On Monday we were collected by the bus at 8am for the Millenium Cave tour. After a long drive over bumpy muddy roads we arrived at the starting point which is a trek through the jungle. Fourteen of us were on this tour, with 5 local guides who were very professional, making sure the group stayed together and no one got left behind. The track through the jungle was very muddy and slippery due the recent rainy days and a couple of people, including Heather, went sliding over during the trek. It became fun to be a mud lark! Everyone had mud splatters all up their legs, so you could not tell the ones who had fallen over from the ones who hadn't - we were all covered in mud! We all had to cross a bridge made of bamboo, just bamboo poles all laid together in a pile between vertical bamboo poles supported by some other bamboo cross bars all tied together. It was very strong! After an hour and a half of mud trekking in the tropical jungle, surrounded by jungle birds, frogs and lizards, we reached the cave. The guides issued everyone a torch and off we went into the vast dark cave. Inside, the river was flowing through and we had to clamber over rocks and sometimes wade through water waist deep in the pitch black. Shining our torches high up to the roof of the cave we could see bats hanging and swallows flying. In places the cave was probably 3 stories high. Our guides helped everyone over large boulders, across gaps and through holes in the dark for 30 minutes and then we saw light coming through from the other end. What a beautiful sight! Emerging into the sunlight from the cave, the water we were wading through joined the main river running swiftly across the mouth of the cave. Getting across this fast flowing water was tricky - we formed a human chain and helped each other brace against the force of the water trying to sweep us away. Once on the opposi te bank we were all glad to have a rest and eat lunch which some porters had kindly transported for us.
After lunch we headed down stream though the canyon, clambering over boulders as big as cars and others that were the size of a bus. Water was rushing through the gaps in these slabs of rock as we kept our balance and scrambled over - sometimes having to jump across large gaps between boulders! After half an hour or so of canyoning, it was time for a swim down the rapids! This part of the canyon was the most spectacular. As we floated down the river being swept along at a steady pace, we looked up in amazement at the sheer rock walls of the gorge rising straight up on both sides of the river. Pretty ferns and trees hung down from little ledges above us and several waterfalls thundered down the rocks. It was fun to swim under the waterfalls and feel the jolting force of the water hammering down on your head and back. Several times as we floated down, we came close to rocky outcrops blocking most of the water flow and creating fast flowing tumbling water. We had to scramble to the side and climb around these areas that would have pummeled us if we had been swept over them. It was a thrill ride and it was stunning scenery. Sunlight streaking through the gap between the canyon walls in places, shining on the spray from waterfalls high above. Water glistening and dripping from tree ferns that clung to the sides of sheer rock here and there. Spectacular! We had almost an hour of running the river and we were in awe the whole way. At one point Heather joined a few of the others in the group and climbed high up a rocky ledge to jump off and plunge back down into the river. The force of landing from such a height sent each person down down down deep before popping back up again. What fun! The next part of the journey involved rock climbing to get back up the elevation we started at. Wooden ladders had been nailed to rocks in places to assist. Other parts of the ascent used knotted ropes to abseil up a couple of waterfalls. Looking back down the valley was incredible! Dense, lush, green tropical jungle, with a sheer rock canyon carving through it. It took about half an hour of almost vertical climbing to get to the top, but we made it. Wet, exhausted and exhilarated! After another muddy jungle trek we arrived back in the village to a very welcome sight. The locals had prepared delicious paw paw, lady finger bananas and juicy pompelmousse for us to munch on along with lemon leaf tea and coffee. In the bus on the way back the driver took us past the Vunaspef primary school. This school as well as a local kindergarten is funded from the proceeds of the Millenium Cave tours, which is a community business, run by locals, employing locals and putting money back into communit y projects. A wonderful experience and great to see this community effort. Before they started these tours in the year 2000, there was no primary school here, so children had to travel a long way to go to school and some never did. Now they have a local school to be proud of.
Yesterday we went on an organised dive with Allan Power Divers, to dive the wreck of the Coolidge. The guide was great, very informative and showed us the layout of the wreck before we went under water so we were familiar with what we were about to see. We were certainly aware that we were seeing and touching a piece of history. Some divers are very keen to see wrecks and get very enthusiastic about the historical significance and all that. We met a couple who had been for 6 dives on the Coolidge over the last 3 days and were about to do their seventh dive! It is a large ship, so they were doing more dives to see different rooms and compartments in the vessel. For us through, it was nice, but no matter which way we looked at it, it still looks like a huge lump of grey steel covered in crusty growth. We decided one dive was enough - we would rather dive to look at natural features and marvel at the underwater caves, arches, chimneys and walls that nature makes! Last night we went ashore to the resort to watch the entertainment. Over a glass of red wine we listened to a local string band play, complete with tea chest bass. They were great! Then came a puppet show using live people, but using heads, hands and feet from different put into carefully modeled clothes behind the scenes to make up a very short "person" who danced to the music. Crazy and very funny to watch. Very clever too! Then came the fire dancing. Wow! Dances twirled long sticks, with balls of fire on both ends. As they twirled the sticks to form a rim of fire, they leapt over and under the sticks and through the circles. One lady did a dance with long ropes, a ball of fire on the end of each. The dance was similar to the Maori poi dance, ropes swung in cirlces and criss crossing over and over to make two intertwining circles of fire. The male dances would sometimes breath a fire ball out of their mouths, shooting flames several meters out towards the crowd. They lit a bonfire and then completed the dancing with special flaming balls that sent sparks like fireworks out from the fire. As they spun these flaming balls on a long rope faster and faster and faster, they formed huge katherine wheels. Showers of orange parks flew out from the rim as they spun the rope so fast you could only see the rim of fire and the sparks, framing the dancer in the middle of the circle. Spectacular! We learned that all the performers from the band, puppet show and fire dancing were from the local youth centre which had been set up to help local youth learn new skills and hobbies. The youth centre also has classes in cooking and other useful skills. A fabulous initiative and a very entertaining result. Amazing talent from these young people.
Today we have enjoyed our first day of total sunshine in a while. The last week has had drizzle on and off - not that it made any difference to our activities of swimming in blue holes or floating down rapids! Had a nice dive on a coral garden today, just floated around appreciating what nature gives us. Thousands of tiny fish, a multitude of corals, a small turtle, some curious fish that want to look at us and some shy ones that try to hide. A lovely scene and a nice gentle dive. We had a few more swims today just to cool down and enjoy frolicking in the crystal clear water here. Tomorrow looks like a good day to sail up to Hog Harbour, so we will set off a little further north again in the morning.