Harbour Island by Car

Paula and Don, our Bahamian hosts, took us and other guests, Paul and Maxine from Yorkshire, England, on a car tour of northern Eleuthra on Easter Sunday. We made all of the stops—Tarpum Bay, Governor's Harbour, James Cistern, and the amazing Glass Window. The bridge over the Glass Window looks pretty rickety, and I will bet will fall down again soon. Until it does, however, the view is spectacular with the deep blue of the Atlantic to the north and the turquoise of the banks to the south. These two bodies of water mixed together 200 feet underneath a one lane bridge.

The high light of the day was Harbour Island. We took a right turn off the Queen's Highway at Lower Bogue settlement and soon passed the Harbour Island airport. We got a glimpse of what Harbour Island is all about from the sight of at least a dozen large private jets as well as several dozen smaller jets and planes. Then we stopped at a parking lot and walked to Three Island Dock which provides small private ferries (for $5 fee) to Harbour Island. I assume that even the richest and most famous have to sit in these humble launches for the 5 minute ride across the small sound to Dunmore Town, which is the only town on Harbour Island.

Let me say that Harbour Island is a cross between Manhattan and Hope Town. It certainly does not appeal to everyone, but it is a unique community in the Bahamas. The town itself is much like Hope Town, Abacos with the old wooden buildings all stuck together, high pitched roofs and narrow streets. Districts in London must have looked similar 250 years ago.

But the people, shops, foods, and most of all the prices are straight out of today's New York City. Paula and Don wanted to show us something different so off we went on the golf cart to the Pick Sands Hotel and the Blue Bar for lunch overlooking the famous pink sand beach. There are other pink sand beaches on Eleuthra, but Harbour Island is the only one the public visits. The Pink Sands Hotel is a world class 5 star resort. The Blue Bar, however, is an ordinary beach bar/restaurant with prices meant solely to keep out riffraff (like us?). The view from the Blue Bar is magnificent. There is the deep blue Atlantic Ocean lapping up against a wide, flat beach of pink sand. The last little waves are actually pink, especially at low tide.

 Pink Sand between her toes

View from the Blue Bar

After lunch our party went down to spend a few hours on the beach itself. We helped ourselves to the hotels cabanas. After all hadn't we just had lunch with an 18% gratuity added and a 7.5% VAT (Bahamian sales tax) added. We did have the foresight to bring our own beer and water to the beach. The beach is fabulous and everything it is advertised to be. The sand is not actually pink. It is white sand but mixed in with the sand are innumerable small grains of red coral and shell. The overall effect from a distance is pink. Jan and I took a long walk along the beach and could only marvel at the homes/mansions lining the beach. As we walked along at least 4 of those large private jets took off overhead.

Towards late afternoon we all packed back into the golf cart for a tour of the town. Then as a last treat we all went down to Valentine's Marina for a drink at the Rooster Bar. We watched the sun drop down over dozens of mega yachts. Most of the men at the bar seemed to be bored captains and crew of these boats. We watched a sports fisherman clean some the huge Wahoo fishes he had brought in.

Finally, it was back across the water and into the car for the 90 miles ride back to Rock Sound. We had another look at the Glass Window as the sun was setting.

All in all the day was quite a tasty little morsel of beauty and luxury. Thanks Paula and Don!