i knew there was a reason i go caving...

i'm back! well, i was back on monday. but i was busy recovering from the holiday. then i had missed homework to catch up on, personal tutoring prep, an essay to plan and some more recovering to do. but with all that out of the way i feel i can now reflect on what was, without a doubt, an awesome holiday.

i'll focus on the caving for now, as i'm only allowed 5 pics per post and, handily, i managed to fit in 5 caving trips while in mallorca.

the first, on my first full day out there (taking us out of one of the two days of glorious sunshine), was forat 502, on the cap de formentor peninsula:

check us out in our sunnies!

this cave had loads of pretty stuff, and, despite advice to the contrary, was a nice easy walk and easy to find. it also gave me a chance to try out my sexy new backback for the first time. it's amazing, btw. the pretties (cave formations made of calcite such as stalagmites etc... for the non cavers out there) however were grossly overshadowed two days later by those in penya rotja:

i know. it's barely a pic of the entrance. i'm waiting on better pics

another nice, though slightly longer walk, and no dangling on ropes make this a very accesible cave. and the formations in there are just out of this world. and everywhere. literally everywhere.

this was a big case of unfinished business for me as i'd spent 3 days trying to get to see the pretties in this sodding cave 2 years ago. all is forgiven now.

i thought i'd be hard to top. the next day i was proved wrong...

mitjana, aka heaven

the above cave, mitjana, almost evaded us. half an hour scrambling round on karst cliff later though, and i finally spoted the entrance.

accompanied by mike, and only one helmet between us, we descended a fixed 5m ladder into the most spectacular cave i've ever seen. i'm sure there's better, just not that i've laid eyes on. the cave had the sea coming in forming a pool throughout most of it, and edging that was a beach! a beach, in a cave!

the rest of the group joined us (10 of us in total) and we stripped down to undies to frolic in the sea, natch. the pretties, formed underwater, resembled brains, or cauliflowers. though those words don't seem to do them justice. i'm gonna stop rambling. i litterally don't have the words for this place.

the next day was almost a fail, having caved and managed 2 runs (that's right people, 2 runs in one day!) the day before. but eventually we dragged ourelves out to sa campana, another cave which had eluded me on previous trips.

one of the many mahoosive formations, who says size doesn't matter?

this cave boasts the largest chambers on the island. and my god did it deliver. the place was huge. really huge. so huge it was a bit overwhelming.

it was well decorated, but i think i preferred the intimacy of the caves we'd been in so far. still, it's a cave 'that has to be seen', and seen it was.

the next day we headed to fra rafel. the easiest walk so far: 20 or so minutes on level ground. so i opted to pack the rope bag in the top of my pack, as well as the 4 or so litres of water i was carrying as standard, and my srt kit. couldn't have things getting too easy now! (shut up men, i know you carry this much all the time, but i'm a girl, ok? good).

a bit of faffing with the rigging (rope too short, d'oh! it's ok, we'll just use the handline that is suggested for later in the cave. and hope it's ok) and we were in. at first we were all a bit underwhelmed, having seen some pretty spectacular stuff thus far. but a dodgy climb down a slope next to a fairly deep looking pot (ah, so that'll be what the handline is for then) led us to the promised pretties:

just one of the many 'popcorn' encrusted surfaces, as we'd termed them

the lower level had swathes of pretties like those above coating it's walls where it had obviously been filled with water at some previous time. then a bit of a scramble up to the left, on the way out, led to a spectaular gallery filled with straws, stalagmites, columns, helictites, gour pools, curtains... you name it, it was there. all in all, another trip very worth doing.

the thing that struck me about all of the caves was not just the volume of calcite in the caves, or the ease of access (ok, you have to fly to mallorca...), but the widely differing nature of the pretties in each of the caves i visited.

i get asked very often what the attraction is of caving. i've often struggled to answer. in future i'll direct them to these photos.

more coming up about canyoning, running and flower arranging in mallorca when i'm recovering from my half marathon. tomorrow. eek.

jin x

77 days to go...