(written on the 9th from notes taken previously)
Got up super late this morning, an occurrence aided by having parked in a place that turned out to be shady in the morning sun.
Bonus. 😁
And theeeeeeen there was the MJ disposal adventure. 🙃
I went over to the toilets that looked like long drops (because they had the little spinny vent things on top), but they weren’t.
Hmmm… to dispose or not to dispose.
Whenever I use Micro John, I end up using about maybe four times more toilet paper than I would normally use because there’s a whole bunch lining the inside of micro John, so there’s no residue to clean out after dumping.
That extra toilet paper significantly increases the possibility of clogging a toilet, and I think I’ve only ever disposed of Micro John in a flush toilet once.
Surprisingly, it had gone just fine, but I also had a nice little stick to break it up with first. No stick this time, but I decided to give it a go anyway. 🙃
8 flushes.
I’m going to guess that that’s how many it took to get everything gone for good, including a little break apart assistance with a wad of toilet paper.
Much to my embarrassment because there was an old lady sitting in a camp chair right next to the toilets.
She might not have even noticed, but that’s a whole lot of flushes. 😆
I don’t think I’ll be trying that again. 🙃
Anyway, I looked at the news headlines and downloaded a whole bunch of videos and headed off to Clifden Caves, only a handful of minutes away.
One thing I didn’t do when disposing of Micro John’s contents was use the bathroom itself.
And now I needed to. 😆
I thought about using Micro John, But I was only a handful of minutes away from the other toilet, and after just having the disposal experience I had, I figured I’d just drive back and use the toilet.
Simpler. No need to wonder when I’ll have my next disposal opportunity.
At the cave, I chatted with a young lady briefly to see if she knew much about the cave, but she had only gone in a little ways and decided to turn back while her boyfriend kept on going.
Without knowing it, I had actually passed her boyfriend who was walking up the road as I was driving back. I would have stopped to give him a ride, but my van was overloaded with crap everywhere.
Definitely want to dispose of the recyclables and trash and what not, so I have more room for people.
Clifden Caves I think the first cave I’ve ever been to that had reflectors and distance posts marked on the walls of the cave.
There was also graffiti all over. 😞
I really… ugh… just wanna chew out the people that carve and paint their names into nature. 😠
Leave. No. Trace.
And once one person has done it, then it just snowballs, I think. Monkey see, monkey do.
Erg. 😒
I don’t regret the caving experience in this cave. It definitely felt more like a tour with the arrows and numbered distance markers, which… isn’t my favorite 😅, and though there weren’t many formations, there were some that were pretty cool.
I didn’t really do much of any exploring, both because it was a guided enough tour that it was pretty clear that the side passages didn’t go anywhere, and also because with my spine issues the way they are, I just don’t like bending over too much. 😅
I listened to the videos that I’d downloaded as I walked through the cave, mostly about Iran, I think.
The only challenging portion of the cave was a large, round swirl hole, maybe 12 feet in diameter; and I guess it wasn’t so much that it was challenging as an obstacle, so much as it was challenging to do without going in the deeper portion of the water, as you had to make your way along the side holding on to the rock walls of the cave so as to avoid slipping into the deeper area.
The deeper area wasn’t all that deep, maybe a few feet deep at most? But still, when you’re underground, it’s already cold, and that water was frigid.
I used to think that caves underground were all the same temperature once you got to a certain depth. I don’t remember when I learned it, sometime during or after one of my Great Western Roadtrips with my mom (after being in one of the lava tubes on the south side off Mt. St. Helens and having it be super duper cold. I think that’s about when I learned that stable underground temperature was the same as the average temperature for the year–which, on Mount St Helens is not warm. 🙃
Nor is it warm underground in the southern end of the South Island.
Toward the end of the cave, there was a split with one passage going to the right and another going up a ladder. I decided to check out the split that went off to the right, but after a little bit, there was a down climb of maybe 15 ft that was required. It didn’t look super challenging, but I was alone, and an awkward slip could mean an injurious fall.
So I followed my… better judgment? and avoided the down climb (which also would have required an up climb).
It was the most intriguing part of the cave for me, as at the bottom of the down climb, there was a small stream that wound through the cave.
How far might it go? The water in an underground stream or river has to go somewhere. 🙃
Oh well. Maybe next time.
I climbed up the ladder, down climbed another ladder, up climbed a third ladder, and presently found myself at the exit to the cave.
Realizing that I hadn’t paid attention to the very last sign, I went back into the cave to see what number the last of the distance markers was, so I could put that on a Google review if I write one in the future.
26.
There were 26 distance markers, though I have no idea what distance is between each marker.
After getting out of the caves, I straddled a small fence and was surprised to see how short the walk was up the road from where I came out to where I had parked my van next to the entrance.
After walking back to my van, I headed out to follow another dirt road to its end, this time winding my way over to Lake Hauroko, a beautiful lake surrounded by lovely scenery.
And sandflies. Lots of sandflies.
😳
Holy moly that parking area was sandfly hell. 😅
I had gotten out my van to grab something to eat, I think it was, but there were so many sand flies that they descended both upon me and upon the inside of my van in a flash.
Holy. Freaking. Crap. 😳
So I quickly closed the van doors to get back in. (I’ve learned through experience that there’s no sense in trying to shoot out the ones that got in when the number of flies is so large. No matter what you do, I think you just end up with more inside if you leave the door open at all. 😅)
There was an older gentleman (Tony) sitting on a trailer watching me, so I went over to say hello and chat with him.
Which allowed the sandflies to congregate around me. After a little while of shewing them away, I excused myself to go get some bug spray.
Man, sandflies are the devil out here. That said, I think I’ve also noticed that generally they’re the worst in areas that humans frequent. The shady Car Park being much worse than the picnic table by the lake.
In order to survive the sand flies, I invited Tony to walk and talk, so we walked over to the lake, on the dock, and around a little bit before sitting down at a picnic bench to continue our chat.
After a little while of chatting, he needed to gather up his stuff that had been drying in the sun, and I took the opportunity to follow a path that meandered around the lake a little bit.
Many fewer sandflies.
Just got to get away from the places they expect to see humans.
I mean, they’re going to be sand flies just about everywhere in the mountainous areas of the South Island at lower elevations, so you’re not going to get rid of them by walking somewhere else, but it definitely seems like the worst clouds of them are often where people frequent.
That said… I think the thickest sandfly cloud I’ve ever seen was with Chase on a random, large pullout on the side of the road on highway 6 somewhere between Haast and Wanaka
Anyway, after getting back from my walk, I chatted a little bit more with Tony while he sat on a boat trailer, as we both were surrounded by a cloud of sandflies. He handed me his spray bottle, so I sprayed myself down again. 😆
Tony was on a hunting trip, and after chatting with him for a bit longer, we bid each other farewell, and he headed back out into the bush just as a Chinese gentleman got back from his little boat trip on the water, and I chatted with him for a bit.
It was pretty sobering to chat with the Chinese guy. He had been living in New Zealand for something like 19 years? but was still afraid of retribution from China (I think if he said or did anything in opposition to China. He was actually afraid for his safety.).
😶
Man, I’m lucky to live in the United States.
My conversation with the Chinese gentleman was relatively brief, comparatively.
After bidding him farewell, I meandered back along the road to the same freedom-camping spot by the bridge that I had stayed at last night, veged out for a bit, and called it a night.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 