Bermuda - About the Country

Introduction

Britain’s oldest colony, and the spiritual home of the ubiquitous knee-length Bermuda shorts, first introduced by the military in the 1900's. Bermuda consists of a small group of Eolian limestone islands located 1,000 km off the east coast of the United States in that part of the Western Atlantic known as the Sargasso Sea.

Bermuda is a cluster of about 150 small islands and reefs. The eight largest islands are connected by causeways and bridges to form a 35 km long, continuos land mass which is barely 1.5 km wide. As the area is highly populated and space is at a premium, local families are only permitted one small car per household. Taxis are very expensive, public transport unheard of and car hire is not allowed, so it is either shank's pony or rented mopeds. Naturally, being a British Colony, everybody drives on the left.

Show Caves

A number of Bermuda caves, including Admiral's, Castle Grotto, Cathedral, Crystal, Fantasy, Island, Leamington, Tuckers' Island Caves, Walsingham, and Wonderland, have been operated as commercial tourist attractions. The Devil’s Hole, a collapse cave that was first opened for public exhibition in 1843, is utilised as a natural fishpond containing sharks, groupers, and sea turtles. Blue Grotto, another water-filled collapse cave, was recently the site of trained dolphin shows. Prospero’s (previously known as Island) Cave contains an underground bar and discotheque.

On the 1 May 2002, the Bermuda Postal Authorities issues a series of four cave stamps: 35 cents Fantasy Cave; 70 cents Crystal Cave; 80 cents Prospero’s Cave; $1.00 Cathedral Cave.

Text by Tony Oldham (2002). With kind permission.