Mike Jutan's World: Bermuda 2016 Day 5: Tom Moore's Jungle and Ocean Club

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Bermuda 2016 Day 5: Tom Moore's Jungle and Ocean Club

5/26/2016
Bermuda 2016 Day 5: Tom Moore's Jungle and Ocean Club

One of our most fun days in Bermuda was our big day out to the north east of the island, the weather was very sunny and warm after a few days with some rain and we had a plan to go explore lots of things we'd researched from home.

We started with an epic breakfast!

The sun is shining

And then took the shuttle bus down to the main Bermuda local bus stop, where we caught a ride all the way up the island. We chatted with a nice lady on board who was a local and she told us lots about Bermudians, and asked about the kinds of things we'd seen and experienced thusfar.

We arrived at the top of the island (close to the airport) with the purpose of going to Tom Moore's Jungle (5 star rated on Trip Advisor: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g562684-d207638-Reviews-Tom_Moore_s_Jungle-Hamilton_Parish_Bermuda.html) one of the coolest things it seemed you could do in Bermuda.

First off, here's me cliff jumping :)

There are a bunch of planned tours that go there, but it was super easy to get there on your own and you can definitely just wander if you're comfortable with the idea. It is a relatively off-the-beaten-track place (save for the tour groups that come there), but other than the same two groups we bumped into twice, we didn't see anyone else. It was actually quite useful to run into some people there, as the guide from the tour pointed us in the right direction for where to jump into the swimming hole, as well as showing us where the cave track was and telling us to take lights in there and be careful not to bang our heads on anything. :) Super fun spot and a great hiking location.

This was just before I jumped off the big platform on the right. Apparently there used to be a diving board set up there! That was fun.

This cave was super dark so I had to use a flash in there. Watch your head!

After the cliff-jumping and caving self-guided exploration, we hiked a bit more and came out of the park right near the Tom Moore's Tavern (which is one of the locations you can enter the park). It was not super obvious where to go in the park, but there were some beautiful lake areas and we just sortof made our way through there and came out roughly where we expected to.

It was then a short walk to the most important part of the day, Ice Cream, at the Bailey's Bay Ice Cream Parlour. I, of course, got the weirdest possible flavour: Dark & Stormy!

Across the road we finished our explorations at the famous "Swizzle Inn", which has the hilarious motto "Swizzle Inn, Swagger Out" ha. It's a bit of touristy spot, but it felt like part of the true Bermuda experience to go to the place that invented the Rum Swizzle and try one there (MAN it was wayyyy stronger there than anywhere else we tried it!)

That was quite fun and we headed back on the bus afterwards to get us to the beach by the Fairmont Southampton. We sat nicely as the sun was still up and it was still pretty warm, and I did some more snorkeling, seeing more types of fish than the day before.

Here's a video of the fishy explorations of the day:

After some nice time snorkeling and Michal relaxing on the beach, we got changed and headed back to the beach area to go to the Ocean Club, one of the other Fairmont restaurants in the resort area. It was really fabulous and we really enjoyed the food. The view was FANTASTIC, with Bermuda offering us the best sunset of the trip. Glorious! And of course, you gotta start with a tropical beverage!