Underground... Overground.....Wombling Free...in Black Chasm Cavern...

Final day of our Gold Country camping adventure and today's excitement was to be a trip down into the spooky depths of the Black Chasm Cavern!  I'd figured out my inflatable mattress better this time, so getting up out of it wasn't quite as inelegant as it had been the day before - though I was still carrying quite a digestive load from last night's gastronomic feast, so it was by no means sprightly!   My new stove had done an admirable job last night (I am still LOVING the experience of camping cooking without the fear of losing eyebrows or blowing myself up), so it was called into action again this morning to make the all-important First Cup of Tea of The Day and to see whether the toast-making assemblage worked.

Fabulous.  It worked a treat.

I think it actually might be the same piece of kit that Dad uses back in Cyprus (it seemed vaguely familiar), so after I'd de-origami-ed it and figured out which bit clipped where, i duly slotted in the bread, cranked up the stove and waited for the toasty magic to happen.   Now, i'm not sure its absolutely the very best design in Toaster Engineering (you may remember a very early blog post several years back where I did actually test the claims of the Toaster Quality Institute that guaranteed perfectly equally browned toast for a Murphy Richards toaster - I think it was a slow weekend) but what it lacked in sophistication, it made up for in enthusiasm.  And so it made a perfectly decent breakfast, with the remainder of the little fart nuggets from the night before topping it off.   Mmm-mm-mmmmmm.

After brekkie, it was time to break camp.  Fortunately, dismantling my spare MSR tent was significantly less hassle than putting the damn thing up, so we were pretty much packed up and ready to go in just over an hour.  There was one pesky tent peg which I just couldn't jimmy back out of the ground (i obviously didn't realize my own strength when hammering that sucker in), so after ten minutes of alternately trying to coax it, then cuss it, out of the ground, I took the smart approach and just bashed it all the way in, level with the ground, and left it there.  Not exactly "Leave No Trace" I guess, but I covered it up with leaves and dirt such that I couldn't see it, so I figured that counted.

The Camping Chariot, packed
 up and ready for Chasm Chaos

The Black Chasm Cavern was only about 5 miles from the campground so it was the perfect little excursion before hitting the road and heading home.   There are loads of underground caves and caverns in this part of the country and, as Lori had never visited one before, I figured it would be a fun experience.  I still remember the massive cavern and underground labyrinth of caves and stalactites that Mum and I visited many, many years ago - unfortunately, I can't remember where we were! (this was obviously in the pre-blogging era).  I think it might have been somewhere in Austria as I seem to recall it was a very efficient tour..

Anyway, this one was not on the same scale but it was supposed to have a certain type of limestone formation that is only found in a couple of other places in the whole country.  So, it may be smaller but it promised to be spectacular, nonetheless.  Here is the link to their website so you can take your own tour round: http://www.caverntours.com/BlackRt.htm.

Going underground.....

We found it fairly easily and arrived just after 11am, so had a bit of time to relax, chill out and eat lunch before the next tour set off at 12pm.  There were a couple of picnic tables under some trees, so it was nice to sit and eat crisp sandwiches with salad cream, washed down with lashings of creme eggs and the remaining Cadbury's from last night.  (I know, I know - its not on my meal plan - that starts again soon!).  This time there were loads of people about, all accompanied by a plethora of kids in various states of disgruntled-ness.   So, it was not terribly peaceful, but I just put my New York ears on, and tuned them out as best I could.

12pm arrived, bang on time, and it was time to assemble and join our chirpy guide for our 45min walking tour down into the Chasm.  He was a nice enough chap, if a little stiff in his delivery of his rote script, and - after lots of sombre and severe warnings Not To Touch Anything Because It Won't Grow Back For An Eternity - we were on our way.  Its a little hard to convey in the pics below how cool this place was - but it was very impressive indeed!  There were three main areas that we stopped in and looked around - all linked by a staircase that was a little steep in places, so you had to pay attention where you were going. Apparently, there haven't been any instances of people falling to their deaths in the cavern, but there was a story of this one guy who did fall 149ft - but miraculously somehow survived the plunge.   Though he did break pretty much every bone in his body, is completely paralyzed and - in a rather gruesome detail the more squeamish of you may wish to skip to the next paragraph to avoid - when he was found, apparently his body was completely twisted around, such that the front part of his torso was facing the back, like a misaligned Russian doll.  Yikes.

Tall spiky thing.

Spooky spiky thing

Fortunately my dyspraxia co-operated for once and kept itself in check long enough for me to get round the Cavern and back out again without significant bodily injury.  As we were guided through the various parts of the chasm, it was apparently de rigeour to assign shapes and identities to the various rock formations - there were angels, cats, witches, ice-cream, wizards, Italy (that one was mine) and a whale.  This last shape was identified by a particularly interesting lady on the tour who, upon having her claim of a whale acknowledged by the tour guide (who's probably heard it all), then proclaimed loudly to the rest of the group that its because she has a degree in Art and Design that she can spot these things.  She then proclaimed even more loudly to her boyfriend (who'd wandered off bored) that she'd found a whale, she'd found a whale and he had to come and look.  When he made no move to walk back to see what she was on about (either because he hadn't heard her or - more likely - that he, too, had put his New York City ears on), she physically went and got him and dragged him back to where she'd seen her whale.  "There!"  "Look!"  "It's a whale"  "Can you see it?"  "I spotted it"  "I think its because I have an Art degree"

Needy, much?

Fortunately, it was getting near the end of the tour, so we didn't have to listen to Needy Whale Lady's boasting and preening for much longer.  With a couple of final pictures of the very impressive extrusions, it was time to head airside (a technical term for us expert cave-explorers) and hit the road, homeward bound.  Yet another fabulous weekend - thanks, Lori for the great suggestion!!  Enjoy the pics below - its best to click on them so you can view them full-size.

Crazy, huh?

Ice-cream 

Gratuitous Additional Camping Stove Pictures:

S'mores-gasbord!  Dairy Milk-style.
Gotta LOVE camping gadgets!

That's a mighty fine supper right there, that is.
Bangers and beans.  

ps alas, I didn't find any Wombles.