Living on an Island

   What is it like living on an Island approximately 550-600 miles from the nearest point of land? Well, the first thing I can say is that it is not a good place to get Island fever better known on the mainland as cabin fever! Bermuda has been my home for the past three years plus and I must say that it has been a great experience. When you add our time here with the time spent in the Bahamas you come up with a little over six years surrounded by nothing but water! Shortly after moving to Bermuda an elderly bishop in a sister church made the comment; “You know that Bermuda is built on an ancient volcano.” He then we on to say; “Every night we pray that God will keep the lid on it.” It was comical but certainly made one think of how far we are from our neighbors should an Island wide emergency occur.

   What is it like to live in Bermuda? Well, I always like to tell our visitors that one of the most beautiful things about the Island is our beaches. There is nothing like the pink sand on a Bermudian beach. One of the great challenges about living here is getting to the beach! There is nothing like driving on the Islands roads. First, unlike Canada and the US we drive on the left side of the road. To make driving a bit more interesting we keep our roads very narrow, very twisty and as an added bonus we don’t really have any places where one can pull off the road!! The top speed limit on the Island is supposed to be 23 mph! Because Bermuda only allows one car per household there is an abundance of motor scooters. The increasing number of scooter has resulted in what Bermudians call the “third lane.” What is the third lane you ask? Well, the third lane is that narrow space of pavement between two lanes of traffic travelling in the opposite direction! Due to the lower speed limits you might think that we seldom if ever have any serious accidents. WRONG! There are lots of accidents and many of them are fatal. Why? Well, no one abides by the speed limit, there are no real passing zones and that third lane has a nasty tendency of becoming narrower and narrower. If you happen to live off Island and are planning a vacation to Bermuda you don’t have to worry about driving a car on the left side of the road with no pull-overs. The reason for this is that we don’t allow foreigners to drive cars on our Island. You can’t even rent a car here. Have no fears though because we will rent you a motor bike! Plan to rent a bike? Make certain that your insurance is paid up!

   Next time I will tell you about shopping in Bermuda.

Your Friend:

Rev. John