Swallows and Mariner's Cave
The Adventures of the Good Ship Equinox
Cate and Chris Galloway
Tue 7 Jun 2011 19:32
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H All,
Had a great day - Paul, Michelle and Toby from
"Silver Fox" took us across to two of the great hihglights of Vava'u - both are
caves which have deep warter frontage which means it is not possible to anchor
in front of them to go inside.
Swallow's Cave is a large vrevice in the limestone
cliffs which opens up inside ito a caern. We took "Silver Fox's" kayaks and
tender into the cave, which has bird's nests and bats hanging from the ceiling.
The colour of the water inside is a bright blue, and is quite
spectacuilar.
Mariner's Cave is smething quite differet again -
the entrance to this cave is about 1 - 2 metres underwater and you need a bit of
local knowledge to find it. Paul went in first so we could see how far we had to
swim in underwater before we could surface into the large air cavity at the top
of this large mostly underwater cavern. One by one we all made the 4-5 m
underwater swim into the cave, the girls as well. Grace was particulalry brave
and by the time we left she had made the swim in ad out a couple of times. Once
inside, the cave pressres and depressures, which both give your eardrums a
workout and creates a cloud of mist inside the air cavity in the cave. This
phenomenon is a bit of a world first for us and we have't heard of
it before.
We finished our snorkelling adventures at about
4.30 and we returned to Port Maurelle, hopped back onto "Equinox" (which we had
left on one of the free moorings in the bay) and were then joined by all of the
ICA mob in the bay for sundowners onboard.
Overall it was a really enjoyable day, for which we
are very grateful to the "Silver Fox" crew.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will begin exploring some
more of the beautiful Vava'u Group.
Until tomorrow, TTFN
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