Just as the weather was beginning to get cooler, greyer, and darker early back home, I escaped to sunshine, blue skies, and the most turquoise ocean you can imagine. My final destination was to be Florida (where I am now), but as the USA still isn’t allowing us in directly from the UK, I had to endure the hardship of being in another country for 14 days! Here’s a selection of images from my stay there.
As we were driving along we saw the top of these little beach huts behind a wall and pulled in to see if we could photograph them. They were within a resort but we asked if we could walk around and the receptionist didn’t have a problem with us doing that. We spent quite some time photographing everything colourful.
I couldn’t resist photographing this sign! There is a well underneath it 🙂
We spent 4 days on New Providence Island. However we chose accommodation that was well away from Nassau as we didn’t want to be anywhere near lots of people coming in on cruise ships. As it was, we drove through Nassau and it was surprisingly quiet. Covid is still having a big impact on tourism.
From New Providence we flew to another island – Eleuthera. We flew on the smallest aircraft I’ve ever been on – just 9 rows of 2 abreast. I’d read that check-in luggage was limited in weight, as was hand luggage as there were no overhead lockers. (In fact passengers had to duck to walk down the aisle) Hand luggage was supposed to fit underneath the seat in front so we stuck to the rules. There was absolutely no need though – people were clambering on with multiple bags and just travelling with them on their laps. There was just a curtain between us and the pilot, and he kept the engine and propellers running whilst he picked us up as he was island hopping. No flight attendant, no announcements, just get on, take off, fly for 20 minutes, land, get off, and collect bags from the tarmac. I loved the name of the airline – Pineapple Air 🙂 
A rental car was a necessity in both places as we stayed in AirBnbs rather than hotels. Our accommodation on Eleuthera was wonderfully remote and below is the ‘road’ to it. The ocean was on the left of the track and our accommodation on the right. No more than a handful of cars passed by each day.
Due to it being out of season and the world still reeling from the Covid pandemic, we had beaches to ourselves which was bliss.
Breakfast (and lunch when not out for the day) was eaten here, and we were always joined by little curly tailed lizards, one of whom tried to climb into an empty bowl 🙂
Eleuthera is 100 miles long and only 5 miles wide at its widest. Below is the ‘glass window bridge’ and was built to replace a rock arch that was destroyed by a hurricane. It separates the deep blue Atlantic Ocean from the turquoise shallower Caribbean and the strip of rock is just 30 feet wide at its narrowest point.
Below is Ocean Hole – a large inland salt water lake. 600 feet deep and connected to the Atlantic Ocean with underground tunnels, the water level rises and recedes with the tides. Fish have learned to ‘hang around’ near the ladder to get in and out (as can be seen in the photo below) and we took snorkels, masks and a couple of slices of bread, and were surrounded by them. Once again, we had the place to ourselves.
Below is surfer’s beach but we didn’t go in as the waves were a bit fierce for swimming.
There’s just a little shelter on the beach with a couple of very comfortable car seats.
Again, we were the only people there, until 70 year old George arrived with his surf board.
Below – another stop as we drove through a sleepy little village.
Below – We stayed on the outskirts of Governor’s Harbour.
Due to Covid, we often struggled to find places to eat that were open. Lunch one day was at this shack on a beach where four local friends were playing a very noisy and laughter filled game of dominoes. We were the only people eating, and the owner cooked lunch for us from scratch.
More stunning turquoise seas below.
And a tranquil more high key image.
At the southern tip of the island as far as you can drive, is Princess Cays. A brightly coloured resort with hundreds of sun loungers on the beach but totally devoid of other people.
Below are two attempts at photographing the sunset on different days. There was a bank of low clouds both times so I didn’t get the shot I wanted of it dropping into the ocean, but I liked both of these results.
Finally, another moonrise and the night skies. I was bitten to death by mosquitoes and other nasties whilst in The Bahamas and am still scratching now as I resisted using Deet for a while. The ‘natural’ stuff just didn’t do the job but it was great to stand outside and gaze upwards at the billions of stars that can be seen there.
