Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the famous androsia batiks of
Androsia Ltd
(
www.androsia.com
;
9am-4pm Mon-
Fri, 8am-1pm Sat) are sold throughout the Bahamas. Melding age-old wax techniques and
island motifs, workers create a wide range of clothing out of four types of natural fabrics.
A guide will show you around and there's a factory outlet.
Calabash Bay
is a small coastal settlement, which gains a certain charm from its several
churches and the flats that are picked at by herons when the tide is out. An apocryphal story
has Henry Morgan and Blackbeard together here with a cache of treasure. The two rogues
rowed ashore with six sailors, buried the loot and then killed the witnesses. As they were
rowing back, one of the two supposedly said, 'there's small hope that'll ever be found.'
hence the bay's alternative name,
Small Hope Bay
.
The Small Hope Bay settlement merges into the
Love Hill
settlement, where a side road
just north of the gas station reaches pleasant
Love Hill Beach
. Nearby,
Captain Bill's
Blue Hole
, amid pine forests, is popular with divers. There's a ladder and a rope swing for
would-be Tarzans.
Activities
DIVING & SNORKELING
For some fabulous dive sites, try the following: the Barge, where a wreck lies 70ft below
the surface and is now a home to large groupers; the Black Forest, with its crop of three-
dozen black coral trees; the deep Blue Hole, where large rays and sharks often gather; and
the
Potomac,
a 345ft British tanker that sank in 1929.
Expert divers may venture to Alex & Cara Caverns, descending 90ft on the edge of the
Tongue of the Ocean, and to Over the Wall, which begins at 80ft and plunges another 100ft
at the edge of the Tongue of the Ocean. The Tongue itself drops another 6000ft.
Snorkelers should seek out the Solarium, shallow flats favored by lobsters and stingrays;
Red Shoal, for schooling grunts and elkhorn reef; and China Point, where blue tangs and
sergeant majors frolic. Also try the Compressor, where, yes, a compressor has metamorph-
osed into a reef; Central Park, with acres of corals; and Trumpet Reef, home to brittle stars
and spiny urchins.
The only operator is
Small Hope Bay Lodge
(
Click here
), highly acclaimed by divers,
which offers a whole range of specialist and basic one-/two-tank dives ($80/100) and night
and shark dives ($80/85), as well as snorkeling trips ($35). Divers should ask about blue
hole dives and ultra-deep continental shelf dives.
BONEFISHING & SPORTFISHING
At least a dozen expert bonefishing guides operate out of Central Andros.
A couple of recommended guides:
