{"id":2544,"date":"2012-05-05T08:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=2544"},"modified":"2012-05-05T08:00:07","modified_gmt":"2012-05-05T12:00:07","slug":"janet-and-john-on-holidays-ch-4-holy-stalactite-batman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/history\/janet-and-john-on-holidays-ch-4-holy-stalactite-batman\/","title":{"rendered":"Janet and John on Holidays: Ch 4 – Holy Stalactite, Batman!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We were NOT going to play it safe on the last day of our holidays<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

There was one day left of the Janet and John Holiday Experience\u2026<\/p>\n

After a couple of days of missiles and explosions, star gazing and sunset walks, it was time to end the trip with something completely different.<\/p>\n

After missing the Aliens at the VLA, and the ocean at white sands \u2013 there was another miss on the horizon.<\/p>\n

The bats at Carlsbad Cavern.<\/p>\n

Carslbad is famous for two things \u2013 a big hole in the ground and bats. Mexican Free-Tailed Bats to be precise. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The bats led to the discovery of the cavern back in 1898 by a sixteen year old cowboy named Jim White.<\/p>\n

He saw what he thought was smoke. It proved to be a huge wave of bats exiting from a hole in the ground.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The natural entrance to the cavern - 750 feet to climb down!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Armed with a torch and some rope he went exploring and found one of the largest caverns in the world.<\/p>\n

He also found one of the largest deposits of bat guano in the world – 45 feet deep. Thankfully, most of the guano was mined to fertilize the Californian orchards. When we were there, the bats were still on vacation in Mexico \u2013 so we were spared the smell of three questers of a million bats \u2013 and the resulting bat guano \u2013 for which I am quite thankful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Looking back up at the entrace to the cavern - only about 600 feet to go<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We took a ranger guided tour lit only by the type of lanterns Jim White used for that early exploration. A single candle each.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Exploring the old fashioned way - not for those who are afraid of the dark<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It really is amazing how much light one candle can produce\u2026 but not as amazing as what it was like when Ranger Alison blew out that last candle.<\/p>\n

How to describe total darkness\u2026.<\/p>\n

It’s something that can only be experienced in so very few places in the worlds \u2013 devoid of sunlight or even faint starlight,\u00a0with no human light and\u00a0no phosphorescence. A total absence of light. Normally, as you stand in ‘darkness’, your eyes begin to adjust and you see at the very least shades of darkness and light. Not this time. I literally could not see my hand in front of my face.<\/p>\n

Not everyone’s idea of a good time \u2013 so most of the caves open to the public have electric lighting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The limestone formations in the cavern are just beautiful<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The main cavern is awesome \u2013 more than a kilometer long! It’s decorated with beautiful limestone formations\u00a0formed over thousands of years.<\/p>\n

There are dragons and old men, ancient gods, aliens and trolls and creatures from the depths of the ocean. And did I mention dragons \u2013 lots of them!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A whale? Or Dragon? Maybe some sort of space ceature?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the middle of all this \u2013 in true tourist fashion \u2013 a souvenir shop 700 feet underground!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The underground cafe and souvenir shop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The photos just don’t do it justice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Electric light shining through the fine limestone draperies in the Queen's Chamber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was a fabulous way to end the holiday. Now – where to next?????<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
I had to finish with this shot of a storm racing across the plains. We were hoping it might wash the dust off our little red car - no such luck.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  There was one day left of the Janet and John Holiday Experience\u2026 After a couple of days of missiles and explosions, star gazing and sunset walks, it was time to end…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-my-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}