Yesterday I woke up feeling utterly miserable. My body was sore, I had a sore throat, a headache, and I could not stop shivering. Instead of taking the day off I decided to join the rest of the group in exploring the caves of Bermuda. We stopped by the Walsingham Nature Preserve, also known as Tom Moore’s Jungle. While at this stop we explored several caves. One of the caves provided the opportunity for swimming. That water is at sea level and changes slightly with the tides. After the caves we took a boat ride out to Nonsuch Island. Several of us swam to shore while the rest shuttled back and forth in a kayak. I made the mistake of swimming and ended up shivering more than I had all morning. We were very privileged to have David Wingate give us a tour of the island. Wingate is an ornithologist, naturalist and conservationist. Much of his work has revolved around the rediscovery of the Cahow which was thought to be extinct since the 1600s. During the tour of the Island he explained in depth how he turned the island into a living museum of what precolonial Bermuda once looked like. According to him, the island as it is today is about 90 percent accurate to the flora and fauna that existed before the island was colonized and non-native plants and animals were introduced. Wingate’s conservation of the island is quite inspiring, and his knowledge of Bermuda as a native was impressive. I only wish I wasn’t feeling as cruddy as was and that I would’ve taken in a little more information.
Today I woke feeling much better. The night before I was questioning whether I would be able to go out with the rest of the group, but luckily I had enough energy and my symptoms had reduced to just a sore throat. We started the day off by visiting some more caves. First we stopped by the Grotto Bay Resort to explore a cave. It was rather spacious and quite interesting. I find stalactites to be fascinating. Their formation is riveting. I feel like I could stand for days and days watching the drip drip of the calcite dissolved in water build up. After the Grotto Bay Resort we zipped over on our mopeds to Crystal Cave. There we were given a tour of the massive cave by a nice man name Unico, or Nico, or Tour Guide. He was quite entertaining and explained how two brave young boys stumbled upon the cave while searching for a lost cricket ball. The cave is filled with brackish water and there is a floating walkway along the length of it. All in all the cave was pretty similar to the others that we had visited, however our tour guide pointed out some neat features that resembled certain landmarks and objects such as the Statue of Liberty and the Starship Enterprise.
This afternoon we returned to the Tom Moore Jungle and several people in our group took a swim in a cave. I was afraid that I may get too cold and become feverish again so I chose not too. Instead I acted as lifeguard for the rest of my peers. In reality I just ate some Oreos.
We finished off the afternoon by zoooming over to St. George where the largest personal yacht in the world was docked. It belongs to the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich who is the owner of Chelsea FC. It’s literally a floating mansion. German missile defense system included.