The Magnificent Windward Coast of Barbados

This photo provides a 360 degrees panorama at Lakes Beach, on the east, windward coast of Barbados, on April 1, 2011. Click on the photo for a larger version and again for a still larger version. Open the browser to full screen and use the browser's horizontal slider bar to move accross the panorama. In the larger versions, go to the rock indicated by the red arrow above. The photos were taken from just behind that rock.* Look to the left from that point for the view towards the northeast and to the right for the view towards the southwest. Put the rock in the centre, and you have the view to the east & towards Africa. *A set of photos was taken and individual photos stitched together in Photoshop to make the panorama. Please look at the largest version of the panorama to get a sense of the place. Lakes Beach is about 4 km from Bathsheba (famed for its surfing) going northwest on the coast road. There is always a salty easterly wind and crashing surf here. Barbados lies in a region of easterly winds and sea currents, with nothing to the east until you hit Africa, so the air and the water impinging on the east coast are as pure as you can get. The panorma photos were taken standing on some rocks that extend into surf zone and that shelter some water towards the land (at least at low tide). The currents and the rocks make the area much too dangerous for surfers or serious swimming, but Bajans love to bathe in pools that are sheletered by rocks or to cast a fishing line into the surf. The water is always crystal clear and tastes pure and refreshing when you get a little on your tongue. Often Portuguese Man of War (jellyfish) and other creatures of the open ocean are washed up on the beach. It was all I could do to resist putting on a mask & fins and snorkelling into it all, as I did once many years ago a little further down the coast. It was my first visit to Barbados and I was collecting seaweeds with a professor from McGill University. The rocks in the surf zone are covered with a spectacular array of seaweeds, many of which are not found anywhere else. We went out at low tide on a relatively calm day. It was easy enough, if a little turbulent, getting into the water and collecting some seaweeds, but we soon got caught in a rip current. I knew I should swim across the current to get out of it, but my prof. was swimming as hard as he could against it... A local guy saw what was happening from a hill above, ran down, jumped into the water and quickly pulled my exhausted prof. ashore. About 20 minutes later, I made it on my own (it was slow going - we had been only about 30 meters from shore.) On this day, some 45 years later, I considered doing some snorkelling in a "safe" area - I really wanted to see if a particular calcareous seaweed was still abundant. (I couldn't find any on the beach - was it still there?). I might have tried it if there had been a strong swimmer with me, but there wasn't and it didn't take much argument from Nina and a local beach patrol guy to convince me otherwise! Regardless, it's enough to wade in the water and walk the beach in this most wonderful and still unspoiled place. - David P., posted at versicolor.ca More panoramas