Bahamas - June 2003
From Jade’s Diary
Stage two of our overseas trip to look at dolphin swim operators.
We left Hawaii and arrived at Miami airport.
We caught a cab to Miami Beach, the art Deco district, where we looked at our options to get to “Bimini” in the Bahamas.
After much frustration of trying to get Travel agents to understand that we wanted to go to “Bimini” - we finally hopped on the cruise liner “Discovery” which takes 5 hours to get across to The Grand Bahamas. From there we took a small plane to “Bimini”.
As we got closer to Bimini you could see the surrounding reef and aqua coloured water and the planes landing strip was a cut out amongst thick vegetation - just what you would imagine the Bahamas to be like.
However, the journey did not end there, our bags are put onto the local taxi and taken to a small boat to take us across to the North Island of Bimini. Once here you really start to appreciate the Bahamas, this place is totally different from the Grand Bahamas, it looks as if we have gone back in time. Golf buggies are the main transport here and you can’t walk past anyone without a short chat or a “good-day”.
We decided to stay at the “Complete Angler Hotel” , a place where Earnest Hemmingway once lived – it is a beautiful three storey hotel that has never been updated – the interior timbers were made from old rum barrels. You could spend an hour just looking and reading the photos down stairs in the bars.
Once settled we walked to the local water sports shop “Bimini Undersea”. A helpful place where they told us who to contact for dolphin trips and we decided to go with Bill & Nowdia Keffes Wild Dolphin Excursion – because of their success rate and the amount of years they had been conducting these tours.
We got our snorkels and masks earlier as we wanted to snorkel around the island. This is a must for underwater lovers, although there is not a lot of live coral in close, however, the temperature, visibility and marine life make up for this.
3.30pm and its time for our brief and we’re off on a 4 hour cruise to the North West side of the island to find spotted pacific dolphins.
After two hours looking for dolphins the boat stopped and we were allowed to go in for a swim – miles from land and in 11 metres of water, but we could see the star fish and crabs on the sandy bottom. I watched as Dad swims to the bottom to pick up a bit of sea grass, you could imaging how good it would be when the dolphins show up – the visibility is the best I have ever seen and you don’t need a wet suit.
Back on board we continue our search with no success, this didn’t faze me or Dad as we know and understand wild dolphins and their unpredictability, but this is part of what makes them so appealing.
We try to get on another trip the next day but unfortunately they were booked for the next three days.
 Conclusion:
Bimini does not have flashy resorts, fast food outlets, road signs or street lights but you wouldn’t want it any other way. It is truly the most beautiful place I have ever been to.
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