The Blue Hole

It is no surprise that blue holes, are a hole and get their name from the deep blue colour of the water, but how do they form? Well they were once an underwater cave that has eventually collapsed leaving a sinkhole and they tend to have deep vertical walls. They vary in size and some are enormous. The Blue Hole we are going to snorkel is about 18m deep.

Here is a photo of the Kosrae Blue Hole that I took off the Nautilus’ website since I just can’t get a shot like that. It clearly shows the Blue Hole that you can access straight off the jetty. There is also a larger deep area closer to the fringing reef that is better suited to scuba. The photo is taken at low tide.

http://kosraenautilus.com/

Unfortunately we left our snorkel a bit late. The winds have kicked in and with it the surf on the reef is up, so visibility isn’t great. Oh well, we can’t really change things and we will probably never be back here, so we will take a look anyway.

We are able to take the dinghy part way round from the boat, then it is only a short 10 minute walk to the jetty. We have a couple of options of where to leave our dinghy. We usually park it under the bridge near the causeway where there is as you can see below a concrete platform and a short scramble through the scrub to the road.

Our favourite landing spot under the causeway bridge

This time we are choosing to go to the marina because we will be on the flood tide, and it is a hell of a tidal flow at full blast. And also since it will be low tide, we won’t have to navigate the shallows.

Dean has been playing with his sonar that attaches to the dinghy and he had fun depth sounding the bay. In doing so he found a small channel that the fishing boats obviously follow out from the marina, and we can utilise it in our dinghy. His sonaring practice isn’t all play of course, he can use it if we need to go into the depths of an unknown harbour to shelter from a storm for instance.

The boat you can see with the tarp over the window in the marina, we see go out into the lagoon muliple times per day and night fishing. It is a busy little boat.

Once we got to the jetty where the Blue Hole is located it is as easy as going down the concrete steps and the hole is directly in front of you. In the photo below the dark water is the edge of the hole.

Jetty steps that lead straight to the Blue hole

There was lots of sea grass floating about from the weather and the water was oh so warm. Visibility was pretty poor and once you were off the wall of the hole it was difficult to see anything, just the blue abyss. I couldn’t even see Dean who was nearby, from under water.

So we just swam around the circumference. Just off the hole itself the water was shallow enough to stand up in. The coral was not particularly nice here, but there was lots of pretty little fish and some larger ones, that I get the feeling are used to being fed. I learnt my lesson a long time ago not to feed the fish. We were on a scuba dive at the Whitsundays and I took some old sandwiches down with me and I was basically covered in a ball of fish. As they got bigger and bigger Dean said my eyes were like saucers. No it is not a good idea to feed the fish when you are in the water with them!

There is a fresh water shower on the jetty so we were able to rinse off, then we sat on the end of the jetty and drip dried a bit while we watched the surf crash onto the fringing reef. The photo below was actually taken on a different day but in the picture you can see the Blue Hole we snorkelled next to my shoulder, and the larger deeper area behind Dean.

Karen and Dean, Blue Hole, Kosrae

Because of the poor visibility I just can’t comment on how good it is as a snorkel site. But regardless we had fun, it was very easy with access either from the jetty, or if you were staying at the Nautilus you could just walk across the road, wade through the shallows and you would be there. So ideal even if you aren’t a strong swimmer.

The larger hole is meant to have nice coral. If the wind and waves calm before we go we might swim out and snorkel the drop off, but I believe it is more suited to scuba.

On the dinghy trip back we went for a bit of an explore. I spotted a lovely white heron standing statue still amongst the roots of a mangrove tree. I surreptitiously took a snap zoomed in, so we didn’t disturb his peace.

We also saw a roosting spot for the fruit bats in a huge tree located neatly on its own little island. I would suspect the locals would not take kindly if they decided to roost in a tree in their community and there would be no compunction against swiflty smoking them away. So this spot is an ideal win win situation.

I have included the big picture so you can get an idea of where they are situated, then cropped a close up of the bats hanging on a bare branch. But there were thousands in that tree! And weirdly they fly around in full sunlight. We’ve had them flying over the boat in the early afternoon.

On the way home we popped in to get some fresh bananas. Bananas are a given but the other fruit and vegetables vary depending on what the lady picks from her garden. There was a fruit there we couldn’t identify and she said it was a pandamus. I have seen those big lumpy fruit hanging from the palms but I didn’t know you could eat them. She gave us each a segment from a ripe one in the fridge to try. You kind of bite down on it while at the same time sucking the juice out. We both thought the flavour was familiar but couldn’t place it. It was quite a pleasant taste, but if you have a choice of fruit I wouldn’t recommend this particular one. The fibres get stuck between your teeth and even using dental floss it took me ages to get all of it out. Luckily for us papaya was available so we bought one of those instead to go with our bananas.

The particular bunch of bananas were small, but also had these micro bananas on the bunch that were really cute and still edible though you need a few to fill you up!

I really am missing fresh food and I am very glad I was well stocked with canned alternatives before coming here. I am sure a lot of people probably just grow their own stuff, but for a visitor it is quite hard to acquire. Of these veges I am cooking below only the onions are fresh. The potatoes and corn are tinned, the peas are dehydrated and the carrot frozen!

I realise now what you get on the shelves just depends on what container ship has arrived, so the choices are changing all of the time. We’ve also just used up the last of our frozen fish we’ve caught so when we leave hopefully we will get good enough conditions we can fish and restock our freezer. Below Dean is tucking into the last of our tuna, some seared and some shashimi cuts, with miso soup.

Finally as we prepare to leave, the local people are getting used to us. The children, so very shy before are now getting a bit braver and cheeky. The other day some of the boys raced us on shore while we were in the dinghy. We left them behind, all hooting with laughter. So that was really nice.

We are sad we are going to miss their Christmas marching parade. Apparently it goes over 3 days and is the biggest annual event on Kosrae. They even wear uniforms. We have had a little sneak peak though with rehearsals starting last night but it would have been nice to see.

We got a bit lax and only went to two church services. There was no excuse, they seem to have a service nearly everyday and three on sunday. The first one we attended had no singing for the congregation but the second week was a bit different. The choir got up to sing but all of the congregation sung this particular hymn as well. I have already mentioned the men sit on one side and the women on the other. Well they even sang different parts of the song. It was really really beautiful. And they all have such gorgeous singing voices. Dean joins in to things like this with gusto so luckily it was in Kosraean so we couldn’t join in and spoil the harmony!

I was doing the laundry at the laundramat and a woman and her daughter or sister were quietly singing. Even that was so lovely. I would have said something but they are all so shy I am sure I would have just embarrassed them. As I was leaving the laundry I asked the ladies who run the shop attached what these bags of green leaves were that they had for sale. It was actually Betel nut with the leaves they wrap them in to chew. I asked if I could take a photo and they all looked at me like I was slightly mad, so I wasn’t game to ask if I could open the bag to get a better picture!!

As we make our preparations to exit Kosrae I thought I would remind you about the legend of the Sleeping Lady. We have anchored in her shadow for a few weeks now under changing skies as she continues in her eternal slumber, and have grown quite fond of her. So the legend goes, at the beginning of time a women was placed in a reclining position by the angry gods and became Kosrae. Known simply as the Sleeping Lady by locals.

The Sleeping Lady