Well now, my dear website...

I spent much of today typing in old letters, and going through memories. I am living completely in the past -which shouldn't be all that surprising; what can be expected when one returns to the old home town. I am not a part of anything which is happening here Now, it is only reminiscences. There are only memories here. I am not saying that that is all that is here for me. It is just that it would take time before I would be a part of this world, this town again.

At any rate, I thought that I should write of all that DOES happen here now. There have been Interesting memories, and meetings with people of my past. And some totally new experiences too.

One of the meetings, was with my ... Mother's cousin. For me, he is an archetypal West-coast Naturalist. He has gone to India, and around Asia, for the heck of it, more or less. (Not that I am downplaying the worth of such a thing. Far from it! I have such respect for interest in other cultures, and general curiosity.) And he did lots of Greenpeace-type work while he was there, and various Hippy, Helpful selfless things. He is also interested in Music, and the Mathematics of nature, and sound, and spirituality (I think,) and ... well. He was the essence of a life style for me.

What I am meaning to write about here though, is the caving at Horn Lake. I went there Aug. 3, as a late Birthday gift from my mom. And I went on the extreme tour of the caves. That is what I am writing about here.

We had to start from home pretty early, because it was a good hour and 10 min. to get to this site. I was a little tired, but wide awake, because I had trouble sleeping that night; I was so excited about going to the caves, and so over-aware about the need to rise early in the morning. I ended up just worrying and thinking most of the night. And then, after I got to sleep, I woke up twice before my alarm, thinking "It must be time to get up now." It wasn't especially bad, but it was annoying.

Anyhow, on arriving, I met a couple from Michigan who were also taking the tour, and "Dusty," who would be our guide. My mom left, to her appointments of the day, and we went to the rock-face. Not into the caves, no no no... first we had to learn how to repel down a sheer rock face. This was, after all, the Extreme tour. This was a blast. Out on a mountain morning, in the sun, hanging horizontal for the first time in your life. I think we only went down that face 3 times each, but it took a while. We were learning what to do with the ropes before and after, and such things. I enjoyed it well, and it came fairly easily, after my years of body training. The only difficulty was convincing my body that Horizontal was the right way to be. It felt unnatural to maintain that orientation; Vertical is simply what I'm programmed to do.

Well, then we had a break for lunch, which a had with the two Americans. They were nice people. After that, we just had to wait for the last two who were joining us, (and they were some 15 minutes late,) and then we all went up to the entrance. This was a 40 minute walk uphill, in warm weather, too. But we had plenty of little pauses on the way, where Dusty explained the history of the caves, how they formed, and about what we'd be seeing in them. Then we got suited up.

Now, I don't know if anyone would be interested in what is worn when you go caving, but I'm going to go through that now. If you'd rather not know, then skip this paragraph. We all had good, waterproof boots, and thick socks. All the others had synthetic fibbers for their underlayers. This is because if cotton gets wet, it really sucks out body heat. And that's something that matters, because there's no fast way to get out of the caves, and it's a cool 8 degrees, all the time there. Then we all had knee pads, (which I had to borrow from Dusty,) for sliding on our bellies, which we had gloves for too. Then there were the overalls, to keep our own clothes from getting snagged and ripped, and dirty. (and for the extra bit of warmth.) And on top, is the hard-hat, with the light on the front. There were also the harnesses, but we only put those on after we were in the caves.

So, we were prepared, and down we went. How could I describe what it was like? There were narrow parts, where it was under a foot wide. (and you do your absolute best not to touch the walls. It was all Flow-Stone, a kind of Calcite, which picks up dirt easily, and grows slower than glaciers. There were also low parts, where we went from low hands and knees crawling, to an outright belly squirm. That could get claustrophobic for people; when there's someone else's feet near in front of you, and not even enough height to raise your head, and it's too narrow to look behind you, and there's Darkness all about. I was glad not to have felt any of that at the time.

There were many parts of great beauty, -overwhelming beauty. Because it's one thing to see a little foot high formation, of nicely colored rocks... it's another to come up to the edge of a 40 meter hole, that's 20 meters across, with the entire far wall solid flow stone. More than the eye can hold. And it's all so delicate. And... you just Feel, you Know, that it hasn't been disturbed for the last 4000 years. It Couldn't have been. If it had been disturbed, it could have been broken, and it wouldn't be there. Now, to add the final touch to such an experience, you only have the light shone on a view like that, when you're suspended 20 meters above the ground, sticking out from the wall.

I could never describe it.

And there were downright interesting things that were near the bottom of this: there were some kind of Fly Larva in the pools at the end, which were 2 inches long. They were washed down there in the spring, when the river was flowing through. There were three Sprouts: Seeds that had been washed down, and were making a hell of a go at growing... 2 hours from any sun light. The roots plus the tops were some 25 cm long. It made me think about just how much energy is stored in one little seed; If it's able to grow and live for that long, with no nutrients or light?

The only other life down there, was of a much lesser type, but still so rare that we only saw four examples of it: Moulds. It could not normally grow there, because there's nothing to grow mouldy. But, when people go on these extreme tours, like I did, they may bring along a snack. And they may drop a crumb. And that's what someone had done in there. One miniscule crumb, a bread crumb for example, as small as a bit of sand... but it's left in the dampness there. In the constant temperature, in the 100 percent humidity, where there is Nothing at all to disturb it, Not even the smallest breeze. And that itsy-bitsy crumb grows a ball of fluffy white mold 3 or 4 cm across. It was amazing. I couldn't even imagine what a drop of yoghurt could turn into.

What else is there to tell? More amazing calcite formations, or, to use the technical term, Speleothemes. (Don't I feel clever now?) And I'd love to find out what other languages have seen in these formations; Would it be a direct translation of Soda-Straw? Of Bacon? Of Popcorn? Of Brain rock? Of Cave Pearls? (Surely: There could have been a nation with caves and things, but no Oysters.) And all those things we saw in these caves.

One effect, that was stunning, and ... complete, and immeasurably effective, was when we had just rappelled down 20 meters, and then turned off our lights; So, the only illumination came from the little opening up the cave wall, where the other people were. And then we watched this little light come into the cavern, and start to make it's way downwards towards us.

There was also a similar thing, when we'd turn off our lights while waiting for someone to catch up with us. And there you were in a totally dark tunnel, with only a faint light coming from one direction... and that light was moving. And you got such a different emotion from within yourself, if that light was moving closer, or further. There was even a strong feeling when it was just plain animated, without it approaching or receding.

It's a little strange; I couldn't find anything to really say about this the first few days following... and there are still things I can not really say. But there are impressions, and images that have been deeply impressed into my thoughts. And they don't seem too near to fading.

It is really late now though, so I had better get to sleep. I feel better though, now, having realised that this experience was something special to me, and that I wasn't just ... deaf to what it had to offer. (And I feared it was a little that way, for I've been feeling that it was Kind of Interesting to have seen that, but that it wasn't all that special. Not really.)

It was Art. It was a side of Nature that is not often experienced. And I have been there. And Now... I Sleep.