We visited two other beaches while in Brighton Hill. One was Alabaster Bay of which there are no pictures. The first time we were on this beach was in 1996 when Club Med used it for their beach BBQs. This is one of those broad Caribbean beaches where you can walk out for ever because they are so shallow. Nathan and Stephen went snorkeling there and found piles and piles of Sanddollars. The second beach we visited was of course Twin Coves; still one of my favorites. Anyone who plans to visit Eleuthera and wants to learn more about the various beaches should acquire the book 'The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera'. No other resourse approaches what this book tells you.
Eleuthera, Bahamas 2006

In 2006 Diederik has his third sabbatical. We looked at many opportunities to explore the world using the frequent flyer miles he still has. But United Airlines is basically not offering much for these miles. While in 2001 we had no problem getting free first class tickets to Singapore and Australia, now this is impossible. United is more than happy to give you miles and sell them to other companies (such as our credit card company) who in turn give them out as incentives. But if you want to use the miles, then there are no realistic opportunities. To do the same thing as 5 years ago, we basically would have to fly all on separate flights spread out over 2 or 3 days! So we looked around for a while and finally decided on a simple, but very long beach vacation.

That sounds easy. We also decided that we wanted to go to a different island of the Bahamas. So we picked Long Island. An island that is 80 miles long and has 3300 inhabitants. We found two big rental houses on this island and rented one of them eight months before our vacation. Everything was set and booked. Then 10 weeks before departure, we received an email that the house rental was cancelled! The owner could not guarantee that there would be any furniture in the house, because that belonged to his soon-ex son-in-law.

So we started all over. There was nothing else acceptable on Long Island, because there just is not much there. So we started to look at Eleuthera again. And found Twin Coves empty for the whole month of July. As the owner said, it was available from July 1 to November. We received a contract, sent it in, mailed payment, and changed all our flights. When everything was set, the owner called and said: "I am sorry, but I forgot to check the calendar. My brother has already rented the house to somebody else for most of July". Second cancellation in one vacation. And it is truly amazing how un-concerned both owners are about the problems and expenses they are causing.

At the moment, we were 6 weeks away from departure. We worked with a rental agent and finally found two acceptable houses that covered the period between our flights, so that at least we wouldn't have to change those again. First we spent 15 days in Brighton Hill and then we went for 10 days to High Tide. Brighton Hill is in the middle of Eleuthera on Double Bay. We have been on that beach; it was within walking distance from the place we stayed last time. High Tide is further south on Winding Bay, a place where we have never been. If you want to get a better picture of where these houses are, you will have to install Google Earth first and then you can cut and paste these two locations:
          Brighton Hill: 25 08' 41.6" N 76 08' 1.6" W
          High Tide: 24 56' 37.6" N 76 09' 24.4" W

Finally Diederik left on July 2nd with the 3 boys. Stephanie was at that moment in Phoenix for a wedding and would arrive a few days later. Brighton Hill is a somewhat older house. It has a huge central room with three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen attached to it. The first picture shows a glimpse of the central room. There was just no way our camera could capture it all. The second picture is from the beach side of the house. It was somewhat elevated above the beach and there was significant growth before the house. If it was my house I would trim the bushes and trees to increase the view from the house.
Double Bay is a long beach with many houses on it. The older (northern) section where we were, has bigger lots than the southern section. There are plenty rental houses, especially on the southern side. By there are also quite a few multi-million dollar homes that are not for rent and are only used a few times per year by the owners. But July is approaching low season and we had a very long stretch of beach pretty much all to ourselves. So swimsuits were optional most of the time. The first picture and the one with Stephanie on it, is the beach looking south. The picture with Diederik shows the beach in the other direction.
At both houses there were large numbers of hermit crabs. Stephen and Jordan collected some almost daily (and then released them again). They came in many sizes, but often they barely fitted in their shells. There are not many shells here and it is thus very difficult for a growing hermit crab to find a bigger house when they need one. So Stephen supplied them with a few options and we have seen quite a few of them switch to a bigger shell.
We visited two other beaches while in Brighton Hill. One was Alabaster Bay of which there are no pictures. The first time we were on this beach was in 1996 when Club Med used it for their beach BBQs. This is one of those broad Caribbean beaches where you can walk out for ever because they are so shallow. Nathan and Stephen went snorkeling there and found piles and piles of Sanddollars. The second beach we visited was of course Twin Coves; still one of my favorites. Anyone who plans to visit Eleuthera and wants to learn more about the various beaches should acquire the book 'The Elusive Beaches of Eleuthera'. No other resourse approaches what this book tells you.
We also made a trip to Harbour Island. We stayed here during Christmas 2003. It is a small (~3 mile) island right next to Eleuthera. It is really the touristy center of Eleuthera and it is where the extremely rich have their houses. But it is still a quaint village with a magnificent beach. But there is no bridge between Eleuthera and Harbour Island, so you have to go by water taxi. The first two pictures are from the taxi ride, the third picture was taken on the beach.
All the places where we have stayed so far on Eleuthera over the last 10 years were close to Governors Harbour. It is partly located on a peninsula on the Caribbean side of the island as all 'native' facilities are. That is the sheltered coast, easier for boats and more protected during hurricanes. Only rich foreigners build on the prettier, but rougher Atlantic coast.
After 15 days on Double Bay we moved south to High Tide on Winding Bay. A beautiful home still owned by the people that built it in the late 1980s after buying the land in the 70s. Winding Bay is about 1.5 miles long, has 13 rental houses and a closed resort. As all larger resorts on Eleuthera they just couldn't make it. Eleuthera is too hard to reach. Thus the problem that you can not fill a large resort unless there is good transportation and nobody will supply the transportation unless there is a lot of guaranteed traffic. And then you have the problem of being wiped out every so many years by a hurricane. But Eleuthera sure could use the jobs that would come with these resorts.

The first picture shows the view of the south end of Winding Bay from the house. The second picture is taken at sunrise from the beach.
Of course Stephanie immediately discovered a poor underfed kitty and fattened it up during our stay. Jordan on the other hand was more interested in the little hermit crabs.
Next follows a series of pictures of the various treasures we found at/in Winding Bay. Apparently the seaweed here is a heaven for Seastars. But we also saw some fish, including a puffer (?) fish, hermit crabs that were big enough to need shells 6 to 8" (15-20cm) long, plus a few Conch. And many shells, Seaurchins, and Seafans.
From Winding Bay we made one trip to very south end of the Island. The last few miles are completely undeveloped and there is a string of beautiful beaches at both sides of the coast. Since there is a lighthouse on the tip, the beach on the west side is called Lighthouse Bay and the one on the east Lighthouse Beach.

The first two pictures are from Lighthouse Bay. Then follows a picture of wildflowers growing along the path between the Bay and the Beach.
And for the grand finale, a picture of Lighthouse Beach and of the corrals that are growing there is the water. We probably saw the best corrals here that we have seen along the whole island here. Much corral was covered by sand in 1999 by hurricane Floyd and it will take dozens of years to recover.















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