THE SECRET CAVE...   AND BAD JUJU 

On one of the trips home from fishing, the skipper took us to this ‘secret cave’ for a look and a swim.  I’ve seen some very cool, amazing and beautiful places in my life, but this cave was something else, another thing that alone would get me back to Mavo.   Words wouldn’t do it justice and neither did our pictures. 

 Speaking of which, I really don’t have any pictures from this trip, even though I took my good Canon DSLR, it just didn’t happen.  We were too busy fishing or just couldn’t be bothered, no picture could ever come close to actually seeing the beauty of the magnificent Marovo Lagoon in person.   I’ll try to give you an idea though. 

At first we couldn’t see what cave they were talking about and it wasn’t until we got right in close that you could spot an opening between the overhanging vines and the cliff face.  They slowly eased the boat in and we jumped over the bow onto a ledge and slowly walked in.   This cave was maybe 30 meters in diameter with ledges and different climbing/ jumping rock platforms all around.  

 There was a crystal clear pool inside that spanned the whole cave and it was the most awesome blue colour that also reflected onto the walls and roof, giving the whole place a cool, mysterious look.   I seriously could have spent my entire trip in there, swimming, chatting and having a cold beer or 2. 

 You could swim around in this beautiful pool then make your way through a large crevice that led back outside to open water, once out there the coral and reef just dropped straight down about 70 meters and you could still see the bottom.  The wall down was covered in awesome coral and plant life and we could see a few big mackerel swimming further out.  

It was spooky to have this wall of coral right next to you and be a metre off the island, then turn around to see it just open up into this expanse of dark, deep blue open ocean with the bottom disappearing deeper and deeper.  It was like this all over the Solomon Islands, as the whole area is volcanic, and you have these islands formed up out of the deep ocean that pretty much have sheer walls that drop away into an abyss as soon as you get just offshore.

We had plans to go back there with a few drinks and a picnic with all the staff, but the weather, and our determination to land some target species of fish, won out and we would only see the cave briefly for a swim on one more occasion.   It paid off though and Stenty landed his first wahoo, a big bastard too.   I had plenty of chances whilst trolling and dropped at least 3 fish, it pains me even now to tell you about it!  

 Later that day of my serious bad luck or some seriously shit fishing on my behalf (I believe it was bad luck,  apparently so did the villagers) on the beach after we got ashore, one of the guys performed a ‘ritual’ on me?!   It involved some leaves and branches off a nearby tree that he proceeded to belt me with, maybe it was just payback for losing dinner?! 

 No, it was just a gentle waving of these leaves and a bit of a chant and apparently my bad juju was gone!    It worked, though I can’t remember what fish I caught the next day, that proved luck had turned back in my favour.