Day 3... for me the BEST day of the trip and I feel for the others too. It was a complete dynamic day with plans made on the fly and me driving through more awesomely scenic routes. We started off by 9.30 from the camp. Food frst ! And off we started towards the Louisville Hindu temple. Made it without any problems. Was peaceful and calm and like any other hindu temple you can have out here.
Once that was done, we decided to move on to Spring Mill park. On the way we came across a board sayin Huber Winery.. and thats where we went. Lotsa knowledge on the wine side now :) hehe. Right from how they pick the fruit and convert it into wine from knowing how to judge wine. The Springlmill plan was dumped and a new plan was made.... Indiana University at Bloomington!!! It was worth all the driving and gas, because the campus was really beautiful. We had some Thai food at the restaurant there and we all liked the food quite a lot. With darkness starting to creep in, we decided to get back home.
It was a really great drive back in the dark just like the drive to Mammoth cave the first day. The only thing that made it more adventurous was the fact that we didnt have any printed directions but just our instincts and sense of direction. And boy we were right :) . As I am here and am writing this blog. Well, it was great to be on this awesome awesome trip and I hope I made it sound like that. Well... planning a trip after my internship gets over... catch ya later... and dont miss the pictures!!
Sunday, July 3, 2005
Mammoth Caves Trip - Day 3
Well, with the cave tours done, we went back to the camp grounds and put up the tent Pooja had got along. We had quite a beautiful camping ground with a small little bench in between and a fire place just besides and lots of huge trees and ofcourse grass. The tent took us some thinking but we did get it up nice and fine. We still had to think of an arrangement for all of us to have something below us to sleep on, as surely the girls were going to get the tent. Wasnt a problem with Amey getting his own sleeping bag, Poramet getting mine and me getting a rug and a sheet to top off. Once the tent was up, we went off to get some food. We decided to have a fire at our camp and so we had the food take 'home' (?). In between all this I dont (still dont) know what happened, but Megha was a shade off mood and etc.
Anyways... I started collecting firewood all around our camp ground but didnt get much. Pooja too 'chipped' in to help... and as we were to give up we found a huge pile of firewood nicely chopped and stored near the restroom area. With a little discussion about whether we should be paying for it or not, we picked up a couple of pieces (unquestioningly) free. Pooja had also got some fire starting fuel that helped a lot. The fire started and all of us guys had a nice time around it. I told a little ghost story which was very helpful to scare the s**t out of the people the way home. At about 10.30 the gals were pretty tired with all the walking all the day and they got into their tent. We guys went off to the foosball table and spent about 2 hours there. It was really fun.
It was time to get into whatever we were sleeping in after that. It was AWESOME to sleep with the stars all around and nice cool wind blowing across. We just dozed off gazing at the stars.... and it surely was a great sleep... for the next day.
Anyways... I started collecting firewood all around our camp ground but didnt get much. Pooja too 'chipped' in to help... and as we were to give up we found a huge pile of firewood nicely chopped and stored near the restroom area. With a little discussion about whether we should be paying for it or not, we picked up a couple of pieces (unquestioningly) free. Pooja had also got some fire starting fuel that helped a lot. The fire started and all of us guys had a nice time around it. I told a little ghost story which was very helpful to scare the s**t out of the people the way home. At about 10.30 the gals were pretty tired with all the walking all the day and they got into their tent. We guys went off to the foosball table and spent about 2 hours there. It was really fun.
It was time to get into whatever we were sleeping in after that. It was AWESOME to sleep with the stars all around and nice cool wind blowing across. We just dozed off gazing at the stars.... and it surely was a great sleep... for the next day.
Saturday, July 2, 2005
Mammoth Caves Trip - Day 2
Saturday dawned ... and we just yawned and finally woke up at 7 AM. We were supposed to book our cave tours which started to sell out by 8AM. After a brush and a couple of donuts I accompanied Amey and Poramet to the ticket centre where we gathered some information about the tours and activites at Mammoth caves from the (cute looking) receptionist. As we had thought, most of the tours were sold out (with people booking them as early as 2 weeks before!! ) But we were lucky enought to get tickets to the 2 best and longest tours - Historic tour and Frozen Niagra.
The first tour (Historic) was about an hour later and so the other 4 guys decided to get some chow. I decided otherwise as I had heard there arent any restrooms in the caves. (no risks is the name of the game).
At 9.15 we began our descent into the cave guided by one Forest Ranger .. a tall well built guy having really good way of telling all the stories he had and making them sound interesting (some of which now i think are so foolish). But it was great to listen to them at that time in that atmosphere. We had a group of about 40-50 people in our tour batch. The tour lasted for about 2 hours in which we went approx 280 feet underground in a cool temperature of 54F (~18C). Our guide was a man with tremendous stock of stories and humor and was pretty knowledgable about the geological processes going on around inside the caves. We left the cave at 11.15 with loads of pictures and videos and complete awe of nature and its prowess to create something so beautiful with just water. (and ofcourse awe about the stories)
The next tour was at 3.15 and we decided to use the 4 hour break in between to make some arrangements for our stay for that night. The cottages were all full. We all were all interested in camping and Pooja had also got her tent along. So off we went to search camping places. Unfortunately for us, all the camping grounds inside the national park were booked too. But we found a camping ground about 5 miles away from the park being run by a grandpa n grandma. They also had a small room on the side with a Foose-ball table inside. Had awesome time with it later. That taks completed, off we went to get some food into cave city a small town about 10 miles from the park.
We reached the park at 2.30 and enquired about tours of the national park itself. Thats where we met a guy called Joe... he was very very sweet and knowledgable about tourist parks and scenic beauty around the country and he gave us a huge big list of various places we would like to visit if we into hiking ( i sure am). We had to cut his suggestions short as our tour was on its way. We had another stupendous cave trip with an attractive Forest Ranger named April accompanied by her equally attractive assistant Beatrice. The stalactites and stalagmites in this cave are really breath-taking. The cave being the longest cave in the world, 'looked' the best in the dark. Our guides switched off the lights to leave us in complete pitch black darkness. Boy! We could not even see our own fingers !!! More to come.... tomorrow
The first tour (Historic) was about an hour later and so the other 4 guys decided to get some chow. I decided otherwise as I had heard there arent any restrooms in the caves. (no risks is the name of the game).
At 9.15 we began our descent into the cave guided by one Forest Ranger .. a tall well built guy having really good way of telling all the stories he had and making them sound interesting (some of which now i think are so foolish). But it was great to listen to them at that time in that atmosphere. We had a group of about 40-50 people in our tour batch. The tour lasted for about 2 hours in which we went approx 280 feet underground in a cool temperature of 54F (~18C). Our guide was a man with tremendous stock of stories and humor and was pretty knowledgable about the geological processes going on around inside the caves. We left the cave at 11.15 with loads of pictures and videos and complete awe of nature and its prowess to create something so beautiful with just water. (and ofcourse awe about the stories)
The next tour was at 3.15 and we decided to use the 4 hour break in between to make some arrangements for our stay for that night. The cottages were all full. We all were all interested in camping and Pooja had also got her tent along. So off we went to search camping places. Unfortunately for us, all the camping grounds inside the national park were booked too. But we found a camping ground about 5 miles away from the park being run by a grandpa n grandma. They also had a small room on the side with a Foose-ball table inside. Had awesome time with it later. That taks completed, off we went to get some food into cave city a small town about 10 miles from the park.
We reached the park at 2.30 and enquired about tours of the national park itself. Thats where we met a guy called Joe... he was very very sweet and knowledgable about tourist parks and scenic beauty around the country and he gave us a huge big list of various places we would like to visit if we into hiking ( i sure am). We had to cut his suggestions short as our tour was on its way. We had another stupendous cave trip with an attractive Forest Ranger named April accompanied by her equally attractive assistant Beatrice. The stalactites and stalagmites in this cave are really breath-taking. The cave being the longest cave in the world, 'looked' the best in the dark. Our guides switched off the lights to leave us in complete pitch black darkness. Boy! We could not even see our own fingers !!! More to come.... tomorrow
Friday, July 1, 2005
Mammoth Caves Trip - Day 1
It was the weekend with the 4th July holiday falling on Monday and we guys werent in a mood to let this chance slip away. So, we rented a car (Ford Focus) and off we went to Mammoth Caves in the state of Kentucky. It is about 3 hours 30 mins driving distance according to the directions that we got online but made it in much better time (thanks to me). There was just a wee bit of confusion at the end about the road which was solved with a call at the cottages we had booked for the night.
We left from Indianapolis (where I study, in case u didnt know) at about 6 pm and were at the cottage by 10 after an actual drive of about 2.45 hours with just one stop at Burger King and Speedway (when we feared our car was punctured :)) ). The drive was too sweet and I was lucky to be the only driver and have the wheel in my hands and experience one of the most enthralling drives through scenic ghats which turned from green to red as the sun set, and an eerie black after that... The road was a two lane road with pitch blackness and winding as much as it could and the speed limit was understandably 35MPH. It was awesome to switch off the light in between to understand what 'darkness' really is... but well we had a much better thing coming up on the next day for this. With checkin formalities done, we went off, pretty tired from the day and the drive (?) to our cottage.
It was a sweet little wooden cabin with 2 bedrooms. Oh yeah... it was 5 of us ... Amey, Megha, Poramet, Pooja and Tanmay (me) in alphabetic order. WIth 2 girls in the group a separate bedroom was necessarily essential (i dunno why, but i like that term necessarily essential) Anyways... so after getting in and praising the cottage and taking in the wooden smell of it and exploring every nook n corner, we finally sat down talking and playing a couple of games of cards (UNO). The cottage was inside the National park around the caves and so we had some deers roaming around just outside our 'abode'. After having some chats and talks we decided to retire for the day, as we had to wake up early the next day and book tickets to all the possible cave tours. Little did we know that there were scores of people thinking of the same thing and already in their snores.....
We left from Indianapolis (where I study, in case u didnt know) at about 6 pm and were at the cottage by 10 after an actual drive of about 2.45 hours with just one stop at Burger King and Speedway (when we feared our car was punctured :)) ). The drive was too sweet and I was lucky to be the only driver and have the wheel in my hands and experience one of the most enthralling drives through scenic ghats which turned from green to red as the sun set, and an eerie black after that... The road was a two lane road with pitch blackness and winding as much as it could and the speed limit was understandably 35MPH. It was awesome to switch off the light in between to understand what 'darkness' really is... but well we had a much better thing coming up on the next day for this. With checkin formalities done, we went off, pretty tired from the day and the drive (?) to our cottage.
It was a sweet little wooden cabin with 2 bedrooms. Oh yeah... it was 5 of us ... Amey, Megha, Poramet, Pooja and Tanmay (me) in alphabetic order. WIth 2 girls in the group a separate bedroom was necessarily essential (i dunno why, but i like that term necessarily essential) Anyways... so after getting in and praising the cottage and taking in the wooden smell of it and exploring every nook n corner, we finally sat down talking and playing a couple of games of cards (UNO). The cottage was inside the National park around the caves and so we had some deers roaming around just outside our 'abode'. After having some chats and talks we decided to retire for the day, as we had to wake up early the next day and book tickets to all the possible cave tours. Little did we know that there were scores of people thinking of the same thing and already in their snores.....
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