Pirate Caves

Spent the day on Provo. Checked on the boat, the progress on the house, etc. We did manage to stop by the little cave I mentioned earlier. It's near the stone cat. It's at the end of a little path that goes from a dead-end back road down to the water:



(I reduced these photos a lot so they would load faster. They are much crisper full size)

If any of you guys have ever studied geology you will probably know about Karst topography - when water dissolves portions of rock and forms sinkholes and caves. These islands are totally limestone and caves are pretty common. So are sinkholes, some of them obvious, and some of them are hidden by brush. You have to be careful walking off the known paths. The ones over on Middle Caicos cover entire fields with sinkholes big enough to fall into. In this area, they are smaller, but still, some ankle twisters for sure:



This particular one is obviously pretty well known. Someone has cleared the bush from around the entrance since we were here before. It's easy to find now:





This cave has a great layout, and I could easily imagine a shipwrecked sailor living in it. It's well hidden from the water, but close enough to keep an eye out for approaching ships. You climb down a few rocks into a sunny, sunken little sitting area:



The way the trees and vines grow straight up, it would be pretty simple to weave some brush through them and close off the enclosed part from the opening:



The little cave has a nice roomy living room:



View looking out and up:



Nice place to build a bed out of palm fronds or whatever REI products wash ashore:



Another area that would be good for storage or entertaining guests...



And a natural chimney should you ever want to cook inside because it's raining:



And this concludes my book report on the little cave.

But I wanted to mention that while exploring this area, I found a spot that makes a different sound when I stomp on it. I think it sounds like either there is a very thin layer of rock covering another natural cavern or someone covered something with wood and its now totally covered over in dirt. One of these days I plan to bring something to dig into it. Whatever it is, it's been there a long time. I only found it by stomping around and noticed that there was a hollow sound in one spot. I checked it today and it's still totally undisturbed.

Many of the place names here come from a specific event or person or description. I think that's pretty interesting. The names get passed down from generation to generation and stick. I think I mentioned that earlier with Suzy Turn, Leeward-Going-through, Logwood beach, etc.

Our local friend who told us how to find this place referred to it as "the pirate's cave".

The stone cat picture I posted earlier, and this unfinished one (are stone cats ever truly finished?) are close to the cave.



People we know who have lived here all their lives tell us that the cats have been here for as long as they can remember. I think someone once spent a whole lot of time here, watching the sea.