Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Captain Bill's Inland Blue Hole




Small Hope Bay Lodge took 15 guests and two car loads 20 minutes down the road and into the inland Andros to visit Captain Bill’s Fresh water inland Blue Hole.
Blue Holes are submarine cave systems. Their name is derived from the fact that when viewed from the air, they often have a deep blue color--deeper and bluer than the waters that surround them. To understand their formation, one needs to go back to the beginning of the Bahama Islands themselves, back over 150 million years ago when marine sediments began to accumulate in the warm shallow seas of the tropical Atlantic. (The origins of the name Bahamas is from the Spanish words Baja Mar, meaning shallow sea). It was during this time that early corals began to colonize along the banks of sediment. These tiny corals slowly grew to form a fringing reef, which eventually solidified into limestone barriers, which in turn acted as retaining walls, trapping the sediments. Andros Island has over 350 known inland and ocean blue holes.
You can take the plunge from 15 feet off the dock to cannonball into the freshwater, or walk down the dock and slip right in. Many of the guests enjoyed their afternoon jumping, swimming and keeping their eyes peeled for the legendary Lusca. The Lusca is a old myth of a half-octopus half-shark monster that lives in the Blue Hole, this kept many of the children on the island from diving too deep into the water, so their parents could keep an eye on them! Although no Lusca was spotted the guests enjoyed their afternoon of swimming, and their cannonball competition where eleven-year-old Isabella beat everyone with her record of 46 cannonballs off the dock!
Afterwards everyone came back to Small Hope to watch a slideshow of pictures from their afternoon adventure! Follow this link to watch some cannonball action, the reaction and the excitement from Captain Bill’s Blue Hole. Pin It Now!

No comments: