Jellyfish Lake - Worth The Wait

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Linda read about Jellyfish Lake in Palau some twenty years ago and added it to her Things To Do List. On Saturday she checked this one off her list after diving the Blue Hole and Blue Corner for the second time. As we arrived at the dock serving Jellyfish Lake, we noted the Latitude and Longitude, for it is a Virtual Geocache location. See Goecaching.com.

This landlocked lake is home to thousands and thousands of jellyfish that over the eons have traded their stinging ability for a daily migration pattern across the lake. The lake is brackish and it is a steep climb from the sea level dock up over the limestone ridge and then back down to the the lakeside dock. It's not all that easy carrying mask, snorkel, fins, cameras, etc.

Linda approaches the top of the ridge before descending to lake level.




Bill rests. After all, he was 90 feet below the surface just ninety minutes ago.

The lake is surrounded to the shore with thick jungle vegetation. The dock provides easy access to the water which is warm and comfortable. Linda described it as surreal and unbelievably relaxing.

Others might think it claustrophobic as after a brief swim you are surrounded by thousands of small, medium, and larger yellow jellyfish. They are bumping you, staring into your mask, swishing about your fins, arms, and legs while they pulse to wherever they're going.

Many fit in your hand nicely. Others are just babies about the size of a quarter and they pulse along much faster than their older siblings. You can see that they have maintained their jellyfish figure, but lack those stinging tentacles that make the Box Jelly the most deadly animal in Australia.

Linda holds a fairly large specimen and between breaths announces, "They are so cute!"  Yep, Jellyfish Lake, is worth twenty years of waiting.   You can find a video of the lake on You Tube.

Until tomorrow, B and L