Busy Beavers

Well, we don’t really have beavers in Barbados, at least not adorable semi-aquatic large rats which dam rivers and build homes underwater, etc. What we do have are men and women who like beavers struggle with sometimes raging waters to erect structures to create spaces where they and others may resort for a little recreation and tranquility. Such is the case this week at The Great House villa in Road View, St. Peter where work has started on rebuilding the deck and sea wall which were heavily damaged as a result of man-made changes in the sea currents in the area. The photos below tell the story of the lost of the sandy beach that once fronted this property and the damage and costs others must incur to cope with the results of the seemingly haphazard beach engineering this blog has been highlighting.


Workmen rebuilding The Great House deck. Note the volume of sand loss (judging by the man’s height) compared to the idyllic photo below of the deck resting only a couple feet off the sand. This photo is still being used by some vacation rental agents to market this villa.


The shots below show the washed out foundation and collapsed portions of the old sea wall and the new wall going in a few feet behind.




Next door to The Great House on the south is the Peoples Worship Centre. It is one of the few churches in Barbados still directly on the beach and still resisting the temptation of the mammon of the condo developers. Their annex is now perilously close to toppling as well as other properties to the south where locals who do not have the resources of the owners of The Great House are for the first time in a constant battle with the sea since the beach engineering north of the defunct Kings Beach Hotel to provide a bigger sandy playground for the new beachfront condo project in the neighborhood. But this is spring and Eastertide – a time of new beginnings, carrying crosses, repairing breaches, and two dozen or so kids from the Peoples Worship Centre home from school for the holidays, and who like busy beavers are having a jolly good time on what’s left of their beach.