A Canadian diver admires dangling limestone outcroppings.

Cave guide Andrew Mello and Toronto tourist Maria Nenadovich study a limestone waterfall deep inside Bermuda's Admiral Cave.

Writer Stephen Weir finds a cave along the atlantic coastline of Bermuda.

by Stephen Weir

Underground. Bermuda. On terra firma, Bermuda shorts remain the male fashion statement on their namesake island. But Bermuda underground? The abbreviated dress pant affords scant protection against sharp toothed stalactites and knee capping stalagmites that fill this rarely visited demimonde!

Shorts, ties and polished shoes are standard kit in the lobbies of the quaintly posh hotels that dot the landscape on this Atlantic Ocean British colony. Anyone able to hook up with Bermudian Andrew Mello, will find that his dress code for exploring under those same hotels is extremely different.

On dry days, it is strictly Mark's Work Wearhouse. Steel-toe boots. Jean shirts. Khaki shorts with enough pockets for flashlights, ropes, water bottles and power bars. And if you are one of the select few to tour an underwater cave, only a full body wet suit will do. Getting down and dirty in a Bermuda that the locals don't usually talk about isn't a pretty sight!

Thirty-something Andrew Mello is built for spelunking. Compact. Agile. Low to the ground. He has a body that has the ability to ooze through holes that a contortionist would call a "tight fit".

"Sorry mate," Andrew Mello cheerfully said as he pulled a clip board from the trunk of his small car. " You are going to have to sign a non-disclosure waiver before I show you this cave!"

Almost every acre of land on the 181 islands that make up Bermuda has been domesticated. Farms. Golf courses. Horse Ranches. Discreet, tasteful hotels have replaced the semi-tropic forest that once covered the archipelago. But, here and there, nature has been preserved as public park land, and amongst the soft deciduous trees and the hardy northern palms there are secret doorways to a Bermuda that currently only a handful of people Mello includedin the world are legally allowed to see!

The cavern we were to explore with Mello (only after swearing not to reveal its exact location) is a fifteen minute drive west from Bermuda's National airport. Not visible from the road, it is reached by trekking along a windy dirt trail through a sliver of a national preserve that separates two large private estates.

Roots, branches and limestone rocks fight to block the trail; a black moving cloud of mosquitoes fills the air. For our small party, the going is made even more difficult because we are wearing cave diving outfitsfull body wet suits, lead weight belts, lights, lines, masks and heavy scuba tanks.

"Mind the poison ivy" puffs Andrew as we approach a clearing in the mini-forest. In Canada poison ivy grows at ankle level, but on Bermuda, 650 miles east of North Carolina, in the middle of the Gulf Stream, the conditions are perfect for the creation of mutant poison ivy bushes!

Sweat dripping out from under our neoprene hoods, we gingerly stepped around the green and dark red growth. The last obstacle overcome, it was an easy walk to a small blue spring tucked against a large stone outcropping.

Stepping down onto a flat rock at water's edge it became apparent that the pond is spill out from a huge underground water-filled grotto. The limestone wall is a series of incisor-like stalactites filling the cave's maw with stained stone teeththe only way inside is by using scuba gear to swim under the rocks and down into the airless cavern.

"It looks so pristine, doesn't it?" commented Andrew Mello as he geared up beside the blue grotto. "One fin kick too close to the bottom and you will stir up a million years of silt. If that happens you won't be able to see the end of your face mask, let alone the way out of here!"

We are prepared for any mishap. Mello is shouldering two heavy steel scuba tanks. Both of us have two separate air regulators and we each carry two powerful underwater flashlights.

Gingerly we step into the water, careful to avoid an outgrowth of an endangered green sea moss that is apparently endemic to the caves of Bermuda. Although this cavern is over a mile away from the Atlantic coastline the water is painfully salty.

The next step is down into the deep. Lights on, we lazily sink towards the bottom 60 feet below us. It is a featherlike fall down into the warm darkness. Andrew Mello has tied off a thin line of rope from one rock to another just above the floor of the caves. Snaking through a maze of free standing stalagmites, the white cord is our lifeline in and out of the vast underwater cavern.

At a depth of 50 feet we stop and take stock of where we are. The cathedral cavern is a huge orb shaped room. What little sunlight there is penetrates the cavern through the jaws of the rock. Glancing up and out of the almost closed mouth of the cave we had a view that a luckless animal surely must see just as it is being consumed by a crocodile or a hungry alligators. It looked as though we are starring out from the wrong side of a set of soon-to-be-closed limestone teeth!

The opening may be small but the underground cave isn't. Swimming at a comfortable rate it takes 15 minutes to circle the grotto's wall. Mello estimates that this cave, part of a much larger underground network, is probably over two acres in size and at points the ceiling is 60 feet above the floor of the cave.

We both practise safe finning and the water stays window pane clear. We see in detail a forest of unbroken stalagmites. Hidden from the air for over 150,000 years, these umber coloured limestone creations have not been touched by human handslarge enough to swim through, each one is perfect in shape and form.

The cave is a series of hills and valleys. There are holes which tantalizingly lead up to the surface, but to date Mello has not found one large enough for a diver to squeeze through. In the far reaches of the underwater orb, Mello finds a passageway that leads down even further into as yet unexplored auxiliary cave.

While he pokes his head into the new discovery, my lights play on what looks like a Bermuda style Inuksuk. This stone statue isn't man-made, it is limestone pillar covered in knobby arm-like pre-Ice Age outcroppings formed at a time when this cave was above water.

As we swim amongst the pillars we see cone-shaped deposits of what looks like white sand. On closer examination it turns out that these are talus slides from the surface. The sand is actually a mixture of hollow bird bones and ancient bleached white shells.

Swimming along the outer wall of the cavern we come to a large passageway heading down and away from us. Although the Bermuda Cave Association (of which Mello is president) has mapped this tunnelit actually surfaces in the middle of the Crystal Caves, a privately owned tourist attractionthe skill levels required to travel so far from the surface are beyond my level of training. It was time to get out of the water.

The four member Bermuda Cave Association is the only organization sanctioned by the Government to explore the more than 150 underwater caves that can be found in two sections of the archipelago. The Association is made up of both amateur and professional cavelogists who use their own money and thousands of hours of volunteer dive time to explore and map many of the caves. In the process they have found that some of the caves are home to a number of unique and endemic species including a new family of Ispoda. Since most of these creatures are considered endangered, the group has had the support of the Bermuda government in making the caves off-limits to most divers.

"We want new members of course to help with our exploration, but, we limit our membership to people who have passed an accredited cave diving coursethis is dangerous diving without training. Since the nearest school is in Florida, we aren't being over run with new members!" said Mello.

Following the dive we returned to our nearby Innthe Grotto Hotel. This is a four star resort that has been built overtop of the same cave system, hence the name. Two large cavesright under the hotelare open to the public. One is a bar, the other is used as a swimming hole for adventurous guests.

Borrowing scuba equipment from the hotel's full service dive shop, I explored the cave normally used for swimming. A tourist attraction for more than a century, most of the stalagmites and stalactites have been broken. The above-water rock is a sooty black, smoke stained from the days when the grotto was lit by gas lamps. The water is gin clear making it difficult to tell where the solid limestone tracery ends and its reflected image begins.

With my own air supply I was able to reach parts of the cave that swimmers can't reach. Here the stone features are still intact, a small passageway leads into yet another submerged cavern where the formations are damage free. Along the way I find almost a dollar in change, a pair of sunglasses and a very old, but empty, bottle of rum.

The next day Mello is back with head lamps and ropes. We are off to explore a huge cave that is hidden nearby under a building that houses the Grotto Hotel staff. Although anyone is free to explore this cave, there are no signs or marked trails that make finding the mouth easy. The lack of identification is probably done to protect the touristsBermuda prides itself in pampering visitors, and this is one natural attraction that is the antithesis of carriage trade.

The entrance to the cave is deceptively small, it is an arch over a mass of debris forming a steep slope down into the ground below. Climbing into it isn't that difficult, there is a well worn path that leads downward into what turns out to be a huge cavity inside the earth. From the soaring roof innumerable, perfectly white stalactite, many 30 feet in length, dangle overhead. For every large tooth shaped stalagmite there is an accompanying needle nosed stalactite nearby!

It takes a lot of dirty work to get beyond the fringe. With repelling ropes, lights and a knowledgeable guide we are able to get to parts of the cave that most people have never seen. Down slick slippery rock faces and through small cracks in the wall, it took half an hour of hard work to reach a large underground cliff. Flashing lights 50 feet downward the torches shine on black walls, delicate white soda straw stalactites, and at the very edge of vision, there's a touch of blue.

Mello had tied off a thick rope at the top of the cliff. With the rope between the legs it is an easy swing out and down to reach the bottom of the slope. At first blush the lake looks small and shallow, but, as our lights cut into the depth of the salt water, it becomes clear that this is just the opening of yet another submerged cave.

"It is a struggle to get our dive gear in here, and one of the two lakes in this cave is very polluted," explained Mello. "But, if you go in here you end up in a long underwater passageway. The cave association hasn't mapped these two passageways; however it is bloody well likely that you could reach the cave that we dove yesterday through here!"

It was a hot, long climb to get back to surface. Walking back to the hotel, Mello talked about the work that cave association is doing to find, explore, map and study what for Bermuda is their last frontier. "At first I think I dove in the caves just to be alone. On an island this size it can be hard sometimes to be truly by yourself," said Mello. "Now, I am, as is the rest of the association, really concerned that we see what we have got underground and make sure that we don't lose it!"

Lost in conversation we wander, knees black with dirt, back into the lobby of the hotel. When we hear the Tsk Tsk of a passing guest, we realise that it is time to put the adventure aside and get properly dressed for Tea Time!

The vast majority of divers visiting Bermuda won't get an opportunity to dive in the island's caves. Not to worry, the island continues to advance its status as one of the world's top wreck diving destinations.

Diving is available year round with the bulk of the diving occurring in the summer [water temperatures average 28C] and fall. Despite the fact that Bermuda is a long way north of the Caribbean, the British colony, thanks to warm ocean currents, boasts the healthiest coral reefs in the Hemisphere. The world's most northerly reef is not the major reason to come to Bermuda, it is the shipwrecks!

The ten local dive operations encourage visiting divers to sees the wrecks. Their Shipwreck Certificate Program gives divers the opportunity to see any of 18 designated shipwreck sites (out of an estimated 365) including a Spanish luxury liner, two Civil War paddlewheelers and the Hermesa scuttled US Navy tender boat. Every time a diver visits one of the wrecks they are awarded a signed Bermuda Certificate documenting the dive!

The dive industry in Bermuda is still in its infancy; and as a result much of the services that are available in the Caribbean, have yet to find their way to Bermuda; that means Nikonsis camera rentals, video, underwater scooters and the like are not available. Nitrox has just come to the island and is available at a few of the shops.

The dive shops are island owned and rely heavily upon British instructors and dive masters to run the operation. Because most of the visitors come from North America, the shops are full-service, PADI dive operations.

Canadian divers are travelling to Bermuda in increasing numbers because of the good flight connections. Air Canada offers a two hour non-stop service from Toronto to Hamilton, Bermuda seven days a week. Contact Squba Holidays 1-800-265-3447.