Spelunking

Whew. I am really terrible at keeping a blog. I thought I'd better post a quick update before I take off for Ireland (Easter Break).

So on Saturday Feb 20, I had the opportunity to go caving with a student organization here called Arctic escape. It is lead by the counselling staff at the school. We drove about one hour out of Bodo to Fauske where we picked up our caving guides and gear. Each person had a helmet and head lamp. It was a particularily cold day!!

After about 15minutes more driving, we reached our destination. The cave is called Svarthammarhola (Black cliff cave). We actually had to hike uphill through about a foot of snow to make it to the main cave entrance. At the entrance, we had to hold a rope and walk slowing backwards down the steep, rocky slope. Once inside, we did some exploring.

It was pitch dark in there and also very cold. Not sure the exact temperature, but the guides did say it was the coldest caving tour they'd ever lead. The cave was huge! It had several rooms and we had to stumble through piles of rock as we moved through. The highlights were some ice formations called the king and princess. This cave is also unique in that it has a glacier right inside of it.

At the end of the tour, we scrambled through a very tight tunnel to reach another cave opening called the keyhole. There's an amazing view from up there.

After a light snack, we returned to the cave entrance and began our way down. However, it had become very slippery, so rather than a hike back down it was more of a slide on your bum. There was a real talent for it, so it was appropriately dubbed as a new sport "Buttluge" or "luge de Glute" with the Canadians against the Americans!!

Everyone arrived safely at the bottom, though thoroughly soaked. It was a great day enjoying Norway's outdoors.

I thought about including my Ski trip from the beginning of March in this post, but I still have some pictures to retrieve from friends. *Stay tuned*

I will arrive back in Bodo on April the 6th, after Easter, with my family in tow! Happy Easter everyone.