Buenos!

Its been a while since i've posted anything. No particular reason, maybe because I've had no internet at home since being back in Reino Unido.

Its been 8 days since we've come back from Matienzo. A 9 week adventure for me. Its proven to be the best summer yet, not the best summer ever I swear to myself.

The number of pictures taken are pale in comparison with my other trips with considerably shorter spans, but hey! I wasn't really holidaying.. but spending time collecting data for my dissertation, and in the last 3 weeks, caving!

I love caving. I really do. Before that, lets talk about Oliana.

I spent 6 weeks in Oliana in Catalunya, just 2 hours north of Girona, and 40 mins from the Andorran border. We stayed in a small village campsite called La Valldan, not very far from the town Oliana.

Life in Oliana in a nutshell, is basically work work work work work, getting pissed off at annoying people, work work work and walk walk walk walk walk. Its not that all bad when you're doing something interesting, and rocks are interesting! The scenery was fantastic, the people were almightily embracing and lovely, and it was an awesome experience.

Will possibly post pictures later when I get the internet at home.

It takes a certain kind of a geologist to cope with 6 weeks of non-stop camping, and very hard terrain work, and I can very certainly say that there were some in our group who were very obviously not cut out for this kind of field work.

Field work in general can range from the very hardcore (living in tents) to very softcore (living in nice villas). Choosing to work from a hardcore point of view was the right choice in my opinion, though the grudges I had with flies and having to put up with very grumpy people weren't something I'd neccessarily put on the optionals.

In Matienzo, we were as well living in tents. Conditions were slightly more hardgoing then living in Valldan, in that the showers were less "developed" and there was no covered sitting area as we had set up in Oliana, the pros were that we had a fridge, which was new, and it was indoors.. but the power went off very very frequently as it rains quite alot in Cantabria. And it gets a little toasty in day if it doesn't rain.

But, we had Pablo's to go to. Everyone loves Bar German, the pub whose land we live on. Every night after tea, without fail, we would troop down to the bar and have a couple, and drinks were cheap as well! €1.50 for a bottle of San Miguel, and Pablo is generous as hell with the spirits when you order one. Not to mention the horrible spanish stuff (oruputo or something).

And another massive difference in experience in Matienzo was that we were ALL cavers, well, at least the ones who spoke english, and we were all bound by that same hobby and passion. Everyone got on with everyone, and everybody, was as hardy as a caver can be. Seriously, comparing both camp sites. Whining in Valldan is just basically being a fucking wuss.

Back to the point about getting back into the whole caving jig.

Having not caved for almost 3 months, suddenly popping back into a 8 by 2m hole to dig for a cave that COULD POSSIBLY exist wasn't really exciting, but it was an easy trip, and it got me rearing. In the end, we popped into a pot I aptly named Blackberry Pot for its abundance of blackberries at the entrance path.

The 2nd trip was possibly a mistake going down Giant Panda to Uzueka. That broke me. Having not caved in so long, a 12 hour trip basically broke me into a billion pieces.

Verily, and slowly, my caving fitness came back to me, bit by bit. Getting to know more people in the group, and going out to various other caves and learning new skills was exciting and very much what I really wanted to do. Towards the end of the trip, I was rearing to go and excited about the possible intentions to return in easter.

Truly, it was a bloody awesome trip, and in easter, We will be back. In apartments this time though.. its too wet in easter.