So today was our last full day on Bermuda, and although the thought of going home tomorrow is still difficult to process, we didn’t let that slow us down, and in my opinion had one of the best days to date…
And away it went. Today was as good as it gets. Sunny, 65, and still. It was the first time on this adventure that I had felt the penetrating rays of the sun envelop me. It is a feeling usually reserved to the summer time, but always welcome on a January day.
Our adventures today were quite exciting. My day started out with a liesurely hour or so of fishing. Waking up with the sun is rewarding: I was gifted a gorgeous sunset and a bit of relaxation. The lull of the island waking combined with the gentle intensity of the new sun was pure bliss.
Today was bittersweet. On one hand, it was one of the best days I have had here yet. On the other, we are leaving bright n (kind of) early tomorrow. It takes a lot for a place to not make me want to return home, but I do not want to leave Bermuda. I’ll shut up now though, there will be another whole blog post devoted to how much I loved this class… now on to today’s events!
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.
Day 8 at Bermuda (Most of the blog was written last night without being posted)
It’s been a perfect day temperature wise: we had sunshine and little wind almost all day, which is ideal for outdoor exploration. In the morning, we went to see some caves located in the Walsingham Nature Reserve, which had the oldest (and possibly the most cemented) rock unit in Bermuda. The inside of the caves looked spectacular, with long branches of rocks hanging down from the ceiling and going up from the ground. At the end of the branches, we saw some growing units of stalactites dripping little drops of water on the ground. Some calcite also sparkled at the rim of the rocks. One of the caves was filled with clear seawater, so transparent that I can see the bottom of the cave without effort. As we went in, Bruce pointed out several fan-shaped ferns that clung to the edge of the cave. It is called the Maidenhair fern and is endemic to Bermuda, usually grows on wet and shaded areas.
Part of our homework/classwork for this class was to put together a presentation on a particular organism that is related to Bermuda, and Bruce has asked us to summarize our presentation on the blog so that everyone, not just our class, can learn about them. My presentation was on sponges…
Hi all! So in place of actual presentations, which we ran out of time for because there are just so many more interesting/informative/educational/exciting/enticing things to do on this island, we are just writing blog posts about our carbonate organisms. Mine is forams, so brace yourself for a wild ride throughout the water column! (Well, mostly on the seafloor.)
Yesterday we had the distinct pleasure of touring a “living museum,” curated by one David Wingate. A trained zoologist from Cornell, Mr. Wingate is a beacon of hope in the realm of conservation. As it turns out, he doesn’t just tour the island for anyone, yet Bruce’s work and relationship with Mr. Wingate afforded us the opportunity.
The Wreck on the south side of Nonsuch Island provides an artificial harbor.
We started by viewing the south side of the island from the BIOS vessel R/V Stommel. Here we found a wreck the was intentionally sunk in order to provide some refuge from Castle Harbor swells.
^ Click for an awesome slideshow!
^ Click it and download the Powerpoint file!
