Primeval Forest Cave Pictures

Collecting samples.

Athena in some hole.

Surveying in action.

Me in some hole...

Nasty thorny plants that were common on the surface.

Looking up from the bottom of one of the many pits.

Lots of these vines/roots all over the place...

Coming out a crawlway halfway up the wall of a 20' pit...

Waiting for the ride home.

Caves Point, in NW New Providence - a tourist stop.

New Providence

The Mylroies (John, Joan), Athena, and I made a trip down to New Providence Island Bahamas (home of Nassau) to survey some caves in an area called the Primeval Forest that has been set aside as a national park by the Bahamas National Trust. This area has holes all over the place (pits and "banana holes"). Mylroie knew this going into it, but he didn't realize they were all connected! We surveyed for 5 1/2 days and were still technically in the same cave (since they were connected). Good experience for Athena and I since we're new to the whole surveying business, but dang, talk about complicated...
Photo uploader thingy isn't working now, so I'll do that later.

Watery Waterstrats

Cool picture of Teal in a sailing race from Sailinganarchy.com Thanks to dad for pointing it out.
We had a crazy little storm yesterday. Got a lot of rain in a really short time, and also some really strong straight line winds. Pretty neat stuff. I went out and walked around in it and took some pictures.
Like I mentioned last time, off to Nassau tomorrow. I'm sure Kristen would like to hear from any of you since it'll be her and her sister for a whole week together...

Avast ye swabby dogs of scum!

Flash flooding near southfarm.

Crooked stoplight with no power...

Splash!
(took me several tries to get the timing right on this one.)

Bahamas, again.

Well, I might not have mentioned this to anyone, but I'll be going back to the Bahamas again for spring break (next week!). This time it'll just be Joan/John, Athena, and I going. We'll be spending a week on New Providence Island, where the capital Nassau is located. Nassau has 90% of the population of the Bahamas but is one of the smallest islands. We're going to be surveying a site that is set aside by the Bahamas National Trust. They are preserving an area called the "primeval forest" and wanted to have the caves surveyed. I'm not sure what the forest thingy is, but the site is only about an acre. I'm not sure if it'll take the whole week to survey such a small area, but it might if the caves are complex...
Kristen is stuck behind in Starkville, but her sister Erica will be coming down for the week! That should be fun for her, so long as Erica doesn't have every single minute planned out like she usually does...
Oh yeah, this is important as well. Finally got a thesis topic. I'll be looking at sea caves and flank margin caves (which form underground but near the coast, which may later be breached, exposign them), and seeing if you can tell the difference. More to come on all that later for sure. But it looks like I'll be on San Salvador for at least a month this summer. Athena will be investigating another cave phenomena, called tafoni.
Kristen has applied to do a summer research internship for conservation biology that the university runs. Hopefully she gets into that, since she's really burned out on the usual classroom stuff. Which I completely understand. Books and lectures are boring, even if the subject is exciting. Field experience is really important I think. Anywho, I'll keep you all up to date on that stuff.
We'll (mylroies, athena, and me) will be driving down to Ft. Lauderdale (ugh!) again on Friday night. Flying out sometime Saturday night, and coming back a week or so later. I haven't paid much attention to the details. The Mylroie's will be staying with a friend of theirs in Nassau, and I'm not sure where Athena and I will be. Guess we'll see. I plan to take all sorts of pictures with my nifty new camera. Hopefully I don't get mugged, since this is a rather rowdy city from what I've heard...

Stuff

Not a lot new going on down here. Went walking at southfarm yesterday, snapped a couple photos. Gave blood an hour ago and feeling a bit weak. Went on a road ride with Mike yesterday morning too. Really slow pace, but due to my single speed, I had to drop him on the climbs. Nice relaxed ride. Here's some s-farm photos...
Zephyr was licking this horse's nose.

"Country roads, take me home, to the place, I belong..."

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Empty hay barn in the spring.

Trio, Tree-o.

Cows in the twilight.

The observatory from where the planet Zentaur was discovered.

Playing with the camera.

Here's a couple pics I took while I was out riding yesterday at the Research Park.

S-works under the freeway (where the XC running course used to be).

Spring muddiness...

The North Farm chicane. I have no idea how that corner got so worn in...

Flight of the Penguin.

It's really too bad mom and dad have to sell the boat. If only I had 70k, I'd buy it. Such a well prepared boat for some cool adventures. I read the full specs. Man, I had no idea all the stuff you guys had done to it. It seems like an ideal boat for going damn near anywhere, as long as you're not in too much of a hurry. I realize that's just what you intended too. If it does get sold, hopefully it's to someone who's planning on some huge adventure. Such a nice picture of her too...
Go HERE for the Yachtworld listing.