Framedlight

 We reached the visitor centre at Carlsbad Caverns around 11.00 o'clock and we were excited to get down the elevator (or lift!) and view the caves. In deference to our infective state we wore masks, although, fortunately, there were not that many visitors when we were there.  We have 'done' lots of caves and some of them can be very tacky. But Carlsbad Caverns was what you might expect from the US National Park Service, and in the best of all possible taste. They were lit with warm, quite dim lamps. Those formations that were named had been given their names by a teenage boy, Jim White, who first explored the caves in 1898. There are drawings in the caverns from early native people but no one else seem to have used the caves until they were mined for bat guano in the 1800's. That was from a cave exit which is still home to thousands of bats. Not the way we went in!. The Guadaloupe Mountains lie across the Texas/ New Mexico border and were formed from deposits of sponges...

We were still staying near Stackpole, so the Monday morning saw us again at Stackpole National Trust car park. We parked at the far end by the picnic grass so we could pump the inflatable kayak up. It is not a light object and we had a good 500 yards to carry it down to the water's edge. It was to be Hettie's first excursion in it and she got herself thoroughly wet in the sea before settling on my legs in the craft. We had to take the spray deck off of the kayak to accommodate her, so we were slightly concerned that the sea might get up. I took the Fuji XE1 in a plastic bag, set on a fairly high ISO to combat the movement of the kayak. The limestone cliffs and caves in this area were really worth taking. I have 'grunged up' a number of the pictures to add to atmosphere. The first ones are selfies before we get to the more interesting bit. You can see how comfy Hettie is. Getting the kayak, heavy with water back to the car proved difficult, but we were helped by a ch...