposal on Barbados works at different levels as the photos indicate. The ‘You dump it… we pump it’ lorry with a graphic toilet scene on the door serves households away from public drains. I liked the painted Barbados oil drum outside a house near to us which makes a feature of the most popular type of dustbin on the island.

Swimming with turtles is an occasional bonus at Miami Beach, our usual resort for daily sea baths on our stay with our friends Bishop Wilfred and Ina Wood in Oistins, Barbados. You best catch sight of the local turtles by peering down into the water from the local harbour. As a local bus stop reminds us humans may love turtles but its human debris more than anything that puts them at risk.

On my pre-dawn walk through Oistins, Barbados this cock and hen were a regular sight, early birds catching their worms or whatever! In the tropics life is more ‘together’ so that both poultry and humans exploit the hour of daylight before the sun emerges to scorch the land. I caught the intimate dance of these birds around one another on camera.

The hour walk along the beach to daily Mass at St Dominic, Barbados was part of last month’s routine for me, capturing pre-dawn cool and animals out and about doing the same. Each morning as I walked up the Church path a family of monkeys followed my arrival inquisitively before speeding up to their treetop hideaway. The 30 min eucharist included a powerful reflection on the Gospel of the day by one of the Pallottine priests who serve the parish. This wisdom, and that of our hosts Bishop Wilfred and Ina Wood made the holiday a special retreat. Like all retreats it helped prepare the best forward advance for Anne and I so privileged to be regular visitors to Barbados.

Feeding time at Barbados Wildlife Reserve brought scores of monkeys down from the trees. The five in the picture were gathering up the scraps. The deer were more reserved - this one gladly posing for Anne to sketch! It's an extraordinary experience coming close to so many wild animals, many of whom come in and out of the Reserve as they wish. With COVID infections still high we elected to hire a car this year rather than travel on buses or minibuses which has always been our custom. An advantage of this was gaining easy access to places like the Wildlife Reserve.

We followed the King Fish from their being caught and brought to land at Oistins Harbour and then onto our plates as we enjoyed the weekly Friday fish meals in a restaurant by the Harbour. Delicious, virtually boneless meal even if the beast looks fierce as a barracuda!

My gym in Barbados and its proprietor, devout Christian Denton ‘Daddy’ Mayers. Firehouse Gym is over 20 years old and came out of Denton’s vision to help struggling young people get into a discipline of exercise. Some of the apparatus are quite ingenious creations. There are great sea views from Firehouse to compensate for the self-torment necessary within its walls! Besides walking 50 min to Mass along the beach before dawn each morning, Firehouse was my only exercise as we hit Barbados at a very hot season unsuited for midday walking.

‘For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth 

over and around us lies. Lord of all to you we raise this our sacrifice of praise’

Dawn and Dusk in Barbados, November 2021

As usual on our annual visit to Barbados we called in at Codrington College to see the Principal, join in the Angelus and Midday Office and to share lunch with the ordinands. This year there were none from Guyana but some from the Bahamas were like Anne and I devotees of the late Bishop Cornell Moss. We exchanged amusing stories about Fr Cornell who did so much to renew the Diocese of Guyana and always got you smiling.

The selfie is taken at Paradise Beach on the east coast and the restaurant picture has Bathsheba Beach in the background. White sand, green palms, blue sea and sky - all a gift that took us out of ourselves in our fortnight in Barbados to wonder at the splendour of creation. What must he be like Who made Barbados? 

in 1985 20 years after Barbados became independent ‘Bussa’ took his place on the highway symbolising the "breaking of the chains" of slavery at Emancipation. In 1998 Anne, James and I heard Fidel Castro speak here when we had our exchange with Canon Noel Burke. On this visit Anne and I were the first visitors admitted to Golden Square Freedom Park opened 830am on 27 November prior to the country’s becoming a Republic 30 November 2021.