by HEATHERLYNN EVANSON

ITS MOUTH YAWNS MAGNIFICENTLY.

Chances are it can be seen from miles out to sea.

Fishermen have used it as a landmark.

And Oliver's Cave, in St Philip, was to be our next big cave exploration.

There was only one problem - getting to it. The one narrow ledge that sloped, snaked and wended its way along the cliff face had broken away at one point.

The resulting gap was too big to jump. The sea too rough to swim. The rocks too jagged to attempt.

For Oliver's Cave was a sea cave. It was set many feet down the rugged cliff face of a parish that boasted names like Beachy Head, New Fall Cliff, Shark Hole, The Chair and whose coastline warranted its own lighthouse!

Once again the WEEKEND NATION and Stephen Mendes of hikebarbados.com turned to local fisherman Bertram Doughty for his assistance.

With Doughty as navigator, the party of three wended its way through the twisting and turning roads of St Philip, until the team pulled up in front of a plateau-like pasture.

We walked to the edge and surveyed the breathtaking scenery.

And then looked down.

"That is the mouth of the cave there," Doughty said as he pointed downwards. "It was the same as all the years we used to come down here."

A cavern, huge by any standards and magnificent in proportions, looked out to sea.

Below it, roaring waves dashed themselves to pieces on jagged rocks. There was no discernible path.

The only way into it, it seemed, was to throw a rope off the cliff and slide down. But then, where would the rope be anchored?

"Even a ladder wouldn't get there," Mendes mused as the party of three stood at the edge of the cliff.

"How do you get to it?" Mendes then asked Doughty, as the team discarded the notion of climbing down to it.

"We used to walk and come around," Doughty responded as he pointed to a ledge that looked way too narrow to hold anyone.

"You mean that little ledge that is just above the sea?" asked Mendes.

"The thing is to get there," said Doughty, "because little past where we used to go 'round, 'round that corner brek way."

"Well it certainly doesn't look like it's possible to get to it from this other direction," said Mendes.

Maybe a look from a different angle would change our perspective.

And so the team shifted yards upwind.

But the move did nothing to make the ledge look any more inviting.

In fact, it made the narrowness of it stand out even more.

"We used to climb over that part there, come around the point and climb over that part and that is what break in," Doughty said.

"And I don't know if you can still get 'round there, because I ain't went 'round there in a long time."

The team lapsed into silence, surveying the cave.

Foiled again by nature.

Our guide then led us to a trail. And pointed to it.

That, said Doughty, was how he got to the ledge.

The path was almost vertical. It was rocky and while the rocks provided excellent foot and hand holds, the near vertical angle of it was enough to cause vertigo.

So from there, all the team could do was to rely on Doughty's powers of recall.

"I went a good way down. We had what we call smut lamps - bottle lamps - and we went down in it," he remembered.

"One evening," said Doughty as he started to chuckle with the memory, "my father was down there fishing and I see a way I could get up below there and foolish me, young, I hold on to the rock and start to come up.

"At one time, I hold 'pon a rock so and pull up and it come out in my hand.

"My heart swell 'bout so big so," he said, demonstrating with his hands, all the while breaking into a hearty laugh.

And that was all the team could do - stare at this awesome creation by nature and laugh with Doughty, for Oliver's Cave was to go unexplored.