Thursday morning 6am from the dorms.        

We woke up on Thursday morning a little later than usual (we got to sleep in!) and packed the vans for our camping trip.  Everyone helped out.  Some packed tents, some filled water jugs, and some got our food together for the trip. 

Once the van was packed and we had eaten breakfast we began our journey down-island.  Even though The Island School is located at the southern tip of Eleuthera and we were heading north, the Bahamians say “down-island” because the current travels south to north.

We stopped at a bakery, and many of us purchased delicious pastries of all sorts.  The bakery’s specialty was a coconut pastry which proved to be delicious.

Our next stop was in Governor’s Harbor.  We stopped at the library there, which is one of the oldest libraries in the Bahamas. 

Next, we stopped at Hatchet Bay caves.  After a scrumptious lunch of peanut butter and jelly tortillas and cassava chips, we donned our water shoes, picked up our flashlights and descended into the caves. 

Waiting in line for the PB&J

 Sadly, the walls of the caves have been defaced by generations of adventurers, and many of the stalagmites/ stalactites were crushed by pirates and treasure hunters hundreds of years ago.  The Bahamas, after all, were the home of the famous pirate Blackbeard.

We walked over 1 mile into the cave and even waded in waste-deep water towards the far back of the cave.  The caves on Eleuthera were formed long ago when salt and fresh water mixed and eroded the limestone bedrock.  We even got to see veins of iron-rich rock from when sand blew over from the Sahara thousands of years ago.

Old grafitti

Once we had made our way back through the twists and turns of the caves, we headed down to the bay to snorkel and look for sea horses.  Some students reported seeing as many as 11 sea horses!  We'll have to download pics from the GoPros...

We continued our drive down-island and soon arrived at Joe Daddy’s beach— our campsite for the evening.

We selected sites for the tents, pitched the tents, and then began collecting firewood to cook our dinner.  

   

Dinner was delicious— rice with stir-fried veggies and honey-soy sauce. 

After dinner, many of us swam in the ocean as the sun went down.  Pretty much as soon as it was dark, we all went to bed.  It had been a big day!

We awoke morning and dismantled our tents.  We made sure to “leave no trace” and restored everything we had touched to its’ original condition.