The Adventure to Jupiter's Hole

There are a number of really nice walking trails around this area and today we decided to follow one of the paths down to a place called Jupiter's Hole. It was a lovely day, a decent temperature for walking without it being too hot and clear blue skies made for some beautiful photos, all of which can be seen in my Picasa album for those of you interested.

I really could have done with some walking boots for this trip, lose stones and very uneven ground made things very difficult in my flimsy old trainers and I'm amazed I didn't twist my ankle at some point. Nevertheless, the walk was most enjoyable and when we got to the caves at the bottom, I had to go and have a look. This is where things became somewhat difficult. We didn't have any climbing equipment, I was wearing jeans and between me and my step brother, we had one pathetic old torch that wasn't very powerful and just about allowed the person holding it to see a few feet in front of them. I got across the first couple of hurdles and was fifty or so metres into the cave when I had to stop and admit defeat. The lack of light had become so prohibitive that I made the sacrifice and stayed put, allowing my step brother to continue onwards with the torch.

I had found a nice stable rock to sit on and I waited for him to continue on exploring the cave. As he went round the corner, the already pretty dark cave became pitch black. I've never experienced anything quite so dark before, you really couldn't see anything, not even your hand in front of your face. I'll be honest, it was a little terrifying, not just because darkness instils a innate sense of fear of what might be lurking around you when your most useful sense has been rendered useless; but also because if anything happened to my step brother, I was the only one who would be able to assist at first. We were well out of earshot of the parents and I would have to make my way through the pitch black - first of all to find them and tell them what has potentially happened and then scramble back again to try and lend a hand without putting myself in the same danger. All of these things were rushing around in my head as I crouched by the rock which had become my safety net as I waited for my step brother to return.

Thankfully, all turned out ok and even provided a few comedy moments. On his return to where I was waiting, my step bother tried to convince me to explore deeper into the cave with him. Just as he assured me that it was very easy to get back, he proceeded to completely contradict himself by failing (on several occasions) to scale the small - but steep - slope separating us. Apparently it was akin to a travelator (like the ones on Gladiators) but eventually, and with a big enough run up, he managed it and I headed back to the light. Undeterred, he went back for more, and despite calls that it was time to go before the sun began to set and plunge the entire town into near total darkness (street lighting hasn't really reached this part of the world yet) he continued deeper and deeper into the cave. Eventually, he emerged from the other side and found himself quite a long way from the ground in the side of a rock face. He managed to get back safely however, and we made our way home.

There is one last thing that I wanted to end on and that is a rather interesting sign that I came across whilst wandering around the village. I have no idea what it is supposed to represent but I found it rather amusing and I hope you enjoy it too.