In the predawn darkness I sat on the wooden steps that led to the beach, the blackness of the sea blended with the dark clouds on the horizon. I watched as the sky turned a vibrant orange before becoming a soft pale blue. The sea now a glorious turquoise intensified the whiteness of the sand. This is Windermere Island in the Bahamas.
My friends Claire and Martin have a home in North Carolina which they escape to whenever hurricanes threaten to batter the Bahamas and after a visit in North Carolina we fly to their island paradise. Once on-board Claire fell asleep, Martin crunched nuts. While I was experiencing delusions of grandeur, I envisaged alighting from the private jet at Windermere and sashaying into a swanky airport at Governor’s Harbour. My home for three weeks.
In actuality I sashayed across the tarmac into a replica of my Uncle Jim’s shed. The officers were efficient and polite and in no time at all we were on our way.
Windemere Island is only eight and a half kilometres long. It is connected to the larger island of Eleuthera by a bridge. As it is a private island there is a guardhouse on the bridge ensuring that only residents and visitors have access.
Claire and Martin’s home overlooks Savannah Sound, the décor is Hamptons style with blues and whites as the main colour scheme. These colours are reflected in the natural world around them, the sea, blue sky, and beach.
My friends had given me a delightful suite that overlooked Windermere Beach and the Atlantic Ocean. I take a very early morning walk along the beach to Casuarina Point which was as far as the eye could see. I never found any notable shells. There is a certain amount of detritus on the beach every morning – mainly ships’ ropes and plastic containers which is cleared by Piti, a young man in Martin’s employ. Whenever we met, he had the brightest smile and was a joy to speak with. Much of this debris comes from cruise ships. I would often see them on the horizon – floating cities, brightly lit and quietly dropping their rubbish into the ocean on their way to dock in Nassau. During the pandemic hardly any rubbish was washed ashore.
Ships of a much different kind made Nassau their base in the 17th/18th century. Pirates used Nassau to trade plunder, and the men who governed the islands were probably buying and selling the pirates booty. Ships also brought African slaves to the islands. Today about 70 per cent of Bahamians are their descendants. Pirates and slave traders have long gone but today drug running is an area of great concern, because the islands are only 200km from the U.S. coast. Out on a boat one morning with Demitrius, Martin’s chef and factotum, the young skipper pointed out the wreck of a light plane lying on the seabed visible in the clear water. According to island gossip the plane was on a drug run when the pilot spotted a police helicopter following. He ditched the plane, swam ashore and scarpered.
The boat trip around the island was amazing, there were masses of turtles, all different colours and sizes, reef sharks and box fish. Cushion sea stars were in abundance, orange, big and beautiful. We could also see large conch on the seabed, our skipper hooked one on board which Demitrius took home and prepared a conch salad for dinner.
I was lucky enough to celebrate Thanksgiving on the island. By the time 3.30pm came around I was ravenous, the aroma was tantalising, then with the biggest beaming smile Demitrius presented us with a huge turkey and trimmings which we polished off with gusto. There was sweet potato baked in a coconut and rum sauce, a roulade, finely sliced brussels drizzled with balsamic glaze and baked to perfection, and a creamy mash that turned the humble spud into a gastronomic delight. I munched my way through all the dishes, stuffed myself with stuffing and downed a couple of large G+Ts with a flourish. Kryshna (Demitrius’s partner) and I finally waddled back to our suites, sidestepping lots of geckos that were scuttling around the lighted path.
The next morning, I walked to Casuarina point. The foliage around the island is lush and abundant. Lots of bougainvillea, sea-grape trees and many other tropical plants that I cannot name. Martin has created a micro rain forest around his home. It has all of the above plants and trees plus gigantic elephant ears and the largest air plants I’ve ever seen.
There are Bahamian cherries also but there were only a few left on the trees – very different from Australian cherries. These were hard and crunchy resembling a Lilly-Pilly in size and colour.
There were many different birds and butterflies along the lane, beautiful swallowtail butterflies, blackish with a large yellow vee-shaped stripe on the wings, tiny pale blue ones and enormous bumble bees. A couple of small birds caught my eye, with grey and white colouring a little like a honeyeater. Casuarina trees shaded the lane and I later found out that these were introduced to the Bahamas in 1930 as windbreaks for houses along the coast. They are now considered invasive and responsible for erosion of the coast and a threat to the biodiversity of native flora and fauna.
While walking through the preserve I was surprised to see red earth, quite a deeper red than we see up North. The red sand of the Sahara Desert is blown high into the atmosphere where winds take it around the globe. Some of the sand falls on Eleuthera and is highly prized for agriculture.
I encountered many Bahamian and Haitian men walking along the lane. They come across the bridge from Eleuthera to work in the large homes and gardens on Windermere. Occasionally a small vehicle similar to a ute would pass me by with workers packed in like sardines.
Claire remarked that only here if you see a man walking along carrying a machete it is safe to give him a lift. There is poverty on the islands, the cost of living is high. There are grocery stores at some settlements, but no supermarkets as we know them. Fishermen sell their catch daily at Tarpum Bay and one or two other places on Eleuthera. Grouper, bonefish, crabs and conch are some of the varieties of seafood on offer, wahoo and Mahi Mahi are also abundant. I had some Mahi Mahi which was delicious.
On the way back Demetrius pointed out three Potcakes in the ocean pouncing and diving for fish. These are the island dogs. They are wild but good natured and well loved by all. Claire and Martin are dog lovers and apart from the dogs Knox, Shaq and Wish they also have a twenty-year-old dog called Onyx, small with spindle like legs and pinched face, Rosie who has beautiful big eyes and back legs that do not work and Oisin a very handsome Potcake.
There were only two days left for me on Windermere before flying to Nassau for an overnight stay and a day tour with Cheryl, a friend of Claire and Martin, then Heathrow-Singapore-Australia. Those two days were spent touring Eleuthera with Demetrius in the afternoons and savouring my solitary beach walks at dawn. We drove to the Glass Window Bridge where the Atlantic and Caribbean meet, the Caribbean is turquoise, the Atlantic deep blue, the sweeping seascape was incredible, and so beautiful.
We drove around the settlements stopping here and there. I found the houses around Governors Harbour old and charming with small gardens crammed with colourful flowers in beds or pots. We had lunch at the Buccaneer Club outside on the deck under some shady trees. Lunch the next day was at Tippy’s Restaurant and bar situated slap-bang on the beach at Palmetto Point. Diverse décor is eye catching, lots of colour and quirky decorations. Both restaurants served fantastic meals from local produce, plus of course plenty of seafood.
Evening came and I wandered over to Claire and Martin’s for dinner, my last as I was heading home the next day. I had my torch as there are no lights along the lane just complete darkness. Everything was so still and silent. The countless stars radiated a luminosity that I had never seen before. There were fireflies too, not flying but on the ground in a long line, lighting my path, my own amazing guard of honour.
Fireflies and stars, what a beautiful adieu.
