Turtle Cave and Queen's Bath

Today was another great day of adventures. :)

Church was good—sat with a new friend, Shikinah (Ryan’s wife.)  Lunch was delicious… there aren’t always meat dishes at the church potlucks, but today there were chicken enchiladas and some sort of delicious white meat marinated in some sort of delicious brown sauce.  Sat around talking with friends while I finished lunch (pumpkin pie for dessert!), and got invited to go to Turtle Cave with all the YWAM-ers (a group of people my age who are going through a Discipleship Training School: 3 months of Bible training, 3 months of overseas mission work) and a few other people.   

I went home and changed, then met them back at the church, where we all piled into their 12-passenger van and pick-up truck.  We drove to Princeville and parked, then hiked to Turtle Cave.  Getting there was… tricky.  There’s no beach leading to the cave—only cliffs and rocks and wild crashing waves.  It took a while for us to maneuver across all the rocks because we had to be so careful and watch our footing.  One slip would have landed us in the raging, rocky ocean below.  So we scaled the cliff-side until we came to a little cove with the cave, then we climbed down the rocks and slithered into the bay—which was quite calm compared to the ocean just beyond the perimeters of the cove.  We swam the short distance of the bay and emerged in the pitch-blackness of Turtle Cave. 

The first half of the cave was submerged in about a foot of ocean water, but there was plenty of space to move around without feeling claustrophobic.  Seeing where we were going, however, was a different matter.  All ten of us (two stayed behind on the cliff) grabbed onto each other and made our way through the cave, searching for sea turtles as our eyes adjusted to the blackness.  Finally, Sam (a German raised in India—his accent is quite interesting) spotted one and tried to show it to us, but the rest of us were blind to it.  He kept pointing and saying, “Seriously guys, it’s RIGHT in front of your eyes!”  Eventually we could make out a huge boulder, but still couldn’t see the turtle.  Sam was about to give up on us all when we finally realized that the “boulder” was actually the turtle.  This thing was massive—like the size of a yoga ball… a turtle-shaped yoga ball.  We had fun poking and prodding it (which we weren’t supposed to be doing… it’s illegal or something), then found another turtle over in the corner, which was slightly bigger than the first. 

We walked the length of the cave, which was only about 20 yards, and came out on the other side of the cove into a second bay, where we splashed around for a bit.  Then we walked back through the cave and, instead of rock-climbing back the way we’d come, swam the length of the cliff into a rocky bay that was closer to where we’d parked the car.  My arms were exhausted—but it was so invigorating, especially with the slight thrill of danger.  With no beaches, if you lose control and let the waves take you, you’ll either be swept out to sea by undercurrents or smashed against the rocks.  It really wasn’t that dangerous (chill out, mom)… I’m evidently exaggerating the roughness of the waters, because no one else was phased by thoughts of death and destruction.  Still, we wouldn’t have tried to make the swim if the waters had been much rougher than they were… and that swim doesn’t even compare to what we did next.    

Since the Turtle Cave adventure only took about an hour, we piled back in the van/pickup and made the short drive to Queen’s Bath for some cliff-jumping. :)  I’m tempted not to even try to describe how incredible this place was—neither I nor the pictures will do it justice.  But I’ll try anyway. 

Queen’s Bath also has no beaches.  Just rocks, cliffs, rocks, breaking waves, and rocks.  There were all different tiers and levels of rocky cliffs, and in the lowest sections the waves would come up over the rock edges and swirl into deep pools.  Think of the pools as giant craters filled with crystal clear water… and time after time humungous waves crash over the sides and turn the pool into a churning, frothy mess.  A churning, frothy mess of fun, that is.  This is where we did our cliff-jumping.  All of the boys (who had been there many times) immediately dove in from the highest ledge, which wasn’t really that high—about 12 feet.  Most of the girls climbed down the rocks into the pool, but a few of us took the leap off of the shorter, 6-foot ledge.  Let me tell you... it’s one thing to jump off a 6-foot high diving board into a swimming pool at the YMCA.  It’s another thing altogether to jump off a 6-foot cliff into churning ocean waters, making sure to clear the rocks below, tuck in your legs so you don’t hit bottom, and simultaneously hold up your swimsuit bottoms with one hand and hold down your swimsuit top with the other.  Whoever invented bikinis certainly didn’t have water sports in mind. 

Here's a picture of the pool into which we jumped: 

Ben had to think about the jump for a few minutes... 

He decided to go for it. :)

The jump in was glorious.  And as soon as I surfaced and swam around the pool a bit, any fear I had was gone.  Aside from the times a wave would come in over the sides, the pool was calm, clear, and completely natural.  Once we got used to the intermittent waves, we would sit on the ocean side of the pool, half in the water and half on the slimy rocks, and wait for a huge wave to slide us off the ledge, crash over our heads, and push us to the center of the pool.  It was sort of like a rugged roller-coaster ride that resulted in at least one skinned toe/elbow/knee per person—good thing there were no sharks in the pool.

I eventually did jump off the 12-foot cliff into the pool, with only a moment’s hesitation at the edge.  After we’d all had our fill of jumping, we lounged about on the top of the ocean-side ledge, in a spot where the waves weren’t coming in, and watched a group of locals performing all sorts of flips and dives off of the cliffs.  One boy (about 14 years old) forgot to tuck his legs and climbed back out of the pool with a gash on his foot that gushed bright red blood all over the rocks—we could see it from across the pool.  But it didn’t seem to bother him at all… he went right on jumping. 

As we were all sunning ourselves on the rocks, a monster wave managed to cross the ledge where we were, tossed all of us into the pool, and carried us clear to the other side.  One second we were dry on the rocks, and the next second we were coming up for air on the other side of the pool and looking at each other like, “How did we get here?”  Perhaps you had to be there, but the expressions on all of our faces were hilarious and we had a good laugh about it.  Soon after that, we left the pool and made our way back across the rocks. 

But we made one more stop before getting back to the car.  At the very beginning of the rock cliffs is a popular 25-foot jump that ends directly in the swarming ocean—no pool to protect you from the current.  When we passed this jump on the way to the pool where we spent most of our time (which they called the Kiddie Pool), the guys all contemplated making the treacherous jump, but decided that the ocean was much too rough today.  On the way back, they were feeling a bit more daring.  Here is the cliff:

Here are Travis, Josh, Raquel, and girl-whose-name-I-can't-remember (left to right) assessing the situation.  (Yes, Raquel is wearing a romper... she's the only person I've ever seen who's been able to pull it off.) 

And again, Travis, Raquel, Ben, Josh, and Sam (left to right) trying to decide if it's safe... 

... and if they could do it without hitting the sea turtle.

Ben and Sam argued over where would be the best place to land.  

And then, one by one, they gathered their courage, waited for a wave, and leapt into the turbulent sea below.  When they submerged, they had to fight their way through sea foam and undercurrents to the edge of the rocks, wait for a wave to sweep them on top of the rocks, and find something to grab hold of to prevent them from being swept back out to sea.  I think I may be speaking with unnecessary dramaticism, because none of this seemed quite as impressive and daredevilish to them as it did to me.  But I was impressed!   

Sam:

Josh:

Ben:

Aaaaand I’ve hit the wall with writing for tonight.  That’s all I’ve got in me.  All I want to do now is settle in for an episode or two of Lost.  (When we had finally crawled onto land after our swim out of Turtle Cave, the boys made quite the show out of weeping for our crashed plane, agonizing over how anyone would find us when we’d been flying miles off course, rejoicing over the fact that Josh just happened to be a doctor, and renaming Ben “Hurley.”)

All in all, it was another great day in paradise. :)  Love you all!