FACT - A glow worm uses its glow to attract food and to burn off waste. The tail glows as a reaction between the chemicals gven ff by the worm and the oxygen in the air. This reaction produces light, which insects fly towards and then get stuck in the sticky lines the worm has hung to catch food. Glow worms also use the glow to put off other creatures from eating them.
You know when you wake up on a cold winter's morning, and the last thing you want to do it get get out of your snuggly bedding and out of your Pj's, and under the shower. Well next time in such situation i will remind myself back to what could be worse... getting up at the crrrack of dawn, out of a cosy cabin, out in to the chilly morning to wait for a van, off to the water rafting office where we had to part with 90 good new zealand dollars, and then given cold, wet, cold wetsuits to go and climb in to in an open changing room... outside.
Of course we had opted to do the trip so i'm not complaining, but yes. The getting in to the cold wetsuits was rather harsh. We then got rallied off to a river where we practised jumping in backwards in to our rubber rings. This practise was for later on when we'd be in the pitch black caves and would have to do it with ease! Falling in to the water was bloody cold. And we were told that it was about twice as cold under the caves!
So after the practises off we went to the caves, making our way under. It felt a lot more controlled and safe than the caves in Laos, although I think I enjoyed those more, in a weird sort of terrorised way. As we waded through the icy waters, Sophie, one of the Swedish girls i'd made friends with the previous night, was not on top form. She couldn't really cope with the cold and asked to be taken out. Although not amusing at the time, we did chuckle afterwards at the guide, who tried to give her some hot coffee to warm her up, but she just yelled
"GET ME OUT THESE CAVES"...
And so he did. While the guide took her back, we had to wait for him to return, so were entertained by the other guide who told us more about glow worms, and how the light is actually their poo. And we got a chocolate fish as well. By now my body was numb but i was having a wicked time so I didn't really care. I think I have a lot more body fat that Sophie so was able to keep considerably warmer!
The other guide came back and we continued, crawling, dipping, ducking, swimming, tubing, through the caves. Oh and jumping backwards in our tubes over small waterfalls. They were the best. And then at one point we all had to make a sort of caterpillar (like the pic at the top) and we turned out head torches off and the guides pushed us along. Up above there were thousands upon thousands of glow warms, it was unreal. But real. It was really special. And before we knew it, it was time to be climbing out again. 3 hours sure goes quickly when you're cold and wet under the ground.
It was the best thing to be getting the wet suits off, and to be greeted with a hot hot shower, and then some hot hot soup and a bagel. A good touch.
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