Do you samba? I don’t. I think I came pretty close to a Samba no pé this week though. According to Wikipedia (the source of all condensed common knowledge), “Samba no pé is a solo dance that is most often danced impromptu when samba music is played. The basic movement involves a straight body and a bending of one knee at a time. The feet move very slightly — only a few inches at a time.”
Call me crazy, but doesn’t that sound like speed walking? Or belly crawling? But you know, to music?
Inside the Caves
I went on my first Samba Days adventure at Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park on Vancouver Island this week and did my own version of the Samba no pé (or what I like to call “the caterpillar crawl”) in the underbelly of the area’s most popular underground caverns. This is technically the third cave tour I’ve been on (first in Queensland Australia and then in Oregon USA) but while the caves at this park aren’t the biggest or the most stunning, this tour definitely beat the other two hands down!
O quê, you ask? Sim! It’s unfair competition really, because how can you compete with a tour that includes five underground rope stations, rappelling 70ft down into a damp cave with mutant larvae swimming around, and belly crawling through four crevices? Though it’s technically a tourist-friendly adventure, it’s not your typical stand-behind-the-ropes-while-I-educate-you type tour. And for that, it’s a hundred times better!
Getting There
Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park is located about an hour north of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. To get there from Vancouver, take the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo ($63.15 each way for one passenger in one car). You could take the ferry from Tsawwassen to Nanaimo instead, but it’s a longer journey and the price is the same.
Once you get on the island, toss your GPS because it’s pretty much useless when it comes to finding the park. Mine for example decided that it was in the middle of the Georgia Straight, and most others want to take you to the other side of the lake. To get there, follow the directions on the park’s website.
Chris showing us the equipment
Arrival
I had my concerns when I first arrived at the little portable office to check in for the morning Rappel Clinic (mandatory if you haven’t gone outdoor rappelling). This was my guide’s first season on the job and I had to sign a form releasing the staff from any liabilities due to negligence on their part if something happened to me (gulp). My worries were completely unfounded though, because my guide Chris is awesome! Not only is he trained to be uber-safe, but he’s also well versed in all those names for creepy crawlies and weird cave formations that you would only ever find in textbooks, and he’s eager to share the knowledge!
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