Seventeenth-Century Day!

Last year after the students left, my family and I went on several adventures that got me thinking - what might we learn by trying to approximate the sites and activities of early Bermudian settlers? This experiential learning germ grew over the winter in my mind and by early May, I had an excellent day planned out. For the past two weeks, the students have been trying to ferret out of me what they'd be doing, and speculating wildly when I refused to tell. Were they to be marooned on Smiths Island? Or somewhere even smaller? Did it involve sailing? Planting tobacco? Hunting for ambergris?  On Sunday, the wait was over and we embarked on our Magical History Tour, Bermuda style...

Archaeologists' boat (above) vs. marine biologists' ship -
humanities vs. STEM funding levels...
We boarded our boat and set off for Ferry Reach - because traveling by water was the most common mode of transportation in the early decades (just ignore the V4 engine  in the stern) - destination UNKNOWN. After seeing the old ferry wharf, various forts, and shipbuilding sites along the way, we anchored at the Grotto Bay end of the Causeway and landed, ready to explore... Tom Moore's Jungle.

This part of Bermuda between Castle Harbour and Harrington Sound is geologically the oldest, full of rock outcroppings and caves and with very little flat ground. 1610s Bermuda Company investors complained so loudly that they each got an extra five acres of land in St. David's to compensate them for the difficult topography of their Hamilton Parish shares. Their servants they sent fought a losing battle to clear the land and to this day the area remains densely wooded and sparsely developed.
Our first two caves - partly filled with seawater
 Most of it is a Bermuda Government park and a Bermuda National Trust nature reserve, with a small tract in private hands - Tom Moore's Tavern, a very expensive, exclusive five-star restaurant in one of the earliest stone houses ever built in Bermuda (c. 1652). Our morning mission was to experience the forested landscape that early settlers would have encountered - and explore caves! 
And they were never seen again...
Jonathan and Kristina - and a few albino lobsters by their ankles

 After a very cool spelunk (if that's the right verb), we wended our way to a natural pool formed in the hollow made by a large collapsed cave... 
 ...which happened to have a convenient cliff from which to jump.
A flying U of R Professor!
Three of the five of us partook of briefly defying gravity (the Fricker family accrued much honour). Jonathan threw down the gauntlet in a splash off, which was caught on video - but which Blogger will not let me upload!

UPDATE: Posted to YouTube:

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