Barbados

Earlier this month I spent a week in Barbados, followed by a week in St. Lucia.  It was great to get away at this time of year, when the UK is often drab and damp with fewer daylight hours.

We had hired a car in order to explore the island and one of the first things we did was to visit a cave.  The sea water comes into it and it’s possible to swim in a rock pool which was a new experience.

It was obviously pretty dark inside so taking photos was a bit of a challenge.  The image below was taken with my back to the opening and I liked the contrast of the differences in colour between where the water reaches and where it’s usually dry.

The cave is at the northern end of the island and as it meets the Atlantic, the sea there is much rougher than the western Caribbean side.

In complete contrast to the above, the photos below were taken on the Caribbean side which has much calmer lighter coloured turquoise water and I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to take them!  We were having lunch, and a group of women walked in and sat nearby. They were celebrating a birthday for one of them. Anyway, one of them was stunning and wearing an absolutely striking dress and I really wanted to photograph her, so after dithering for about 10 minutes (and with lots of encouragement from Doug) I went over to their table and asked if she would be happy for me to take her photo. Apparently all the other women were leaning in to hear what I was saying and thought it was fantastic that I’d asked, so we stepped onto the dock and I snapped about 6 images.  I later discovered that she’s a fashion designer and gave me permission to share the images.

Whilst there we had a few days when it rained. Most days it was just intermittent, but on one of them it hammered down for hours, and driving was a challenge as the country roads I was driving on became flooded.  I managed not to wreck the car though!

Below are the same trees as above but the sun had come out again.

The same rainy day we visited Gun Hill signal station in the middle of the island and spent about an hour in just a couple of rooms as it was pouring down and we would have got soaked walking back to the car. I liked the scene from this window but only took a couple of photos the entire time.

The Caribbean islands are full of colourful homes but also some very dilapidated ones that are little more than shacks.

As you would imagine on an island, there are lots of fishing boats.  Some in better condition than others!

The one below has been turned into a beach bar which serves a small selection of food and is a very popular spot. We enjoyed fresh fish sandwiches and I had to try their rum punch which I took with me after drinking a small amount as I was driving and it was potent. (I’m also a real lightweight when it comes to alcohol !)

I don’t know whether you can see my expressions on the photos below but I could tell that there was a big wave coming in, and whilst I wasn’t going to be bothered about myself (as it was so hot,) I absolutely did not want my camera to get wet. I turned away, braced myself for impact and am protecting and covering the camera in the 2nd & 3rd photos 🙂

Calmer seas again on the other side of the island.  I can’t get enough of turquoise water.

Finally, a gorgeous sunset swim.