Cheese, Caves, and Cannibals

Our weekend trip was to Cheddar Gorge and Caves.  The birthplace of CHEDDAR CHEESE.  I love cheddar cheese.  It was a really fun trip, the hiking, the caves, the cheese, the museum were all really wonderful.  I totally recommend this "day out."

The photos are out of order, and considering how long it took to get them loaded up with my crazy internet connection, it is unlikely that they will be adjusted any time soon.

The picutre at the top is of the kids and I in the caves.  The first big cave was set up with an audiotour.  The best thing about the audiotour was that there was a kid friendly one too.  Sophia really really enjoyed listening to it and kept telling me about the different parts of the caves as she heard it from her audio thing.  I was unable to listen to my audiotour as a certain little boy hijacked mine.  The funny thing is that he actually listened to it.  Not sure how much he got out of the whole thing, but when the voice would stop, he would call us over to put in another number.

The kids were amazing on this trip.  There were other children at the entrance of the caves who were crying hysterically and refusing to go in.  Our little free range kids shot right in and were excited about the nooks and crannies.  Hank is sure to be a spelunker in the future as he was all over the place.  He had no time to wait for us as there were rocks and water and little entrances to check out.

There was no grumbling on the trip, until we got to the museum.  I may possibly be to blame for this one because it was SO SO SO interesting and I really wanted to read every single word! 

The above photo is of CHEDDAR MAN!  They found this skeleton (the real on is in the museum) in larger opening of the cave along with all sorts of other Cheddarman stuff.  Cheddarman or his friends were CANNIBALS!  There was this entire section of the museum dedicated to this subject.  They found skulls and jawbones among the other debris and bones in the floor of the cave.  The skulls were in the museum and one was able to look at them and see the cut marks and whatnot from where they had been skinned and then also where their jawbones had been disconnected to get to the brain more easily.  THEY ATE THE BRAINS!

There was a whole pile of reasons provided for the cannibalism from survival, to spiritual, to religious.  it was also used to put fear into the hearts of enemies. 

This is how much the crazy boy loved these caves.  This was was special because he was tall enough to look into the water without being picked up and because they had put a lighted fountain in there.  He WOULD NOT LEAVE!  Everyone went through the cave including Soph and Daddy, but Hank just hung there staring into the water and jabbering and pointing.  Not sure what he found so interesting, but am glad he enjoyed it.

Before the caves, we went for a little hike.  Here is the family attempting to take shelter from the crazy 9million mile per hour winds.

The top of the ridge.  You can see the tiny little road there down at the bottom.  Sophia climbed the ENTIRE way ALL BY HERSELF.  She held hands with one of us when we were on a slipper spot.  When she got near the top and was getting tired, she told me that she "wouldn't give up!"  AND she didn't.

My little audiotour hijacker!