Challenging Yourself

 Some people thrive on competition with other -- faster, higher marks, longer endurance, better opportunities,  more applause, etc.  At times I admit I have bought into that, but age makes me realize that I am no longer as fast, or as smart, or as talented as I was, but I still get some of that thrill in challenging myself.

This trip has had some of those moments -- spend 4 hours on the bike, ride up the hill without stopping, walk to the fort each night, get a section of stitching done.  Well today, I added a significant one:  do the long cave tour.

I first visited the lava tubes that run down from the mountains to the sea, last year.  They are 10,000 years old and formed when one of the later sections of this island welled out of the ocean.  Over the years, there were actually 2 tubes created on top of each other.  When the highway from the airport to the city was being built, the construction crossed one of the major tubes and destroyed a section of it.  But the foresight of the government enabled that section to be repaired in such a way that there was an access to the tubes going both north and south of the highway.  From this access point, there are 2 tours available:  the short and the long.

Last year the short tour was reinstated after the pandemic, but not the long tour.  When we were close to coming back here, I emailed the Cave people and asked if the long tour was being done this year -- yes!  There was one scheduled for March 4.  It required one to crawl through narrow passages and over rocks -- how old was I.  When I wrote back '71', the answer was that it was not recommended that I do the tour.  That irked me and on Thursday this week, I cycled to the caves and checked if the tour was still happening.  Yes!  I would like to join.  Did I have any physical condition like heart problems?  Did I have comfortable shoes and could crawl.  I spoke truthfully and they took my name -- I was in!

This morning there was rain on the walk to the caves.  I can handle that.  We were outfitted with gloves, a helmet with a light, and knee pads.  All three were necessary as for two hours we made our way north of the highway to the section of the tubes that is accessible at this point.  Sometimes we were in the lower tube, sometimes in the upper and sometimes climbing up or down.  Sections of the tube walls can break off in almost an onion ring way and the rocks are lying in the passage and need to be climbed around or over.  The bottom of the tube is very rough as the last flows of lava cooled in chunks.  The sides and ceiling are 'glazed' with a silver gray layer of molten rock hanging in small stalactites that never change as there is no limestone in the water which drips down.  The only colour change is the algae which is growing on the stone -- sometimes yellow, sometimes orange.  The rocks with more iron content have turned brown, but black basalt forms the basis of everything.

It was a challenge.  I had to be very careful with my feet, especially on the rough base of the tube.  Would I do it again?  Probably not as I was worried about footing.  Would I recommend it to my kids or grandkids?  Absolutely.  It was a unique experience which challenges you both physically and mentally --crawling into a narrow passage goes against a lot of survival instincts.  But sometimes, you just have to see what you can do.