Welchman Hall Gully!

 Saturday, February 24, 2024. 

We had booked a private guided tour for the Welchman Hall Gully tour.  The drive was about 40 minutes from our villa at Bottom Bay and we arrived at ten am for our 10:30am tour.  

According to their web site, the monkeys usually come around at about 10;30am for feeding.  However, today, the little simians must have been famished as they had bellied up to the bar at 9:30am!  From my reading about the Green Monkey of Barbados   they were introduced about 350 years ago from Africa and were likely "pets" brought over on the slave ships.

  

With our guide, Ashan

The tour office has a cute name, "The Chunky Monkey", although, all of the monkeys we saw were all quite svelte!  We hung around the front gate area to the gully for our guide, Ashan, who arrived a bit early and after introductions and his description of what the tour would comprise of, we headed into the Gully.

I am always interested in history, natures wonders and gaining knowledge and meeting new people.  Well I tell you, this tour hit all the bases for me!  First and foremost, we met Ashan!  What an absolute delight!  Ashan was clearly passionate about the eco system of not only the Gully, but his country.  He was extremely knowledgeable about the flora and fauna and his style and method of delivery was absolutely spot on for our group.  This, I believe, is a testament to his ability to "read" his guests and then deliver his presentation in an interactive way geared to the audience before him!  We found Ashan to be a positive, outgoing, polite and gentle person.  Although, he said growing up he was very introverted and had to consciously work at being more outgoing and confident.   Kudos to him for his personal achievements which enabled us to have, without a doubt, the best experience we could get for this tour!

Ashan also had a keen interest in the culinary arts (his mother is a chef!) and so his level of esteem rose exponentially with my darling bride!  There were many conversations that started out talking about some local landmark or foliage and ended up being steered towards some type of dish that could be prepared using the  plants all around us!  We can mostly thank Munchie for that, and believe me I do, as I always benefit from any new dish or recipe that she decides to try!

Throughout the tour Ashan was pointing out so many things that we would have just walked by without realising what it was!  From the wiggly com-posters (millipedes) working at returning the dead vegetation to soil, to termite colonies and their "highways" along some of the trees.  And Ashan pointed out in the eco-system, the termites actually are beneficial to the trees they live on, eating only the dead bark and wood helping to keep the host healthy.  Of course all the wood used in construction is "dead" so of course, termites chow down on it!  Ashan also gained additional kudos from Munchie when he presented her with the wild nutmeg seeds which he found littered about the forest floor and a couple types of sage, oregano, thyme and a couple of types of bay leaf!

Ashan was also our photographer for the walk.  It was apparent this wasn't his first rodeo with taking pictures along the tour!  He had a number of "spots" that resulted in the most awesome photos!

On line the tour was estimated to be about one hour.  We were almost 2.5 hours!  Ashan kept us interested and engaged throughout!  At the end of the tour Ashan invited us to a local spot that he frequents, for a beverage!  He said it was the coolest spot on the island!  We hopped into the chariot and within minutes were at the Vault Vybz Bar and Grill!  First Ashan showed us "the vault"  the tomb of the first owner of the Welchman Hall Gully, General William A. Williams, a soldier from Wales who had a plantation there.  Hence the name of both the gully and the bar, which was on Vault Road!

We picked up some beverages at the Vybz and walked across the road to some makeshift benches and tables nestled under the trees with the most cooling and pleasant breeze!  Ashan was spot on regarding "the coolest" place on the island.  We sat there with Ashan and traded stories about our life in Canada and his life here on the island.  This was the perfect finish for the morning outing!

Munchie and I have been on many guided tours throughout our travels and all have had their pluses and minuses, but I must say that Ashan has been by far and away the best tour guide we have ever had!

Ashan

We said goodbye to Ashan (after obtaining is contact info!) and headed south.  

We ended up in the Fitt's Village area again and stopped in at the Bikinis Beach Bar for lunch.  Another great spot along the beach!

We returned to the villa and Munchie of course got busy whipping up a little something for dinner!  

Another footnote here, Ashan had cut a "vase" out of a downed bamboo cane that we brought home with a plethora of greenery harvested during the tour.  Munchie then created this wonderful arrangement!

Another footnote!  Yolanda had told us a funny story about BJ and his beer!  Now BJ definitely enjoys beer and once said the beers he consumed had no more calories than a porkchop!  Since hearing that story we have been enjoying "porkchops" quite regularly!  And not to be left out, Munchie decided since some vodka is made from potatoes, her drinks are now "spuds"!

A full moon capped off the end of an absolutely fantastic day!

I have put together a little compilation of our photos from the gully: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xAMEk2cy9oNES5qs7

Cheers to all............more to come!

Arrivals, part 1!

Yow Dey!

Google tells me that it is "hello there" in the Bajan dialect!  

February 20, 2024  Tuesday  

I woke up this morning and looked outside and low and behold, moving rocks!  No wait, just goats! 

 

Tuesday night we had our new friends from Toronto come over for the afternoon evening.  Munchie put out appies first and then had a baked pasta she whipped up!

Zyla, Jeremy, Dahlia, Sarah

We had a great evening with Jeremy, Sarah, Zyla and Dahlia!  We were able to share tales of travel and adventures!  Sarah and Jeremy and the girls had recently spent 14 months travelling from Ontario to western Canada, then south through the States and then right down to the tip of the Baja peninsula!  They pulled a 5th wheel camping trailer and actually set up "camp" next to a beach near Cabo San Lucas and spent a couple months there before driving back to Toronto!  On their journey they surfed along the west coast of Vancouver Island and then hit a few more spots along the pacific coast line in Oregon and California and finally on the Baja coast.  I believe that was their first real attempt at RVing and wow, talk about jumping in with both feet!  The girls talked very fondly of the experience too!  What a great early chapter in their "book of life's experiences"!  We definitely want to keep in touch to see what their next adventure is!

February 21, 2024   Wednesday  

Our first guests (our dear friends Yolanda and BJ)  arrived this date on Westjet 2512 from Toronto!  They left Fort McMurray, Alberta, yesterday, caught a red eye from Edmonton to Toronto and then on to Grantley Adams International here in Barbados!  It was so great to see them walk through the arrival doors.  Like having family visit!  We hopped into our little chariot and made the 20 minute journey up to Bottom Bay.  This was BJ and Yolanda's first experience with driving on the left side of the road.  BJ thought I was going to have a head on a few times! 

After getting to the villa, we took a walk down to the beach at Bottom Bay.  Its a very picturesque spot!  

When we were walking back we had a visit from a local monkey (not Micky, Michael, Davy or Peter)!  

Munchie's challenge, stairs!

On our walk back up the stairs from the beach, Munchie had a bit of a slip and ended up skinning her knee!  Fortunately just a minor scrape!  More of a klutz thing than anything else!

Thursday, February 22, 2024.

115km+/-

\We took a drive today.  We basically drove completely around the island!  While only logging about 120 km, which is nothing for an Albertan, about an hour's drive back home!  We left the villa at 10:45 am and returned about 7:00 pm!  

Our route took us up the east coast and we just happened to drive by St. John's Parrish Church, so we pulled in!  The view from the church grounds out over the Atlantic was spectacular!  

Kathy, Sandra, Elize

We met 3 lovely gals there at the Church, Elize, Kathy and Sandra.  Sandra and Elize live here and Kathy hails out of Brooklyn, NY.  We discovered that Sandra actually lived a hop skip and jump from our villa!  We hope to get a chance to visit!

There was a local author selling his books at the church, Kemmerick Harrison.  His books are full of humour as was he!  It was a pleasure to meet him and he gave some live recitals of different quips, limericks and jokes from his books!  Thanks Kemmerick!

We stopped off at Bathsheba for a quick peak at yet another amazing beach.  It worked out to be a good time for a break as the previous stretch of road was quite "snakey" and some of the passengers, and not to single anyone out, (Yoyo!) in the chariot needed to get out and settle the beginnings of motion malaise! 

We arrived at the "end of the world", the farthest point north on the island, to take in the Animal Flower Caves.  

We of course had to start with a refreshment before our party of 3 were able to descend into the depths of the caverns!  It was actually a narrow set of concrete stairs that were in very good condition!

Caves?? No Way!

I stated: party of 3, and as you are well aware of, we are four!  As anyone who knows my darling bride, you know caves are one of her phobias!  There is no way she was going down those stairs!  Quick side bar: in 1990 when we were here on the island we went to the Harrison Caves.  Munchie did get on the tram and rode down in to the sports arena sized cave!  It didn't go well, there were tears!  So BJ, Yolanda and I went down into the caves.  It was pretty cool!  The views out of the cave were very cool!  I did take a dip in the big pool as well!  Here is a link to my cave photos.

When we were done experiencing the caves we headed up to surface, it was raining.  More like the heavens had opened!  A deluge!  We sat under a canopy seeing if we could wait it out, after about 15 minutes we decided to make a dash for the chariot!  You may not know this, but my darling brides often states; she is made of sugar, so it is a big risk if she gets wet!  We were able to get her to the car relatively unscathed and headed south.  The down pour continued for about 10 minutes and as it turned out had been localised to a small area of the north part of the island.  

We headed south through Holetown along the coast and stopped in Fitt's Village by the Jordan's Supermarket.  We walked across the road and showed BJ & Yoland the beach we would be across from (after they leave😕!) our Airbnb as of March 5th.  

Leo!

We then popped into the Il Tempio for a happy hour beverage!  The owner, Leo, was manning the bar.  

We enjoyed the little break from our island circumnavigation and after a visit to the supermarket we headed back to Bottom Bay!

As it turned out, BJ was the big winner at our pit-stop at Jordan's, he found Spam!  If you read my Kauai blogs you would know BJ is a big fan of the tinned "meat"!

It has been a busy first 2 and half days for the Coffey's!  

More to come...........

Cheers!

After 34 years.....we're back!

 Hello to everyone from that jewel in the Caribbean, Barbados!

Munchie and I are here to re-connect with this wonderful isle!  We were here in 1990!  Spent the month of February on the island.  We stayed at the then Welcome Inn (now the Barbados Beach Club) on Maxwell Coast Road, St. Lawrence Gap, Christchurch parish. 

Mini Moke!

On that trip we had a mini moke for our transportation and we got our money's worth.  In our 28 days on the island we put on 512 miles on the little moke!  To put that in perspective, the island is only 166 sq. miles!  The island is shaped like a pear and is 21 miles (north to south) by 14 miles (east to west) at the widest.  There weren't too many places that we didn't hit!  Our friends from Brooks, Alberta, Tom and Lorry Nevison invited us to come share their favourite Caribbean islands.  I think that adventure planted the seed for our desire to seek out sun,  sand and surf in our retirement!

Barry and Cherie

Getting here:  Our route was a bit unorthodox as we went by way of Kauai!  I didn't do a blog for our 2024 stay in Kapaa this year as it was pretty much a repeat of 2023 with a couple exceptions, we were there for only 6 weeks (2023 was 13 weeks!)  Kauai 2024 we had the pleasure of sharing the visit with, first friends from Cochrane, Alberta, Barry and Cherie McCurdy
who spent three weeks with us!  We also had a blast with Munchie's the Bergmans, Lorry (Brenda's cousin) and Bruce from Kelowna, BC. for 2 weeks after the McCurdys left.  

Bruce and Lorry

Mimi!

We also got to see our "Hawaiian" grandbabies, Mimi and Demitri!  They were absolutely fantastic!  We even had the opportunity to have Demitri for an entire day as mom and dad were both working and they had some complications with the day care!  I must say that was definitely a high point for me!

Demitri!

The "Chariot"!

We left Kauai on February 14th, and flew a red eye to Toronto (via Denver).  Overnighted in TO, then flew direct to Barbados on the 16th.  We touched down here just before 3 pm.  Entering the country was smooth and seamless!  We were met there by "Andre" the rep. from Corbin's car rentals who provided us with our island chariot (Nissan Note)!

We took the chariot and made the 20 minute drive without incident!  Driving on "the wrong" side of the road is always a bit of a challenge to start!  I did use the wiper lever to signal often!  Again, things on the "wrong side"!  I'm hoping my recent experience with driving on the left in New Zealand comes back to me quickly!

The view from our back door!

We arrived at our AirBnB, the Seafront Caribbean Villa, located near Bottom Bay in St. Philip parish and met with our host, Janet.  After Janet gave us the tour of the place and we unpacked a bit, we headed out and went to Oistin's Fish Market down on the south coast in Christchurch parish.  

Oistin's, just heatin' up!

Every Friday the Oistin's FM is happening!  Music, dancing and food!  We parked in the lot behind the KFC.  As we began our walk over to the market we met Ronald Thomas in the parking lot.  We started up a conversation and found out he is a local business man.  He and his wife, Denise have the Caribbean Craft Creations.  Ronald is a leather artisan and creates footwear, belts, bags, wallets etc and Denise runs the shop!  

Ronald and Denise!

Ronald pointed us the right direction to the stage in the centre of the market and told us to go to Mo's and ask for his daughter, Ronalda and she would take care of us for dinner!  

What a great atmosphere!  The hustle and bustle, the sites and sounds, the crowds, it was great!  

As we walking over to Mo's, 3 ladies walked up to us and asked us if we were from Boston (I was wearing my Bruins Tshirt!)  The gals were all from Boston and had all worked together, now Kim Hennessy had retired and moved to Barbados!  We plan on getting together with Kim later and pick her brain about life on Barbados for expats!

The Friday night at the market runs until 2 am!  We were pretty bagged from the last couple of days of travel and were feeling some jet lag so were back at the villa around 10 pm.  It was definitely and great first day here!

Our first morning here we woke up to a fantastic view of the ocean!  Palm trees waving to us in the breeze, beautiful sunshine warming the morning!  Wow, it was awesome!  Munchie was looking out at the vista and called me over as she thought the "rocks" out in the field were moving!  The "rocks" were brown goats!  Munchie didn't have her glasses on!

Once we got squared away we headed off to explore a bit and take care of some "chores", groceries and a local sim card!  Our first stop was the Sheraton Mall, about 25 minutes by car from the villa.  Being a mall, it was right up Munchie's alley!  We walked around the mall and found a Dollar store and picked up some "essentials".  We also found the Flow cell phone outlet and picked up a sim.  

We drove over to Fitt's village to checkout our accommodations there, Anya's Place, another AirBnB that we move into March 5th.  We will enjoy that side of the island as well!  While the Seaview is more rural, and remote, Anya's is more "urban" with a lot more hustle and bustle happening all around!  Anya's is also a 2 minute walk to the beach!  Up at Seaview, we have about a 7 minute walk to the beach at Bottom Bay!  However Bottom bay is on the Atlantic side and isn't the best for swimming, but the beach is gorgeous!  The beach over at Fitt's is on the west side, Caribbean sea side and being on the leeward side of the island, is much calmer.  Another perk that Munchie pointed out, there is a beach side restaurant/bar across the street from Anya's!

On our return to Seaview, we came upon a car pulled over on Hwy 6 with their hazard lights flashing and a couple attempting to wave anyone over.  To me it was apparent they were in need of some assistance so I pulled over to see if we could help.  Well, as it turns out the couple, Jeremy and Sarah, from Toronto, Canada, and their 2 daughters, Zyla (13yrs) and Dahlia (10yrs) had run out of gas!  They had arrived on Barbados on Thursday and had been out exploring.  They were on their way back to their AirBnB, which happens to be just a few minutes from our place!  We gave Jeremy a ride to the gas station at 6 Roads where he bought some gas (and a gas can!)  We gave him a ride back to Sarah and the girls and waited around to make sure all was well.  It turned out to be a good thing we waited, their battery died in the car!  So we loaded everybody up and gave them a ride to their accommodations!

I always like to find the positives in negative situations and if misfortune hadn't found Jeremy and Sarah, we would never have met them!  So we are getting together here at the Seaview on Tuesday for appies, dinner and a visit!  Munchie gets to cook for others, she is stoked!

So I spent my Sunday working on this post, taking breaks to help Munchie with hanging the laundry, being, as she says, vertically challenged, she struggled with reaching the clothes lines!  I did get up and make coffee, one of the few domestic chores my Bride permits me to do!  We also got a couple of games in as well.  Just to have it on record, I was victorious at both Yahtzee and Play Nine!

Cheers!