visit to the caves

Sleep in this morning - breakfast not till 8am - training today is between 5 and 6. We needed to take some time away from the accommodation environment and headed for the mountains and a wonderful cave system which we were able to tour. This involved walking up from a car park through forest up a steep path to a building which fronts the cave system. The woodland is full of wild flowers which we grow in our perennial gardens in New Zealand and it was beautiful to see them all growing in their natural environments (well to one of us at least) Martin and Pavel negotiated a discount for us - 6 Euros entry and another 8 Euros per camera if you wanted to take photos inside (we have to own up to the fact that nobody paid this so the photos below have been taken illegally). Everybody headed off into the huge underground limestone cave system with a guide. The cave system is actually 8.4km long with many many side tunnels and caves leading off the main route. The trip we did was about 1.7km of steeply descending and ascending steps and paths with guard rails protecting us from drops, numerous small clear ponds and the river which had originally cut the cave system through the limestone. The caves were discovered in the early 1920's and opened to the public for tours in the 1930's. There was water everywhere with humidity 95% and the air temperature was 6degrees C. It was a fascinating trip seeing the stalactites and stalagmites and heaps of other limestone growths some of which looked like lilly pads in the clear ponds, others which looked like huge waterfalls made of deposits in gold, white and grey and others which looked just like fossilised sewerage. Five minutes into the cave we had to wait while a hyperventilating tourist from another group was lead back out of the cave by our guide otherwise it was a very slick operation which is part of a world conservation agreement.

debrief outside cave entrance

Pavel and Matthew warming up after exiting the cave

extra clear water pond in the cave (photo by Deahna)

underground wishing well

walkway through large cavern

Tommy 

Malcolm

Quick visit to Tescos for yet more groceries, home for lunch and a relax for the kids and off to the course at 3pm for a pre-race run through to simulate race day before they did their full runs. New signage up on the side of the new building, more marquees and heaps more boats and vehicles at the course. Dale and Wendy went and collected Kellie Bailey from the railway station. She had traveled from Prague by train and is here in an official capacity as a judge for the ICF.  Jess was very pleased to see her and Kellie was put straight to work by Aaron taking photos with his camera. Full runs went well for the kids and they are still learning from talking to the coaches after each run and watching video review when we get home. It is interesting to watch them walking up and down the course observing the other paddlers. Kellie came home with us for tea and then we dropped her to her ICF accommodation. Another site seeing trip planned for tomorrow before our very late training session at 8pm in the evening.