One of the tourist attractions at Staniel Cay is the Grotto. A cave that was used in the James Bond film, Thunderball. It is best to access the cave at slack tide, the short period of time that exists between dead low tide and the rising tide. If accessed at rising or high tide you must swim underwater to enter the cave and fight a pretty strong current. Choosing a day when it was fairly calm we packed our snorkel gear in the dingy and headed for the cave. Careful to anchor far enough away to avoid disturbing the sea grass and coral we began our swim to the cave. We found that at slack tide there was just enough room to enter the cave without having to swim underwater. The narrow, low ceiling entrance opened up to a large cavern to explore. The sun was in the perfect spot to provide beautiful streams of light through the openings at the top of the cavern. This light allowed you to carefully study the rock formations on the ceiling and walls and sit on the very ledge that James Bond used in the movie. The same streams of light took on the beautiful blue color of the water when using your snorkel gear to explore below the surface. Below the surface I found small cave openings, beautiful fish and more interesting rock formations. About 30 minutes is all we could handle in the cave. As the tide started to rise the current strengthened and it became work to avoid being swept onto the rocks near the entrance. We really enjoyed our exploration of the cave. I opted to go a second time to take a video of the cave and of the dozens of fish that come out and up to your mask and chest when you feed them peas. I was really glad I went a second time as I was more relaxed and the video came out great!
A view of the cave ceiling
.JPG)
The current was pushing us so it was hard to hold still for the photo
This is a view from the inside of a small exit hole on the opposite side of the entrance
That's Tom snorkeling at the opposite end of the cave from me
.JPG)
I thought the formations on the walls were pretty cool
This is a shot of the rays of light shining through to the bottom of the cave. Look hard and you can see fish and coral on the bottom
Another view of the bottom. There were a number of people so I have no idea who that person is in the photo
Love the blues and reflections
A few of the fish that love to be fed peas
The dark spot just to the right of the light is a small underwater cave
The photos really do not do justice to the size of the inside
No comments:
Post a Comment