For just over half a century – between 1881 and 1937 – Barbados possessed a railway line, which eventually ran 24 miles (39km) from Bridgetown, across the relatively flat southern parishes, then all the way up the East Coast to Belleplaine. Though there are relatively few visible remains of the railway today, it nevertheless provides the route for the Colin Hudson Memorial Great Train Hike, which is undertaken on the third Sunday in February each year by numerous hardy hikers – both resident and visiting.

Some walk only sections of the route; others cover the whole distance, most starting at Independence Square (this entry’s map location) in Bridgetown, which was once the site of the train station. You’ll stride through cane fields, clamber across gullies, push your way through tropical forest and hike along the scenic East Coast, though the last stretch is a bit of a slog along the hot tarmac of the Ermy Bourne Highway.