Barbados TravelAdvisor

A friend has just returned from BIM stayed at Mango Bay, thought the hotel was lovely, food etc.
She did get badly bitten by mozzies and said it did pong - anyone know if steps are being taken to
eradicate this? (The smell was not there every day).

"Swamp" is a very kind word for what we lovingly call "Shit Creek" ! It is essentially a drain, and it travels all the way down from St Thomas to the "lagoon" between Mango Bay and Discovery Bay. Much work has gone on across the road to try to stop the flooding we encounter when heavy downpours over St Thomas cause a huge amount of water to wash down from the hills and land in Holetown, but although they have now installed a device which airiates sp? the water sitting there, and the smell IS better than it was, it doesn't really stop smelling until it has broken out and washed into the sea-------------Yuk, not a pretty sight!! When the Sea Eagrets used to nest overnight in the branches of the overhanging trees, the Hotels blamed the smell on them, but now the trees have been cut down, and nothing much has changed except the poor birds had to find a new tree!

It always makes me cringe when I see the hotel guests continue to bathe in water which is filled with fertilizer and other non mentionables. still it give the local Doctor business when they consequently get ear infections! the sea usually clears in a day or two depending on the tides, but it seems people can't always wait.

Are you guys talking about the famous "Hole" after which Holetown is named where the first Brits landed in 1625 or whenever? They must have come across it in a rainy season of [s]Gullible[/s] Global Warming proportions since it sounds like they could sail or row their boats on it from the ocean. If you listen to the environmentalists, the way it is now is exactly the state it should be in. Last I saw they were saying that the west coast has lost too many of those storm drains already to tourism development and we are already paying the price in lost plant and animal species etc. They think the canalization of the "Salt Pond" in Speightstown is a disaster and the truth is - it has not prevented the area from flooding in really heavy downpours. What you need to be praying for in Holetown is more heavy downpours to flush it out more often, but we all know "rain" is a 4-letter word when you are selling sun, sand and sea. If it were up to me (obviously, I am no Al Gore), I would dredge it and connect it permanently to the sea so that small boat could enter and sail under the bridge just like the Careenage in Bridgetown. It would upset the eco-system for sure - but it would get rid of the mosquitoes and the smell.

Btw, I wonder if Johnthedog knows that Kings Beach Hotel was actually built on top one of these seasonal drains It was never quite as big or as permanent as the one in Holetown but we used to sail homemade toy boats of coconut shells and almond leaves for sails in that pond as kids. There is another one between Cobblers Cove and Nelson Gay villa. It has not stopped them from getting rave reviews I've noticed.

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KNRX, I LOVE hearing all your stories of Barbados in year's gone by! I can just picture the scenes you create playing as a child. I enjoyed the story you wrote once on TA about playing on the beaches as a child before there was the development there is now. I think you ought to start a 'memoirs of a childhood in Barbados' with a new installment every week lol! Emma

Should have read....I think you ought to start a 'memoirs of a childhood in Barbados' THREAD with a new installment every week lol! Emma

Thanks for your kind words, uktripfan. You can always go back and edit any message you post here without having to post another to correct mistakes simply by clicking on the "Edit" button on the top right corner of the post. I know it is hard to break old habits from TA.

Very clever

That's cool I just added this by editing!

It was always a bit "pongy" down to the left of the hotel as you look at the sea, also I await with interest heavy rains because the new development next to Sandridge always used to flood, in fact was this a natural drainage area?

Yes, St. Peter's Bay Condos are being built around another natural watercourse and we do not have to wait to see what will happen when heavy rains come, we got a foretaste last year as you can see below in a photo I took. It flooded out a portion of Sandridge Hotel and turned the main road as far south as the Chinese restaurant into a river - and that was only after a 2-hr downpour - just wait until it rains for 2 days. I have never seen flooded waters come this far from that direction. Btw, blue car stalled on the road in the water is a very expensive BMW that could not be pushed out of the way like the red car ahead of it. It sat on the road for a few hours until the water receded and the owner could safely have it hauled away.

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Iv'e seen flood waters come through that bit of land as high as Sandridge 1st floor landings, when the storms washed poor old "Carew" out to sea.

You remember Carew? I was vacationing in Barbados also at the time when that happened - still can remember the peals of thunder. Carew's chattel house that was washed out to sea sat in the watercouse/salt pond at Weston mentioned in the above article. Last year they built a two-storey condo/apartment block right on the same pond with a chain link fence separating the two. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen

Oh the great Carew-----------------What a shame THAT was. We used to have a lovely elderly pineapple selling lady called Viola come on the beach and she said he deserved it because he wasn't a " God Fearing Man" -------- Poor old boy

I have piccs of flooding in our area after the water had dispersed a bit -------if I can post them !



The end of 1st Street




What the well dressed Bajan wears during flooding lol.

Turfclubgal, that is funny - the rain gear!

When was the flood in your pics?

Carew even got a bumrap at his funeral when the preacher chose as his text the New Testament reading about the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. Still very controversial up to this day even though the preacher himself suffered a deep depression afterward.

This a great thing ..posting pics as you go you can illustrate things so well if you have the images to hand definately one up on TA if you want to put pics on there they vet them & if they don't approve they don't get on..none of these would.. not travel /hotel related.