The famous caves in the northern Yasawa hide deep caverns and legends of snakes, pregnant women, and a love making rock that is said to be as soft as skin. Chef gets special permission from the cave keeper to cook inside the sacred caves as the legends of Sawa-i-Lau Islands are revealed.
The locals here often say that Sawa i Lau Island is the heart of the Yasawa and Fiji. It is where the mana, the magic of this country, is hidden they believe.
The island is a distinct limestone rock rising 1000 feet above sea level and located off Nabukeru Village.
Sawa-i-Lau is owned by the people of Tokatoka Koro and the mataqali Koro of Nabukeru, and you can get there by Captain Cook Cruises or the Yasawa Flyer.
According to our guide for the day known as the cave keeper, the island is riddled with caves with multiple chambers and hidden underwater alcoves.
There was something dark and mysterious about this sacred place. You can feel it and sense the history of the myths and legends. This is a very special place for Fijians.
Legends of the caves
On the entrance to the main cave, there are inscriptions on the walls, which have long puzzled archeologists.
Our guide recalls that a team of international archeologists visited the caves some years ago to see the writings. Is it graffiti or a message left by higher beings?
The caves are also the resting ground of the legendary 10 headed god, Ulutini. Each chamber of the caves represents each of the god’s nine snake heads.
The 10th resembled a human head. But no snakes can live here. This was tested by villagers who brought a snake in a bottle, but it died before reaching the island.
Legend has it that the snake god’s central human face possesses angelic beauty that is almost too much for any mortal’s gaze to behold. In its forehead is a shimmering stone, which is the source of its mana.
The villagers also claim that the caves are home to two fish Dema Leka and Damu Balavu, as well as Donu (an eel).
The story goes that they have lived their forever without ever breeding, changing, growing or dying. Protected by the magic of the caves.
One of the most popular legends of the Sau-i-Lau caves in the Yasawas is that one of the chambers is said to be the pregnancy cave.
That cave can be entered by everyone of any shape or size, except a woman who is pregnant and hiding it.
Even the slimmest of pregnant women will get stuck in there, our guides says. So for women who want an alternative pregnancy test — these caves might be the place to come. Which gives me an idea for my first recipe in tonight’s episode; a hot and sour fish soup, designed especially for pregnant women who want the benefits of fish soup with the sour medicine of lemons and tomatoes.
Tonight’s recipes
We start off tonight with a really easy chicken and okra salad, tossed in a mango mayonnaise which is now made in Fiji under the Tiffin brand.
Balancing on a floating board wasn’t easy and you may get a glimpse of my assistant sous chef as he tries to keep me in the middle of the lagoon, paddling underwater with his snorkel and goggles. Great fun!
It’s been a while since I used whole prawns in my cooking so I decided to add two prawn dishes; one cooked on my trusty high pressure burner from Fiji Gas, and the other is a hot stone version in which I cook butterflied prawns with a marinade of coconut oil, basil and garlic.
Cooking on stones is fun, especially if you already have a wood fire already going, but make sure you get a solid rock and not a sand rock.
The second prawn dish is cooked in the last segment as I wanted to give the hard working villagers a treat for their journey home.
The sticky prawn recipe was created out of the last two ingredients I still had in my box, tamarind chutney and honey.
This is a dead easy recipe that will have you licking your fingers as you crunch on whole prawns, with or without their shells on.
The caves and legends are well worth the trip to the northern Yasawas, and should be on everyone’s bucket list.
Another well kept secret of the caves is a special love nest, where romantic couples go off to play.
Hidden deep inside the cavern, it has flat rock that is as soft as a mattress and so smooth that neither the man nor woman remembers it’s a hard rock. I didn’t get to test it out but my Fiji TV cameraman assures me it’s all true. Or so I’m told …
* Lance Seeto is the award winning chef based on Mana Island, and is Fiji Airways’ Culinary Ambassador and host of Fiji TV’s Taste of
Paradise. Sunday 7.30pm only on Fiji One and online at tasteofparadise.tv
