Caves!

[asakiyume]

Yesterday we went to visit the healing angel, who lives in an apartment nestled up against a steep hill topped by impressive towers of rock in which are ... the Sunderland Caves. We didn't actually know there would be cave-caves. We thought it would be mainly things like this overhang:



But then we rounded a corner and felt a sudden breath of cold air ("Wow, this is ... very Lovecraftian," said the healing angel). With a little exploring, we found an entrance.

Here the healing angel looks into the cave:



It was very dark within. We had to use the lights on our phones. Here's a look back at the entrance:



Light from a chimney shone in:



Here's the chimney from above--don't fall in there (*shudder*)




There was a drop of about ten or fifteen feet, into the dark. There was a fairly easy way down, but see previous: (a) huge drop and (b) dark. Eventually I managed to slither down and join the healing angel and wakanomori. There were some cute pseudo cave paintings:



Back on the outside, the healing angel posed on this stone formation:



She then started to walk round it...



But at just the point where I took the photo, we all heard a sharp hiss. Like a snake, or like air being released from a tire. But we couldn't see evidence of anything making the noise; everything was still. "Mmmm, I'm just not going to walk this way," the healing angel said, and she came back around, and we continued on our way. On our return journey we came across the spot from the other direction. Again Valerie looked in. Again we heard a sharp hiss. Again we could see *absolutely nothing*, nor was there any scurrying or anything.

Most Odd.

On our way down the hillside, the light was magnificent.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Love the pink hair! :o)

[asakiyume]

^_^

She's very stylish!

[queenoftheskies]

That looks like such a FUN time!

And the scenery is to die for.

[asakiyume]

It was very fun!

[minoanmiss]

Thank you for taking us on this adventure with you!

[asakiyume]

My pleasure--thank you for coming along!

[ellenmillion]

Marvelous!!

[asakiyume]

It was a perfect afternoon!

[mallorys_camera]

You're a braver man than I am, Gunga Din! 😊

[asakiyume]

I nearly didn't do it! I had to get Wakanomori and the healing angel to go on ahead so I didn't feel so pressured.

[sartorias]

The lighting in that last pic is gorgeous, so autumnal!

The caves are weird. I'd be freaked by the hiss, too.

[asakiyume]

I just can't think what the hiss could be! And yeah--the light was magnificent.

[sovay]

On our way down the hillside, the light was magnificent.

This is a beautiful set of photographs altogether, including of your daughter! I think it is so neat that you got actual caves. And maybe things inside them.

[asakiyume]

I was wondering if spatch had ever been up to them.

including of your daughter --She has changed A Lot since the early days of this journal. Doing the math... she was only eight when I began it.

[sovay]

I was wondering if spatch had ever been up to them.

I'll ask him!

Doing the math... she was only eight when I began it.

I can't even remember if I'd seen photographs of her before. Even if so, she seems to have become very much her own person.

[asakiyume]

*She* is not a big fan of this video, but I adore it; it's from 2008, two years after I started the journal.

[sovay]

*She* is not a big fan of this video, but I adore it; it's from 2008, two years after I started the journal.

She is both articulate and adorable, I'm sorry.

[asakiyume]

That's what I think! And I can see a whole lot of the adult mannerisms in the small person ^_^

[cmcmck]

Photos of 'before' can be problematic of course.

[asakiyume]

That probably has something/a lot to do with it. Plus, what can seem adorable to a parent can seem dorky to the person themself.

[athenais]

I once got a warning from a large stone in the Avebury circle. I'd been walking around it in the sunshine, putting my hand on each one. On one of them I got a cold surge that ran from my hand on it straight up my arm like it was heading for my heart. I snatched it back like I'd been burned. I didn't say anything about to my friend who was with me but a few stones behind. A short while later she also put her hand on that stone and did the same involuntary snatching her hand back thing. "Cold!" she said. "Yikes. I don't think it wants anyone touching it."

Respecting the hiss was undoubtedly exactly the right thing to do.

[asakiyume]

Yeah.

Everything was so *ordinary*, and then the hiss was just uncanny.

[hyba]

Wow, that looks lovely! It's great to get some hiking and fresh air. I love walking and adore nature but unfortunately have never lived anywhere where I can actually go out on hikes. Looks like you had fun! (Glad you steered clear of that chimney, too - and that hissing noise is particularly ominous! Did you ever find out what it might have been?)

[asakiyume]

We did have fun!

We never did come up with an adequate hypothesis for the hiss. The healing angel had a bottle of water with her--if she drank from it and closed it and the seal wasn't good, maybe that could have caused the hiss, but then she would have had to drink it and close it poorly both times, and I just don't think she did. Plus, the sound wasn't quite that sort of a sound. Maybe the wind could somehow do it? But it wasn't really a very breezy day. Maybe it was a snake in the rocks--but it would have had to be a snake that didn't decide to slither away when we came. Just altogether mysterious.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Fun day and gorgeous light indeed!

[asakiyume]

Sometimes you get blessed with a great afternoon--that was one such time!