Day 65 started with our last morning of scuba training. We had two dives planned, both for depths of 18 meters — just shy of 60 feet. Though we were deeper, the dives didn’t look or feel much different. We simply descended longer and the colors had a little less red in them.

After the first dive, we resurfaced and climbed back in the boat. As with all of our previous dives, we used drastically different amounts of air. We each started with 200 bar of pressure in our tanks, and when you reach 50 bar you’re supposed to start ending your dive. I ended the dive around 45 bar. Julie was a little higher than that. Lydie tended to land around 100 bar. Nice job, Lydie!

Our second dive was nothing but fun. We finished up all of our skill checks during the first dive of the morning, so that for dive two we had a chance just to enjoy the tropical reef. Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures, as our GoPro is only rated to go down to 10 meters. I’ll hold off on describing what we saw until the post for our last full day in Vanuatu because there’s lots of overlap. At the end of our last dive, Mick circled us up at at a sandy spot on the bottom of the sea. He shook our hands. We had completed our certification.

We climbed back in the boat and headed back towards the Turtlebay. On the way, we spied a shark fin. We played some cat and mouse with the shark, trying to get close enough to hop in the water to see it. Mick had his mask and snorkel in hand and was itching to introduce himself. Based on the fin shape, Mick identified the shark as a hammerhead. But the sea is a big place, we were in deep water, and the shark didn’t want to be found. Shark: 1. Humans: 0. A few fin sightings was as close as we were going to get. We headed back towards shore.

Back at the Turtlebay, we quickly sorted the gear and had lunch. We were hurrying because Lydie, Cassie, and I wanted to investigate the Matevula Blue Hole. (Julie had work, so she decided to sit this one out.)

We weren’t entirely sure what we’d see at the blue hole, but we’d heard from various people that these big blue freshwater pools in the middle of the jungle were worth checking out. Plus, the Turtlebay has sea kayaks that we could use to visit the nearest blue hole, the Matevula. We grabbed our gear and set off.

I was with Cassie in the two-person kayak, while Lydie was paddling solo. We made the mistake of telling Lydie she was doing a great job, prompting her to engage in some extreme kayaking.

We were paddling across the large lagoon just south of the Turtlebay. It’s well sheltered from any waves by the islands behind Lydie, making for some great kayaking. In fact, in the calm waters, we spotted two sea turtles, popping their heads above the water to breathe. We had a rough sense of our target in the distance, the mouth of the Matevula River.

As we traveled through the lagoon, we saw a couple of sailboats and a derelict catamaran that appeared to have run aground in a storm. After about 30 minutes, we reached the river and headed inland, soon passing under the bridge for the road that runs along the east coast of Santo.

The bridge was the last real sign of development we saw. I was struck by how pristine the river was. We didn’t see houses. We didn’t see people. We didn’t see planes in the sky. We didn’t see trash. We saw one small jungle farm and occasionally smelled woodsmoke. That’s it.

Lush jungle lined the water, with huge trees extending out of the water. In a way, we could see more of the jungle than I had the day before on the Millennium Cave Tour. On the hike, the jungle often obscured the jungle. The river allowed for longer sight lines. We were excited to see that as we paddled upstream, the water turned from green to crystal-clear blue.

We started to wonder if we were going to know when we reached the blue hole. Would it be obvious? Or was it just a particularly blue part of the river? Should we stop? Were we there already? We weren’t sure, so we decided to keep going. When we reached the blue hole we realized just how ridiculous our questions were. This place was unmissable.

There was a little more development around the blue hole, including a small dock, a couple of buildings, and a rudimentary water slide with a bucket. But what immediately drew our attention was the rope swing on the far side of the pool. Lydie and I jumped in the water to go check it out!

A ladder and rope were attached to a huge banyan tree.

The roots of the tree spread out on the water like ramen noodles.

And the rope swing? Just incredible.

The arc of the swing traveled a huge distance from the tree, and the clear water of the blue hole felt open-ocean deep. Lydie did some great videography here. To do it, she had to tread water for a bit. She wasn’t dramatic about it at all. Nope. Not at all.

We loved this place so much, we went back a couple of days later on August 7, so Julie could see it. At the risk of confusing our timeline, I’m adding that second trip here as a short aside. On the first trip, Cassie didn’t do the rope swing, but she sure wasn’t going to pass it up on the second trip.

And Lydie got a chance to perfect her swing.

The girls had a little trouble and a lot of fun trying to get the rope back to the tree after each swing.

Okay, enough about our second trip on August 7. Let’s get back to August 5. The sun was starting to set, and we knew Julie would start to worry about us. It was time to head back.

The trip back was magical. The sun was setting, and the water was glassy smooth.

Paddling with the current, we made great time and quickly reached the lagoon, where the setting sun reflected on the calm water.

In the low light and calm water, the lagoon came alive. As we paddled, we saw two small gray sharks on the hunt and quite a few schools of smaller fish. Some schools of fish (which we later learned were a type of mullet) swam with their heads just below the surface, so that you could see their eyes bulging in the water as they swam by. As schools approached us, we would drift to let them come closer. One school spooked so badly that one fish comically jumped sideways out of the water, while all of his compatriots (or maybe his prey) dove down.

It’s a little hard to see in this video, so I zoomed in a bit in this clip.

The sun had nearly set as we neared Turtlebay. As we approached, we could see Julie having a drink on the deck with Mick and Vicki.

It had been an incredible sea kayak adventure, with sea turtles, sharks, jungle, a blue hole, and a top-notch rope swing. It’s worth saying again, Santo is simply special.

-Will