October 12, 2012

• Holy Batcave, Robin!

  Having gained the gift of gab and gazed upon the gardens, Brian and I hopped back into our rental car and set off in yet another compass direction, deep into county fermanagh (say that as ethnically as you can) to head to the Marble Arch Caves, one of the worlds 5 geoparks

  

  This place was in the middle of nowhere, took 3 hours to drive round trip and was 100% totally worth it for road trip time with my brother. 

  

  So apparently a geopark, as designated by wikipedia is A territory encompassing one or more sites of scientific importance, not only for geological reasons but also by virtue of its archaeological, ecological or cultural value.…and the marble arch caves were the first such geopark in Europe

  

  That is roughly our tour through the caves. You will note the spelunkers in a boat. splunking. speleology is fun.

  

  Yes, Brian and I drove 1.5 hours into backwoods ireland so we could take a boat ride in a cave. Thats the kind of guys we are, and if you are shaking your head in dismay, you are clearly new to this site

  

  

  The Marble arch caves are made up primarily of sandstone and limestone

  

  I do heart me some nature time

  

  

  

  

  

  Ooh! an entrance to the batcave, perhaps?

  

  gratuitous celtic cross

  

  

  

  Cave dock

  

  The Porridge Pot formation, because it looks like…well, a lump of rock to me, but I guess if you are irish, you have some disappointing breakfast foods

  

  

  

  

  

  

  This was one of my favorite formations. Its totally a little cave house on the river. Nature, you are one fine bitch

  

  

  

  

  Getting photos with minimal cave lighting, not easy. Thanks for all those flashes, german tourist group!

  

  

   

  

  

  So Brian and I enjoyed our boat ride/hike through the caves, but sadly, I have no facts for you about them, because the only availble tour group for us to join was entirely in german. Which is not a good cave language. There are lots of angry echoes. That said, we had a fantastic time despite the language barrier and spent most of the tour mentally redecorating our superhero lair. 

  We are rapidly approaching the end of the Ireland part of the tour, but there are some great ghost stories and sights coming up, just in time for Halloween. I should hopefully finish documenting this 2 week trip within this month, and can get back to more regular posting in time for NaNoWriMo

  Happy trails!

  • 9:29 pm
  • 1 Comment