Sunday's castle was a cave

[byslantedlight]

The Welsh National Showcaves were about an hour and half's drive from where I'm staying, so I thought it might be a good place to go when the weather was a bit clearer and the views were nice. Which it was, but I was high in the Brecon Beacons for much less time than I expected, so I don't actually have any nice views... So its more caves, I'm

Comments

[gilda_elise]

That was an exceedingly lovely day! While I may have had some reservations about roaming around the caves on my own, they look fascinating. And, yes, I do see a sleeping dragon! You may be right about the inexpensiveness of the cave exhibit, but it could be that they couldn't find anyone willing to lead the tours. Perhaps something like the recorded tours that are used in so many castles would be an acceptable compromise. I'm not sure how taken I would have been with the plastic dinosaurs. Seems sort of tacky.

The flowers, of course, were lovely, even if there were less of them than desired.

[byslantedlight]

It was a rather nice day, although it had its moments of frustration! The rest made up for it though. *g*

The caves did have recordings on speakers that started automatically as you went around, but the sound wasn't always good enough to hear them properly, although they were quite loud when you were standing there, and I ended up giving most of them a miss because of that. I'd be surprised if they couldn't find people willing to be hired as tour leaders - jobs are jobs, after all - so I really suspect its the profit thing, sadly...

I thought the dinosaurs were a bit tacky too, but they were reasonably well done in fact, and the kids all loved them, so actually it could have been much worse. I wish they'd been a separate attraction, but I suspect that was part of the profit-thing too...

It was nice visiting Australia on such a grey day! *g*

[loxleyprince]

I suspect Doyle's response would be a filthy laugh and Bodie's would be a big grin. :-)

Caves, an iron age farmers tableau, and dinosaurs? That's probably the first time in history they've been juxtaposed.

Love your pics of the bottlebrushes and daffs.

[byslantedlight]

Thank you - it was lovely to see flowers from home, and the cheerful daffodils!

And yeah, I suspect you're right about the lads' responses! *g*

[siskiou]

Oh, caves! Mr. Siskiou was a cave guide at Oregon Caves many years ago. You do learn a lot about the history and stories that way. The scariest was, when they turn off the light deep inside, to demonstrate how dark it is and how hard it was for the original discoverer to find his way out again, just by the sound of the little stream, when his matches ran out.

Your caves look pretty amazing!

I love the Australian flowers and butterflies!

[byslantedlight]

Oh, I remember about Mr Siskiou's cave guiding now! I think it'd be a brilliant job, I really do... *g* I love it when they do the lights-out thing in caves too - I think we forget what darkness really is, and even more so now that there are little green and red lights on everything at night, to tell us whether they're on or off!

The flowers and butterflies were a nice snatch of warmth on a grey day!

[ariss_tenoh]

I saw the pics of caves and immediately thought "Dragons!" XD

[byslantedlight]

Yes! *g* I thought Reign of Fire, even more specifically - I really liked that movie, and the caves conjured it beautifully - especially that one formation!

[heliophile_oxon]

Fabulous caves! But brrrrr to going in without a torch, and a spare torch, and a spare spare torch just in case! *g*

.... oh, and a big ball of string. Um, make that nylon cord. Luminous, please. *bg*

(I do love your cave pics, though. And the only time I remember actually visiting a cave I loved it, it was brilliant!)

[byslantedlight]

Hee for dark caves! *g* I do like caves alot, but if I was going down a non-showcave one then I'd definitely have many redundant (hopefully!) sources of light. And radio. And string. *vbg*