rejuvenated
ev1ldonut and I went to a cave near Symonds Yat with sacha37, Jo, Mungo, flannelcat, penguin_worship, chaosdeathfish, oxfordgirl and agentfluffy. I hadn't seen chaosdeathfish for years - we used to go to college together; it was really nice to see him again. Hopefully I'll see some more of him now he's moved to Oxford. It was also nice to meet oxfordgirl too :)I stubbornly tried to get some tough DIY done on Saturday morning before we left, and actually got quite far before
ev1ldonut came to the rescue as I was seriously flagging. We have been fighting off a bug; ev1ldonut had been off work and kissycat1000 was feeling very run down but somehow I seem to have missed it (so far), despite the stubborn DIY attempt. Luckily, ev1ldonut was well enough to come, but kissycat1000 wasn't up to it, which was a shame.The trek up to the site was very steep and slippery. We had loads of gear, plus I was carrying a bunch of logs brought from home for firewood; I tripped and fell just getting onto the path and sprained my right thumb a fair bit and my wrist a little. So out of breath, but then I did have lots of beer and food in my bag :)
When we finally arrived, we had to descend down something I would have to describe as a ravine. We couldn't simply progress as before, but had to form a human chain and pass bags down to the bottom. It has to be said that the bottom of the ravine claimed three injury victims in all I believe - none very serious, but certainly a few bruises and a bashed coccyx.. :/
We ate, drank and were merry, including dreaming up a solution to the world energy crisis based on the principle of a torch you shake to charge in combination with the world's population of teenage boys.. :) Some songs were sung to flute and guitar as well, not that I happened to know (m)any of them ;) The place was beautiful. Although it rained, the tree cover was dense enough that only the rain later on Sunday morning proved enough to penetrate to the forest floor in any serious manner.
Mungo and
ev1ldonut preparing the fire
The cave in panoramic view
Tea lights dotted around the place :)
Two caves, two tea lights
Jo in profile
Jo perched on a rock
ev1ldonut by homemade-lamp lightAll in all, a very rejuvinating weekend, despite all the physical effort. I'm contemplating LARP as a fun way to get some exercise and increase my exposure to the outdoors :)
UPDATE:
ev1ldonut has made a post here. 