At Freeport we took The Bahamas Jeep Adventure tour, which included many Freeport highlights: a visit of the beautiful secluded beach, Clough Point, Garden of the Groves and the Junkanoo Club private beach among others. We were looking forward to a full day driving in our own 4×4 Jeep, led by an island guide.
While waiting to be docked in Freeport, we enjoyed this beautiful sunrise from our balcony. Freeport is a city located on Grand Bahama, the 4th largest island in the Bahamas. It is the second most populous city of the archipelago after the capital, Nassau. Grand Bahama is just 75-miles east of Ft. Lauderdale. Unlike Florida, Grand Bahama has that island attitude and feels just a bit foreign, so you know you’re not in Florida anymore. Larger than some of the neighboring islands, Grand Bahama stretches 96-miles east to west. There are wide beaches that don’t get overly crowded and places to roam.
Docked. The view of Freeport from the ship.
Our ship is supposed to be docked there until 5 P.M. We had to gather on the Promenade deck of the ship for the Bahamas Jeep Adventure tour around 9 A.M. in the morning. From there we were led by the tour guide to the bus, which took us to the jeeps.
We had a quick safety briefing and then someone from the jeep crew (up to 4 people) had to be a driver. Our driver was Dave. Per Dave, it was weird at first driving on the left side of the road, but then he got used to it. Besides, we were following our tour guide at the head of the jeep caravan.
We drove through some residential areas and our guide explained life on the island as we went. However, the radio got interrupted often. We also drove through a wealthy neighborhood on the beach. This is one of the houses that I snapped picture of, by far, not the best one. Interesting fact from our guide was that the buyer has to buy the property on the both sides of the street, as opposed to on the beach side only. Many well-known people own real estate there.
Our first stop was at a secluded white sand beach right off the highway. I think it was Barbary Beach. The tour guide gave us a brief history of the Bahamas in a friendly interactive manner. Did you know that The Bahamas consist of over 700 islands?
Then we had around 20 minutes of free time to walk on the beach and take some pictures. And we just did that.
The water was so clear that you could see right through it. There were no waves and we were told that this was because of the reefs.
Our ride continued along a scenic beach route to Clough’s Point. To get there, we had to drive through a narrow path surrounded by water, which was a lot of fun. My husband, definitely, enjoyed driving through the puddles and sand. 🙂
Clough’s Point is a beautiful lookout point with panoramic ocean views and a great picture spot.
We passed the ATV tour on this narrow path. We saw the girls, our dinner companions, from the cruise on this ATV tour, which were just leaving the Glough’s point.
Here we reached our destination – Clough’s Point.
And the only tree at the end. The scenery was spectacular!
Jeep tour caravan at Cloughs Point. We were just leaving.
We stopped at the Casuarina Bridge, which leads over the Grand Lucayan Waterway that divides the island into two sections. The Grand Lucayan Waterway is a vital channel to the growth and development of Freeport.
Next, we drove through the Grand Bahama’s protected Yellow Pine Forest.
Then, we arrived to Garden of the Groves. At the entrance, we saw little ponds with colorful fish and a bunch of cute turtles.
We had a picnic style lunch under the canopy on the cafe’s patio and fed some ducks. Lunch was preordered in the bus, so everything was ready as soon as we arrived.
Stopped near the waterfalls. Some nice people offered to take a picture of the three of us.
Then, we just walked in the gardens enjoying the surroundings.
There was a chapel on the hill, a labyrinth and some shops, but we didn’t go there.
Unusual plant.
Unusual ducks.
And took some pictures while waiting for the rest of the group to return to the jeeps.
Our last stop of the tour was at the Junkonoo Beach, where we had some leisure time. There was a small shopping area, which we explored a little and bought some souvenirs. There were also a few vendors selling refreshments and coconuts right on the beach.
The beach was very nice and not crowded at all. There were plenty of water activities offered on the beach, but we had only one hour there, so we didn’t do any of them.
We were just relaxing and listening to the upbeat music playing outside of the bar. After 1 hour on the beach we drove back to the bus and then to the ship. We did try wonderful local beer Sand Light in one of the local places before entering the ship.
Got back to our cabin and got a towel bear. 🙂
After dinner, we enjoyed the 80s Pop to the Max music show, which was very well done.
Overall, the jeep tour was a great overview of many points of interest in Freeport. This excursion allowed us to see Freeport more as a local than traveling around in a large bus. We also got a wide variety of activities throughout the day and saw places, like Clough’s Point and yellow pine forests, which are not accessible except by off-road vehicles. We made our way to the Junkanoo Beach Club through pineforests, over the Casuarina Bridge and along the beautiful coastline of Grand Bahama Island. In our case this excursion took up the entire time in port but we enjoyed it. We were hoping for nice weather the next day in Nassau.
