hello all,
i finally have internet in my flat! glory be! although the internet is a bit finickity and sometimes chooses to not respond when i attempt to connect. generally though the signal is pretty good and hopefully i will be able to update more frequently. katie COUGH COUGH. i will take my uglydoll to the top of skytower if it means provoking more photos of babo in scotland! i eagerly await more photos of babo's misadventures. but for the time being, i thought i would post a few pictures of my own orientation travels and beyond. i'm in the process of getting a new camera but i've been pilfering photographs from my snap-happy friends to document the incredible day-to-day activities here. the title of my post is in reference to the dotting of small purple-green-black brusies on my shins, legs, elbows and arms, including a pretty spectacular and jagged tadpole-shaped one on the inside of my arm that is about 4 inches long (including the tail!). i don't want to oversell it - i'm not too beaten up, but when paired with my fair irish skin such items tend to present much more vigorously. i am in the process of getting the photographs of our caving trip to Waitomo, which was without a doubt one of the most incredible natural wonders i've yet to witness. in the briefest of terms, we went with a very down-home, no-frills tour experience who loaded me, ayelet, kevin, maura, micah, and another lady who joined out tour last minute into a turbo van and drove us 20 minutes out into gravel roads on the crests of hills and to our portal of entry into the underground world. we abseiled 90 feet (i read the wrong brochure!) to the cave floor where an undergrou
nd river coursed from one hole of darkness to another hole of darkness. we were given tubes and told to walk upstream in our sweet wetsuits and helmets (functioning light included!) until the light from the mouth of the cave had essentially faded and we were in the dark with water rushing around us. the further into the cave and the darker it became, the more we noticed a faint glow coming from the ceiling of the cave, and it became clearer as it became darker that the ceiling of the cave was covered with glow-worms, thousands and thousands of them, forming what looked like constellations of stars all positioned just so. our guide had us continue walking to the end of the cave, navigating through water up to chest height and back down to ankle-depth, admiring the countless stalagmites and stalactites that were hundreds if not thousands of years old. once we reached the end of the cave, our guide had us all form a train with our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us and walk back to a point where the river was wide enough to tube. we got into our tubes and were told to shut our lights off and everyone fell silent as we floated slowly down the river in the dark underneath the thousand tiny lights of the glow worms. it was breathakingly beautiful. and after coming back out into the light we we continued on into the other half of the cave, and into the rapids! kevin got stuck between two rocks in front of me and my tube crashed into his and i went completely upside down and got sucked under! it was pretty hilarious, i had to let everyone else tube by as i dripped and sputtered everywhere. we tubed until it got too shallow and then hiked and clambered to the end of that cave, sneaking through narrow tunnels and falling down chutes and slithering on our hands and knees through passages (note: where and how i beat the hell out of my elbows), and reached the end. I saw a cave weta!! It was more cool than gross. We had tea in the dark from a flash provided by our fearless leader, and then we trekked back upstream (note: where i fell and got my tadpole bruise) and when we made it back out into the light, we had to rock climb almost the whole 90 feet up back to where we started. i was petrified and excited, and there were two very tricky parts, but after i pushed myself off of a rock face behind me and hauled myself over the side i felt like i could do anything. when we had all made it to victory we loaded back in the van and collapsed in tired joy on the way back to base camp. it was a wet, slimy, awesome, awesome day.
nd river coursed from one hole of darkness to another hole of darkness. we were given tubes and told to walk upstream in our sweet wetsuits and helmets (functioning light included!) until the light from the mouth of the cave had essentially faded and we were in the dark with water rushing around us. the further into the cave and the darker it became, the more we noticed a faint glow coming from the ceiling of the cave, and it became clearer as it became darker that the ceiling of the cave was covered with glow-worms, thousands and thousands of them, forming what looked like constellations of stars all positioned just so. our guide had us continue walking to the end of the cave, navigating through water up to chest height and back down to ankle-depth, admiring the countless stalagmites and stalactites that were hundreds if not thousands of years old. once we reached the end of the cave, our guide had us all form a train with our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us and walk back to a point where the river was wide enough to tube. we got into our tubes and were told to shut our lights off and everyone fell silent as we floated slowly down the river in the dark underneath the thousand tiny lights of the glow worms. it was breathakingly beautiful. and after coming back out into the light we we continued on into the other half of the cave, and into the rapids! kevin got stuck between two rocks in front of me and my tube crashed into his and i went completely upside down and got sucked under! it was pretty hilarious, i had to let everyone else tube by as i dripped and sputtered everywhere. we tubed until it got too shallow and then hiked and clambered to the end of that cave, sneaking through narrow tunnels and falling down chutes and slithering on our hands and knees through passages (note: where and how i beat the hell out of my elbows), and reached the end. I saw a cave weta!! It was more cool than gross. We had tea in the dark from a flash provided by our fearless leader, and then we trekked back upstream (note: where i fell and got my tadpole bruise) and when we made it back out into the light, we had to rock climb almost the whole 90 feet up back to where we started. i was petrified and excited, and there were two very tricky parts, but after i pushed myself off of a rock face behind me and hauled myself over the side i felt like i could do anything. when we had all made it to victory we loaded back in the van and collapsed in tired joy on the way back to base camp. it was a wet, slimy, awesome, awesome day.
obviously that is not me, but its the promotional shot the company uses to show the glow worms!! i hope i can add my own soon! xx.
that sounds awesome and epic! i'm glad that you didn't die! :)
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