Is It Really the End of Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary In Barbados
Today I paid a visit to Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary, as today is seemingly the end of the road for it. I would call it a criminal act against the people of Barbados if this wonderful place is aloud to close on a permanent basis.
The last time I was at Graeme Hall was last August when I was having my marquee wedding reception at the centre and an amazing occasion it was too. I would recommend it as a venue for anybody thinking about celebrating a special occasion, but today it is all over for the Sanctuary.
I know there were plans to turn the 35-acre Sanctuary into an 240-acre National Park, which would have created a badly needed and amazing place for the people of Barbados and all visitors to the Island to relax and enjoy.
Hopefully the Barbados Government will come to its senses and do everything it can to create a truly amazing place of environmental preservation and recreation. It would be a national disgrace if the developers were allowed to get there hands on any of the 240-acre, Graham National Park.
As the leaflet handed out at Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary today states, the Sanctuary is as important to Barbados as Central Park was important to New York in the 1800’s. Central Park only happened because of visionary and ahead of their time people. Is the Prime Minister David Thomson and his DLP party capable of making the right decision for the long term benefit of Barbados? I for one certainly hope so!
For further reading on the plight of the Sanctuary I would recommend reading the following articles Nature Sanctuary in Barbados forced to Close - Lapwings and other migratory birds now at risk and Graeam Hall Nature Sanctuary Closing .
Night Time Fun at the Harry Bayley Observatory
Last night I finally had the chance to spend an evening at the Harry Bayley Observatory here in Barbados, doing a wee bit of stargazing as well as getting the opportunity to see the moon close up.
The Harry Bayley Observatory is located in the Parish of St Michal; it is fairly easy to find, fortunately the directions we were giving over the phone were very accurate, if you head down Observatory Road you cant really miss it.
The observatory is named after Harry Bayley who founded the Barbados Astronomical Society and was built in 1963. We arrived early at about 8.45pm but things didn’t really get going until 9.30pm. The observatory is only open to the public on a Friday and obviously it is only open, weather permitting.
The entrance fee was $12BDs for adults and $6BDS for children, which in my opinion was money well spent. The Harry Bayley Observatory is the only one in the Eastern Caribbean and the telescope used is a Celestron 14 inch telescope. I know they Society has long-term plans to upgrade their equipment and hopefully they will eventually raise the funds to do so.
This was my first trip to an observatory and I had been looking forward to it all week and I had been constantly checking the BBC weather forecast online to make sure the weather was going to be dry and clear. The excitement really started to kick in for me as I climbed the stairs as to the top of the observatory. As soon as I reached the top of the observatory I witnessed my first ever shooting star, what an amazing site.
Once at the top of the Harry Bayley Observatory the first thing you notice is the great nighttime view of Bridgetown. It was sure was fascinating learning about the various stars and constellations, which I have being seeing in the sky above Barbados since my arrival on the island.
I was looking out for little green men on the surface of the moon, but all was quiet and they must have been in their beds. The guys of the astronomical society are all very knowledgeable and passionate about astronomy and make it a really enjoyable and informative experience.
What I had originally thought was a satellite, was in fact Sirius, also known as the Dog Star, which is in fact the brightest star in the night time sky. Sirius appears so bright because of its closeness to earth and its luminosity. Did you know that Sirius could be seen from almost every inhabited region of the Earths surface, with only those living north of 73 degrees unable to see it.
The Harry Bayley Observatory is a fun and enjoyable evening out for all members of the family, it is something different and I will be back again in March when things will be a wee bit different up in the sky above Barbados.
Recently I have been amazed by the amount of stars that I have seen in the sky above Barbados, Star Struck In Barbados.
Barbados Wildlife Reserve, Stopping Selling The Monkeys
The Barbados Wildlife Reserve is one of more popular tourist attractions on the Caribbean Island of Barbados and last weeks visit was my second time there. When you buy your ticket to the reserve you also get entry to Grenade Hall Forest & signal station, which my family and myself thoroughly enjoyed, you can real all about it by clicking on the following link A Fun Day Trip - To Grenade Hall Forest & Signal Station
The Wildlife reserve is a slightly misleading name for the place because it is really quite a small place, but never the less the kids will love it. The Barbados Wildlife Reserve is a tropical haven to a variety of exotic animals which most of are compatible and free to roam out with the reserve anytime they wish.
The animals you will see in the reserve which is located in a natural mahogany wood, will include the Barbados Green Monkeys, brocket dear, agouti, caiman, tortoises, iguanas and armadillo’s. You will also see a variety of birds including parrots, peacocks and brown pelicans. There is also a collection of snakes in a Serpentarium that are fortunately not allowed to roam freely.
A real treat for the kids is watching the monkeys getting fed, which we watched on our previous trip, so we didn’t bother to hang around to see it this time. The best time to see the monkeys’ being fed is supposedly around about 2pm. Just when we were walking over to Grenade Hall forest and Signal Station we witnessed all the monkeys walking through the car park heading to the reserve for there food, which was at around 2.30pm.
I must admit I kind of enjoyed my trip to The Barbados Wildlife Reserve until I started to read more into what they actually do at the centre. Unbelievable the owners of the reserve supports vivisection and they have a building only a few meters from the reserve, where they have hundreds of monkeys, which are bread in order to sell the young ones to pharmaceutical companies for research. What the owners really mean in there advertising about how great a place the reserve is, that some of the monkeys are free to roam, apart from the ones that are going to be brutally tortured in the name of beauty! I don’t know about you, but I’m living in the 21st century and I do not believe such things should be allowed to happen to the monkeys. I for one will never be returning to a place that supports vivisection and profits from it.
If you are not bothered about such things as poor wee monkeys being bread to be tortured in the name of beauty, your kids will enjoy spending a hour or so at the Barbados Wildlife Reserve, but don’t spoil there day by letting them read any of the press cuttings about the monkeys and the breeding program!
A Fun Day Trip - To Grenade Hall Forest & Signal Station
I started work real early on Monday, well it was early for me, it was 4am. The neighbours pesky rooster had once again woken me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep, so what could I do, apart from wake up and make good use of my time. As a result of my early start to my working day, I felt like I had earned an early finish, so I called it quits and stopped work at 1pm.
I felt like it was time to go and be a tourist for the afternoon, so we headed off to the Barbados Wildlife Reserve and Grenade Hall Forest and Signal Station. We had been to the Barbados Wildlife Reserve on a previous trip, but on that occasion we were not aware that you could also visit Grenade Hall Forest & Signal Station as part of your admission, In fact we never even knew about it. I suppose that could be blamed on the tour company, which we had paid to take us on there idea of an island tour, they didn’t even tell us Harrison’s Cave hadn’t reopened at that particular time.
I wont mention the Barbados Wildlife Reserve in this particular article because I feel it deserves it’s own space, as I have a serious issue with how they choose to run that part of their business!
So what is Grenade Hall Forest and Signal Station you may ask, unless you have been before, then you will know all about it! It is basically a 2 kilometres of coral pathways, which take you through a gully full of an amazing amount of different species of tree’s, shrubs, vines and herbs.
I found the walk along the paths fairly easy, even though there are some slightly steep hills and the paths are a wee bit slippery due to the climate, so you have to walk fairly carefully. If you are extremely unfit you may struggle a wee bit on this walk. There are various informative signposts along the path ways telling you about the huge variety of trees and plants. There is even a cave to go and explore but I wasn’t brave enough to into it without a torch.
The walk through the gully takes you in a loop back to the where you started. We then went up another wee hill and visited the Grenade Hall Signal Station. The signal station is a very important historic part of Barbadian history. It was built in 1819 as part of a group of signal stations all over the island. Signal stations were used to quickly relay information around the island, such as to warn of approaching ships or of slave rebellions.
My family and myself really enjoyed this adventure and getting the opportunity to experience some of the historic past of Barbados. I also enjoyed getting the opportunity to see the various different trees and plants of Barbados and learn about them and there importance. The negatives I would say about this trip is that there were some fallen trees blocking parts of the pathways and the audio system at the Signal Station wasn’t working. I also feel that the owners of this attraction could do more to make it an even better and more rewarding experience. They should possible look into doing group guided tours every hour or something along those lines.
So all in all, I would say that improvements could be made to Grenade Hall Forest & Signal Station, but that is a very worthwhile tourist attraction to go and visit. I would advise you to wear footwear that are good for walking in, if you ever visit Grenade Hall Forest & Signal Station.
For some great pictures of Barbados you should visit The Barbados Photo Blog.