With the aim of avoiding the fall and early winter seasons of the Northern Hemisphere, I knew that my Tour route should find a way to get me into the Tropics again for much of that time. However, another passage through Central America didn’t hold much appeal for me this time, since, by now, I have seen just about everything that interests me in that region. Therefore, for this Tour I decided to make my way south via the Greater and Lesser Antilles, which, of course, by definition necessitates a lengthy section of island hopping. There are definite pros and cons to taking that approach during a long tour. On the positive side, I would be able to see a handful of small, but distinctive, countries, pick up a few World Heritage Sites, and potentially tally a nice selection of island endemic birds. On the other hand, such a route must involve numerous transfers between islands, with associated costs and logistical issues, and, given the small geographic areas of some of the countries along the way, relatively little cycling would be involved. The latter factor is especially unfortunate at this time because after Greenland and the lengthy transfer down the US east coast, I have been feeling my level of fitness slightly declining recently, and I could really use a nice, long section with nothing but cycling right about now.

Keeping with my desire to avoid air travel whenever possible, I chose destinations that at least had the potential to be reached by sea. As you might expect, that seemingly obvious mode of transport through a long archipelago is currently underutilized in that region, given society’s preferences for more speedy alternatives, and that fact would affect the friendliness of my overall route for the next few weeks. Correspondingly, I chose to make my first hop to the Bahamas specifically because they can be reached by ferry from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Unfortunately, while it is theoretically possible to travel between the various inhabited islands there by boat, there is no possible way to continue on to another country by sea, despite the fact that the most southerly Bahamian islands are less than 140 kilometers from either Cuba or Hispaniola.

Nevertheless, I went ahead and made the Bahamas my first stop after leaving the North American mainland. The most salient factor of that visit, which made itself known right away, is alluded to in the title of this post. After complaining about chilly weather for the first few months of the Tour, with this route choice, as I mentioned in the previous post, I seem to have overcompensated—Boston: hot, Washington: hot, Virginia: hot, Savannah: hot, The Bahamas: very hot. I have toured through some hot places in the past, but the few days of this section felt less pleasant than those earlier situations. The actual temperature may not have been extraordinary, but the humidity was very high and there was nothing even remotely resembling a breeze until my final day in the country. Those last two factors are not especially surprising, given the country’s location near the Horse Latitudes. Nevertheless, I made my way to all the locations I had planned, though that list was not particularly large.

The ferry from Florida arrives at Freeport, on Grand Bahama Island, so I began there. However, there was little of interest to me on that island, so I intended to move other to another island within a day. If one prefers to avoid flying, moving between islands in the Bahamas may involve obtaining passage on what are referred to as Mail Boats. Those are relatively small general-purpose cargo vessels that service most of the populated islands once or twice a week. Passengers are also taken, with seating provided by any flat surface on the deck, and while actual postal mail may be also brought along, I didn’t actually see any of that.

My plan, was to take a Mail Boat from Freeport to Nassau, on New Providence Island, then another as quickly as possible to Andros Island, where I would spend most of my time in the country. Then, due to the annoying lack of continuing sea service already mentioned, I would have to return to Nassau by Mail Boat again, to fly onward to another country. Unfortunately, the regularly scheduled boat from Freeport to Nassau that was set to depart the day after I arrived was cancelled on that particular week, for some unknown reason. That caused me to need a domestic flight, which was rather annoying, since, though it was only a thirty minute flight, it was an added cost and required another bike disassembly. The only positive aspect was that I had some extra time in Nassau to arrange the next boat transfer, and also to get in a little bit of birding.

The Mail Boat that I arranged there was the Lady Rosalind II, which makes a four-hour journey from Nassau to the small port at the northern tip of Andros Island. I was a little apprehensive about sitting out in the blazing sun on a metal surface on these trips, but most of them are scheduled during the evening, or overnight, and those that aren’t have enough shade on board and because of that, and combined with the breeze from their forward motion, the voyages were not extremely hot. Of course, the bike simply gets rolled on, like any ferry, which is always nice. In the second image below it is hiding within the pile of cargo already loaded, which grew even taller before departure.

Andros Island is the largest in the Bahamas, and one of its more natural locations. Its size means that there is a little more distance for cycling possible, and these factors were why I chose to spend the largest portion of my visit there. Like all of the islands it is totally flat, so cycling, apart from heat, is fairly easy, if not especially interesting. Andros is suitable for diving, and popular with people who fish, though neither of those activities fit in with my travel style. However, it is one of the better birding locations in the country and has one of the largest collections of water-filled sinkholes to be found anywhere. I hoped to find some interesting birds close to the two Blue Holes I saw, but none seemed to cooperate with that plan.

With a very low population density, it is very simple to find an empty beach on which to camp, like the two shown below. This was, on one hand, useful, since there is also a lack of other practical alternatives. However, should anyone think that this represents the type of exotic luxury often sought out by wealthy first-worlders, let me state definitively that the three nights I used that option were among the least pleasant camping experiences I have yet experienced. The temperature didn’t drop to a level that would permit sleep until around 2 or 3 AM, which was made worse by the fact that large numbers of more than one type of small, biting insects managed to find their way to the interior of my tent, causing much misery. I am not sure if they were small enough to fit through the netting, or if they found some hole I hadn’t noticed. Either way, I was not a happy camper.

The low population density on Andros, seems to be decreasing further and the island is slowly depopulating as people relocate to Nassau and one or two of the other islands. A similar situation is happening even on formerly lively islands like Grand Bahama. This seems to be a result of the country’s focus on high-volume all inclusive resorts and cruise ship tourism, which concentrate visitors, and jobs, in only a few locations. This can be seen in this image I took when returning to Nassau on a Mail Boat, showing five of those Floating Wal-Marts berthed in the harbor of the country’s capital.

Obviously, the Bahamas will never be a prime location for bicycle touring, but in my case the country provided a useful stepping stone. However, I was distinctly looking forward to taking another step into the zone where the Trade Winds would be active.