ATSC Eleuthera Trips: some details...

Here’s how the trips work: In order to make these trips as affordable as possible, we share apartments. Mostly we make our own food. We share rental cars and gas. Jim works out a schedule of sites for the week optimized based on tides and conditions. Each morning we load our gear and provisions into the cars and drive to one of the sites. Some sites are a full day event. Some days we will split the day between two different beaches. We might stop and do some terrestrial tourist stuff, but mostly we’re beach-beach-beach. If you wanted to break off from the group for a day and head up to Spanish Wells or Harbour Island, that’s up to you. According to the Travel Channel, the beach on Harbour Island is the most beautiful beach in the world, and it is lovely. But there are plenty of other beaches every bit as gorgeous on Eleuthera proper.

Porch         Photo © Ellen Bulger 

                                                                                           

ACCOMMODATIONS: We fly into Eleuthera, into Rock Sound Airport and from there drive to Tarpum Bay Settlement (Town?) our base of operations.  Apartments are shared; four people per. Each apartment has a small living/dining room, a kitchen, a bathroom and two bedrooms. One of the bedrooms will have a double bed, the other two twin beds. The kitchen has a refrigerator, a coffee maker, a four-burner gas stove with an oven and a microwave. There are a few dishes and pans. (Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.) There are air conditioning units in each bedroom and one in the living/dining room. There is a television set, a couch, an armchair, a dining room set w/table and four chairs. There are plastic chairs on the covered tiled porch. The bay and a beach are right across the street. What more do you need, really?

Good to Go in the Red Car                                    Photo © Ellen Bulger

TRANSPORTATION:

We rent cars, usually one for every apartment of four people. Gas isn’t cheap anywhere, but it is more expensive on the island so you’ll be glad to split the cost. Bahamians drive on the left side of the road, but the cars come in from the U.S., so the steering wheels are on the left as well, which makes the driving weird. On the bright side, mostly we just drive on one road, The Queen’s Highway, which like the island itself, is long and straight and runs for over a hundred miles. It is hard to get lost. But it can be a bit of a trick to find the beaches.

A TYPICAL DAY:

Wake. Make breakfast and pack lunch. (Some of us scoot out to do a little Tarpum Bay photography.) Load the cars with gear, water and provisions. Drive to the day’s destination beach: snorkel, picnic, hike, explore, beachcomb, swim. Some days we visit two different beaches. Add water, rinse, repeat. Return to TB. Rinse gear and hang to dry, dinner, swim in the bay, explore the town, put up feet, gloat over shells. Probably go to bed early because TIRED and there will be another wonderful site tomorrow!

Conch Master Mise en Place                                      Photo © Ellen Bulger

FOOD & DRINK:
Mostly we cook our own meals. We bring some of our groceries with us, because we don’t want to miss a single moment at the beach, but there are a couple of small markets right in town and a very presentable little supermarket in Rock Sound that we usually visit by the second day of the trip. In Tarpum Bay there are a couple of take outs for conch salad, fried fish and chicken, and, of course, a nice cold Kalik. There are no swanky restaurants.

PRO TIP: If pineapples are in season, buy one. They aren’t cheap, but buy one anyway. Eleutheran pineapples are the food of the gods. If you eat one at the beginning of the week, you’ll probably end up eating one a day and you will wish for more. You will come home and those pineapples will haunt your dreams.