time stops for no man...

view from our beach chairs

we can hardly believe as we sit here staring out of our window here in rural Buckingham with rain falling from a slate grey sky that this time last week we were walking along the white sand beaches with the clear and warm blue ocean tempting us to cool off from the Caribbean sun.

the British certainly have an obsession with the weather and most of our friends and family have commented on the colour of us both, especially Maz, but it's true to say that weather certainly does have the ability to influence both ones mood and also the activities that can be undertaken, we feel so blessed to have been able to spend our last week in Barbados being able to walk from our beach front apartment into the glorious sunshine which greeted us every morning and we pray that God will bless England with some sunshine soon.

boardwalk around historic bridgetown

Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, is full of history mostly based around the sugar trade and they even have a statue of Lord Nelson, the great British naval admiral, his statue was erected in 1813 and the square, originally called Trafalgar Square, came into being long before the more famous one in London!
today the center of Bridgetown is a bustling little town full of local people going about their daily business, with a couple of streets dedicated to cater for the large volume of tourists who descend from their cruise ships to waste away their time

statue of nelson with bajan flag on church

in Barbados to shop 'duty free'. these cruise ships certainly dwarf the town when they dock on the newly constructed port and for a few hours a week the town and surrounding tourist sights become overwhelmed by these day visitors.

fortunately our little beach apartment was situated at the opposite end of town on the beautiful Carlisle Bay towards the more formal international hotels and tourist areas of St Lawrence Gap, which also cater for the thousands of visitors who make their way to this tropical paradise during the summer months, December through to April, however it seems that we were 'out of season' and the beaches were almost empty and apart from the local fitness enthusiasts who walked back and forth on the mile long beach religiously each morning and evening.

maz swimming with turtles

whilst Maz had been doing a bit of snorkeling in Grenada, and at the east of the island the week before, her dreams came true as the waters that surrounded our beach were full of shipwrecks, which have now been formally turned into a marine park, where brightly coloured fish and even Hawksbill sea turtles swam around to their hearts delight. 

storm a brewing over the ocean

there were local businesses offering to take us out to the wrecks on their party style catamarans however with Maz being such a strong swimmer she literally donned her mask and snorkel and swam out to be greeted by these stunning ocean creatures.


we did take an afternoon sunset ride on one of these catamarans, which plied us with some lovely rum punch throughout the trip, which took us up the west coast of the island to dive onto some of the multitude of coral reefs which are found along that coast, I'm (Tim) not that confident swimming in open water but I couldn't pass this opportunity by and joined Maz in the warm water to gawp at the awesome array of fish which ignored us to attend to their daily disputes over the best feeding areas on the reef. 

space to lime overlooking the beach!

during the trip we were surprised and excited to experience literally hundreds of flying fish jumping in front and round our boat, this has to be one of the strangest of natural sights in the world, these little fish jump out of the water and glide tens of meters before gracefully splashing back into the ocean, just a shame we couldn't capture this on our camera and oh yes they taste great fried too!

caribbean colours

our final week was made all the more enjoyable when we meet up with some local Bajan's who were holidaying in an apartment next to ours, Jennifer and Margaret not only hosted us for a cheese and wine evening but also joined us on the sunset cruise which was very enjoyable.

maz, jennifer and margaret liming on carlise bay

Andrew and Tracey, our initial contacts on the island also invited us round for a fish supper, cooked on Andrew's gas fired BBQ, and it was great to be welcomed into their home to meet their friends and family who certainly know how to have a fun time.

fish supper with andrew and his family

however all things must come to an end and on Thursday afternoon we made our sad way to the international airport for the long night flight back to England where we were greeted by Tim's mum and dad who had bought some cold but brightish weather with them.

brother mark's birthday celebrations

over the weekend we saw many family and friends, with birthday's to be celebrated and stories to be shared however we really can't believe that those last nine weeks are already over and we've having to adjust to being back in England, that said the journey is not over yet with many other exciting experiences awaiting us over the next few months and to be home for a while with family and friends is also very special.

a time to rest....

maz waiting for the public transport (south african style taxi!

well you best believe what you've heard, we can confirm that the Caribbean is truly beautiful, that said we have only spent just over a week on one island, that of the volcano inspired and mountainous Grenada, but from what we've experienced so far not only are the people friendly but life is VERY laid back! 

our walk home from the beach

the whole of the Caribbean is made up of over seven thousand islands, some big and some small, with at least 28 individual nations. we have actually visited two of those, Grenada as we said, and also a small island just off the north eastern tip which we got to via a short trip with a local fisherman to a place where Robinson Crusoe would feel right at home!

since we arrived we have been able to fully rest, although our time in the united states was indeed part restful, as you can read in our previous post we did move around lots and that was tiring in itself so to arrive at such a peaceful space has been amazing and we are indebted to sharron and josh (the YWAM base leaders) for them allowing us to chill and engage as much or as little as we wish with their team.

our robinson crusoe island view

we are staying in the northeast of the island, well away from the madding crowds arriving off of the cruise ships in St Georges, in fact we are as far away from the airport as we possibly could be, however on an island that's on 21 miles long and 12 miles across that isn't too far, but with the winding roads which venture uphill and down dale at an alarming rate it's far enough and we feel that we are engaging with the real Caribbean and it's peoples, who are very chilled out and friendly. we are walking everywhere as the streets are peaceful, which is a real bonus, and have already made some good friends.

strange fruits

the main reason we ended up on the YWAM (youth with a mission) base is because of our youngest son's, arron, connections, he spent over 10 months in the Caribbean after sailing across the Atlantic from cape town in 2011 and end up spending three months on this base, everyone remembers arron and it's great to met the people that he speaks so fondly about.

Grenada is known as the 'spice isle' and we can fully understand why, the flora here is amazing, just outside our little apartment are grapefruit, mango, orange (both sour and sweet, yes there are more than one type of orange!), banana and papaya, all quite familiar to us europeans, however a little more strange and only a short walk away we find duppy soursop and breadfruit. we have also seen cashews nuts growing under their strange red fruity flesh which is all very different to how we had imagine them growing.

coco pods

we also made a visit to the belmont estate, via local public transport (think taxi service if you are in south africa!), which is home to the grenada chocolate company who harvest the coco beans which go into making their delicious chocolate which can in fact be bought in waitrose stores in england, should you wish to try some, which is well recommended!

tim at the chocolate shop!

other than all the walking we have visited two church services, spent time on the beaches, watching people fly their kites (its a big deal here in Grenada, especially at this time of year around Easter) and spent lots of time reading, which we both love, we have probably finished over four books each so far and if you want to keep up to date with those that we are reading then you can find our reading list at the top right hand side of this blog site!

lets go fly a kite

this truly has been a time to rest and whilst we are really looking forward to the next part of this trip, which includes us watching England play the west indies in a five day test match, we don't want to leave this amazing space, so we are glad that we have over a week left here and we might have to chat up another local fisherman to take us far far away to sandy island again before we leave next monday!