Before we came to James Bond island, we got a very special experience.
We were invited inside a hollow mountain. We had to go through a half-flooded very dark tunnel to get inside the mountain. However, I must say the nice guides gave us all a flashlight. The first 3 pictures below show the entrance to the tunnel. I was very excited.
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I was the first from my group to enter the tunnel. After coming well into the tunnel, I could see that I may have jumped the gun because when I turned around I was alone, the others were still outside.
The flashlight made a very brave attempt to light up the tunnel, but I must admit the flashlight lost the match, it was very dark in the tunnel.
It did not help that the tunnel had an almost 90-degree bend at the end. This meant that you could not see through, there was no light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.
The tunnel was about 200 meters long and waist deep. In some places, you had to bend your head in order not to bump against the ceiling of the tunnel.
While it may sound a little scary, to walk through a dark tunnel half filled with water, it was not as bad as it sounds.
As long as you keep your thoughts positive, do not think about mining accidents you have read about in the newspaper recently, only think about that there is an amazing experience in store for you, when you arrive on the other side, then it can actually become a very exciting trip, something to remember in the years there come.
The sight that met me on the other side of the tunnel was more than fantastic. I stood inside a hollow mountain, just like a volcano. The mountain has been eroded by what started as a small puddle on top of the mountain.
Because of limestone is not very hard, the puddle expanded first to a small lake, then finally the water have eroded the entire mountain, this says something about how strong the water is.
It must be said that it have also been due to the sulfur in the atmosphere, which has helped to corrode the mountain. That and the whole process has taken more than a few one hundred million years.
The last picture in the series of nine below is the tunnel entrance/exit seen from inside the mountain.
The next stop on the tour was James Bond Island, the island where James Bond fought with the man with the golden gun. (That is not him on the picture below, that is our guide, Jack).
We did not come ashore on the island itself, this was because it was crowded with tourist, to such a degree that it would not have been a good experience. Another good disposition of our guide that we did not waste time on it.
I have previously been on the island, and there is not much to see besides a lot of tourists, there are so many that you are being pushed around all the time, the word “crowded” get a whole new meaning if you have been at James Bond island during the tourist season. There is of cause also a lot of souvenir shops.
There is only one thing you are missing by not coming ashore on the island and it is the ability to take an image of the iconic “007 rock” from the land side.
But as I said, I have been there before, and therefore have a picture taken from the land side, as you can see here.
