Hamilton's Cave

One of the side trips that we made while we had the car was a tour of Hamilton's Cave.  The cave is the largest in the Bahamas and is owned by the Cartwright family.  Our tour was led by Leonard Cartwright, he told us that his family has owned the land that the cave is on since 1847.  They bought 90 acres from the crown for 27 pounds!  The cave is home to 5 species of bats and lots of termites and other creepy crawlies!  We spent about an hour with Leonard on our tour.  The cave has been used as hurricane shelter since the Lucayan Indian days around 500 A.D. through the present day.  In fact, Leonard told us that his family had weathered several hurricanes in the cave.  There is no electricity in the cave, no lights other than the flashlights that Leonard handed out before the tour, no handrails or paths to follow other than the one that Lenoard led us down by memory.  One other thing that I noticed:  there was no gift shop and no T-shirts to buy at the cave entrance!  It was just the 8 of us and we really enjoyed Leonard's tour. 

Modern carving (1980) done by Leonard's brother