Tuesday 16 July 2013

Tonga: Swallows Cave

Cruising in Vava'u is all about the Moorings Chart.  Visitors no longer have to struggle with pronouncing the long polynesian name of anchorages, instead referring to them simply by their number on the Moorings Chart.

With Moorings Chart in hand (thanks to my Dad who delivered it during his recent visit) we headed to Anchorage 7.  While it is a very pretty bay, we have been spoilt with so many perfect white sand beaches and out of this world snorkelling, that this bay only gets a 5 or 6 on our 1 to 10 scale. 

The bay, however, has the best access to the famous Swallows Cave, only a 10 minute dinghy ride away.  So off we sped in our dinghy, following the coastline and looking out for pretty birds or coral heads as we went, when a strange bird caught my eye.

                                 

                                 

We looked a bit closer and found a whole tree dripping with fruit bats, basking in the midday sun.

                                                

                                                

                                                

On we sped towards Swallows Cave, which was easy to find with it's wide, dramatic opening. We arrived just in time to have the cave to ourselves for a few pictures, before a hoard of Australian tourists arrived.  
















Gary, with his extraordinarily long free-diving fins, wowed the kids by diving down 15 metres to the cave bottom, the only sound on the surface being excited high pitched screeches.






We gave Anchorage 7 the big tick, and headed off to continue exploring the islands the next day.

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