The island Kapa and the Swallows Cave

Posted on Sunday October 27th, 2013 by dafdaf

Our second stop in Vava’u was anchorage no. 7 in the west of the island Kapa. (Yes, the anchorages here are numbered so the local Mooring base can find it’s ships again.) The was anchorage even more quiet than the one before and the beach absolutely stunning ! We went snorkeling every day and were impressed that there is at least twice the amount of different corals compared to French Polynesia. That gets us even more excited to go further west where the coral is supposedly a lot more diverse than here.

Another beautiful beach of TongaA view of our backyardThe anchorage number seven with boats floating in mid air it seemsThe photographer at the mast head

We again stayed four days and enjoyed ourselfes (more on that in the next post). When leaving for Neiafu we made a stop after about 1.5 miles on the western extreme of the island. Located here is the Swallows Cave that can be accessed by dinghy. One has to stay on the sailboat though as the water is way too deep to anchor in front of the cave. Inside the cave the colors play with the water and as the name suggests, the ceiling is covered with swallow’s nests. A thing not to miss when visiting Tonga.

The entrance to the swallows cave on the western point of the island KapaGui and Bruno setting out for adventureEntering the dark cave (not easy to balance the levels as you see)Holes on the top show part of the vegetation

The birds nesting in the cave give it it's nameAmazing colors made by the extremely clear water A swarm of litle fish hiding out in the caveBack towards the entrance

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2 Responses to The island Kapa and the Swallows Cave

  1. Steven Lough says:
    Monday October 28th, 2013 at 05:03 PM

    Hello David, and Family
    Wonder if you have met Zack’s sailing friends, Aaron and Nicole aboard
    SV Belle-Astar? They are just about to leave Tonga for New Zealand. They spent some quality time with Zack a few weeks ago before he left for Fiji. Here is an address to their BLOG: ( http://www.svbellastar.com/2013/10/goodbye-to-tonga-and-tropics.html )
    And if you go to the previous POST, ( http://www.svbellastar.com/2013/10/cruising-kingdom.html ) you can catch up with Zack, and they were exploring the SAME CAVES and things on Tonga that you folks did just a few days ago. It’s all too fantastic. Your pictures are fantastic. Many Thanks..

    • dafdaf says:
      Monday October 28th, 2013 at 09:10 PM

      I just read through Zack’s last blog post and finally know what he had to get through. Phew !! I really don’t envy him for all that work on the Panache.
      Also read through Belle Star’s blog. We saw their boat in the anchorage when we arrived but not anymore after that – I guess they already left the Kingdom. Well – I guess we’ll meet again. Either in NZ or maybe somewhere in the Tropics when the next season starts. The same counts for Zack. He’s still bound for Australia, isn’t he ? I guess he’ll be heading northward next year with good chances for a reunion !
      Cheers,
      David