We’re still in the anchorage near Harfat Peak, spending our time exploring the labyrinth of islands and rocks; lagoons and sand patches. From the air, the entire area is a grid of waterways and ponds intersecting the high karst rock platforms through steep gorges and cliffs. These waterways are created by rain percolating down through the porous calcium rich rocks and dissolving the passages.
But not all passages are cut from clifftop to deep water. Some form as bridges, others as caves. We have been exploring around the waters edge, and finding numerous caves.
The photos below are from just one cave that we explored yesterday with our friends on two other Australian yachts. The mouth at the waters edge was protected by a row of razor sharp rocks that had been eroded by the sea water, but once inside, the floor of the cave was flat and smooth between the numerous stalagmites. formed smooth by deposits in the water that must seep down through the fissures in the rocks above.
Not only does water finds it way through from above; there are numerous roots from the plants above that cling to the walls of the cave.
This cave had four distinct chambers, separated by curtains of stalactites that we had to negotiate to get into the next chamber. One of these chambers would have been more than 15m long, but narrow and tall, with the stalactites drooping from a ceiling maybe 10m high.
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