Bathsheba

Legend states that Bathsheba, the wife of King David, bathed in milk to keep her skin attractive and soft. As the mineral rich cascading white surf in this area of Barbados’ East Coast is said to resemble Bathsheba’s bath in appearance and health benefits, this nearby small village on Barbados’ East Coast was thereby named Bathsheba.

Bathsheba is first and foremost the main fishing village in the parish of St. Joseph in Barbados and home to a small community of several thousand fishing folk and their families. Bathsheba is approximately 14 miles up the east coast from Barbados’ capital, Bridgetown. A wild and picturesque area, Bathsheba is probably one of the most notorious landmarks on the East Coast of Barbados.

The ferocious Atlantic waves at this particularly Barbados beach can be very dangerous and rip tides and undertows mean it is definitely not safe enough for swimming. Bathsheba beach is scattered with large coral boulders that broke away from ancient coral reefs thousands of years ago and bathing in the inshore Bathsheba Pools carved out of this ancient coral – sometimes referred to as Barbados’ answer to a hot tub – makes an invigorating alternative.

The magnificent Atlantic rolling waves found here do however make Bathsheba Beach one of Barbados’ or even the Caribbean’s best surfing locations. Local and international surfers flock here to either catch the best waves or to take part in the annual surfing championships regularly held at Barbados’ ‘Soup Bowl’, a colloquially named natural phenomenon with beautiful white sands, huge boulders, rock formations and exhilarating breakers.

For those interested in geology, the Scotland district in Barbados contains thirty (30) to fifty (50) million years old rocks – clay stones, sand and siltstones, volcanic ash layers, chalk, and radiolarite, as well as some odd rock formations such as mineral concretions that resemble huge cannon balls. Bathsheba therefore not only offers visitors to Barbados unique sea, beach, sky and flora photo opportunities but also views of Bathsheba Rock, the imposing offshore boulder that rises from the Atlantic Ocean.  (8)

Absolute beauty in Bathsheba. Look at the huge mushroom shape boulders off the shore.

I tried to catch this guy but he ran inside his hole as I was snapping photo. You can kind of see his eye(s)