George's travels

2007-05-11T13:57:55+02:00

On Saturday I bumped into George, a friend of mine that I haven’t seen in a while, who spent several hours confirming my worst fears; my life is excruciatingly dull and uninteresting. The reason for this is that George had been off traveling in search of his own little bit of paradise and was gleefully telling me in infinite detail all about his adventures. Days spent sailing across crystal clear waters under the tropical sun and clear blue skies, anchoring off of deserted beaches and swimming ashore to stroll on the pure white, soft, talcum powder sands. Deep sea fishing trips; the excitement as the rod tip bent and the line zoomed off of the reel at a hundred miles an hour, the flash of color as the magnificently marked fish leapt clear of the dazzling blue water.

Apparently George had discovered the Bahamas, a chain of Islands heading South East from Florida towards the Caribbean (I always thought that they were in the Caribbean, but George put me straight). The Tropic of Cancer goes right through one of them, Long Island (no not Long Island, New York) which is about 2/3rds of the way down the chain, so some of the Islands are Tropical and some are Sub Tropical. Nassau, on New Provident, is the capital and where George flew into to start his travels around the Bahamas. He professed not to have been enamored with Nassau, being the explorer that he is, too commercial and touristy, catering for the cruise ships that ply in and out of its deep water harbor. Sounded quite exciting to me! Anyway, George was soon off exploring the “Out Islands” as they are called, to find the peace and tranquility of his own bit of desert island paradise.

Now, I am not normally a jealous person but, I have to confess to feeling just a pang or two as George continued to relate his story. He spent several months island hopping, flying from one island to another (apparently there are an abundance of cheap charter flights) on small aircraft which fly at low altitude so as you get to appreciate the different colors of the water as they change from crystal clear to emerald green to pale blue and deep blue according to the depth. He eventually landed on an island that was to become his firm favorite, but, rather then the deserted outpost he had expected, he found a community, filled with smiling, warm, friendly people. Yes, the warm clear seas fringed by the beautiful white beaches, the yachts bobbing lazily at anchor, they were all there, but what really impressed George were the people. At the little straw hut by the side of the road where everybody would meet and chat over a cold Klik (the local beer), the locals seemed genuinely keen to welcome the newcomer into the fold and concerned that when, ultimately, he had to leave he went away looking forward to returning one day soon.

So it seems that he did find his own little island paradise, even if it wasn’t the archetypal desert island that he went in search of. By the way, he did tell me the name of the island but I am sworn to secrecy, although I am sure a few cold beers, especially if they were Kliks, might loosen my tongue.

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Fishing n stuff

George's travels