THE STEPS are worn, hewn as if from the island itself.

They wend their way down, going from the blazing light of the midday sun into the semi darkness in the bowels of the bedrock, and then back into blazing sun.

Abruptly, they stop.

The WEEKEND NATION and Stephen Mendes of hikebarbados.com pull up sharply.

Below is a pool of the sparkling blue/green water. Its depth unknown. But the bottom could be seen.

Suddenly, the surf rushes in.

It roars as it meets the land, grinding the walls, wearing them away and then backing out.

The din subsides; a gentle slopping of waves remains.

Another wave crashes in; rebounds off a wall and fights its way back out as a third wave muscles in.

The action is ongoing. The din/slopping/din is constant.

Welcome to Dallish Cave, St Philip, where the sea meets the land - literally.

The underground seemed honeycombed with caverns, so the team began its exploration at the outer edge of the cave.

Through an aperture in the rock, we looked out to sea.

It was like looking out from inside Animal Flower Cave, the only difference being that the view looked eastward and not north.

In another chamber, the surf rushed in, branched off into a tunnel and disappeared into the island.

Taking pictures in there was akin to snapping shots in certain parts of Harrison's Cave. The flash captured every detail, including the water droplets in the atmosphere.

A short walk and the team was in a third cavern.

A flight of well-worn steps led into this chamber. It ended about three feet above the water level.

With the light streaming in, it looked like an ancient Roman bath.

"I doubt very much it has a sandy bottom," Mendes said as the team contemplated testing its depth.

"It actually looks like some pretty nasty rocks underneath it but yet, in order for whoever made them to have made these steps, one would suspect that this was like a bath at one point in time. Otherwise what would have been the point, and they've even like carved a little something here like to put things like towels," he said.

This cave was resplendent with colour. The sun-washed blues and greens of the now exposed reef stood out.

"This is actually a very pretty cave. You can see some dripstones there and there coming down there," Mendes pointed out.

The team also took in Dodds Cave - at the opposite, inner end of the parish.

It was as different from Dallish Cave as could possibly be.

For while Dallish Cave was a sea cave in the true sense, Dodds Cave was at a higher elevation, overlooking the multi-million-dollar prison facility that bore a similar name.

To reach this cave was no easy trek as it was set high in the hillside with a slope on which only a mountain goat could be comfortable, Mendes and the WEEKEND NATION had to force their way through thick, hardy grass.

But the hike was worth it.

Nature's hand has carved a series of underground, overhead archways, cathedral-like in their splendour.

The coral here was tinged pink while the stones were now home to layers of moss.

But like most caves, certain formations were constant. There were the holes in the roof that were caused by the scouring action of rocks in the water when Barbados was still a lump underwater.

"The structure is the same throughout Barbados; it's just a question of the awesomeness of it," Mendes noted.

"That's a dripstone ridge there," he pointed out. "It actually extends into flowstone right over here as well."

And, as with most caves, chambers went off in all directions.

Most of them led nowhere.

"There's no other exit, although there is a shear in the wall up there," said Mendes as he explored one.

Going deeper into the cave, he pronounced: "Up here, there's another chamber, but it's like being used as a garbage dump."

For from above, Barbadians had let fall old fridges, cast-off pieces of iron, assorted pieces of plastic and various types of household garbage.

However, man's inhumanity to nature could not diminish the awesome sight of the massive roots of an even more massive bearded fig tree that had taken advantage of a collapse in the cave's roof.

"It's pretty hard to find this spot, let alone get into it from above," said Mendes as the team made its way back out, "because the bush is pretty dense. You're more likely to fall than to find it."

NEXT WEEK: The Final Adventure.

heatherlynevanson @nationnews.com