September 11, 2017
A blue hole is a large marine cavern or sinkhole, which is open to the surface and has developed in a bank or island composed of a carbonate bedrock (limestone or coral reef). -Wikipedia
We spent a few days anchored in Peterson Bay on Espiritu Santo Island and from there, visited three different blue holes, two by dinghy and one by car. All of them amazing! All of them different. (You can click to enlarge and scroll through any of the photo galleries below.)
Ri Ri Blue Hole we traveled to by dinghy – a short ride up a beautiful river. The challenge was getting under the road bridge as the tide was going out and the current was stronger than our poor little outboard motor. We ended up dragging the dinghy up the bank, across the road and down the other side all with the help of a local man.
Matevulu Blue Hole is a long dinghy ride up an incredibly beautiful river. It’s worth the trip just for the jungle ride up the river. The blue hole is icing on the cake.
Nanda Blue Hole was a car trip. We were able to borrow a car from a local expat friend for the 6 km trip. This blue hole costs 1000 vatu to visit (about $10 US) and it’s so worth it. This had the clearest water of those we visited, the clarity of the others was affected by an earthquake a while back. Nanda escaped this fate.
While we enjoyed swimming in all three blue holes, this one was especially nice with it’s crystal clear water. We didn’t bring an underwater camera. Cyndi on Bravo was nice enough to give us a couple of her pictures.
Where is all this great stuff? Here’s an interactive Google map. (Thanks Google!) -Rich
