Everyone
thought that the caves would be closed due to the torrential rain in the run up
to Sunday but a text from their club Secretary and an update on the internet on
Saturday night/early hours of Sunday morning confirmed that the event was going ahead.
My husband, my son and I arrived at our meeting point a few minutes before schedule. We got a phone call from the MG ZT saying that they were running late. 15 minutes later we were
joined by the club secretary and his wife arrived in their Rover 75
Tourer (15 minutes late, as is customary for him) and the MG ZT.
Unfortunately,
due work commitments and the mess with the Ulster Bank, a number of members that had
planned to go were unable to do so, due the lack of funds. Nevertheless, we decided to go ahead despite there
only being 3 cars.
Our
trip down the motorway to Enniskillen was interesting particularly when we
managed to frustrate the life out of a BMW driver!
When we arrived at the Marble Arch Caves at
12.30, the sun was shining. Typically, after
days of torrential rain, the sun came out and we were going underground! We
enjoyed the sun and chatting in the car park before we joined 1.40pm tour.
Descending
the 150 step down into caves down into the bowels of the earth, my husband and I
wondered how we were every going to make it out again! We
were guided to 55 metres below ground level through approximately 1.5 kilometres
of caves along the River by a very knowledgeable and friendly tour guide.
The
stalactites are formed by water dripping through the limestone and calcifying,
they take millions of years to form - they grow at the rate of 1cm per 1,000
years but the fast growing one (there is only one) grows at 1cm per 100 years.
Apart
from the concrete foot paths and one section which was drilled through to link
two sections of the caves, everything inside the caves is created either by
rain dripping through the ceilings or the flow of the river.
Sadly,
the boat journey was off and our tour was cut slightly short by an electrical
fault which meant that we missed the last section of the caves as it was unsafe
to cross the newly constructed causeway across the river.
Back
on the surface the flirting between the tour guide and one of our members and the ensuing
match making was priceless!
Back
in the car park a member from Sligo was waiting for us, we gathered around his car and admired it chatted while lapping up the sun. My husband showed off his newest modification to our car... the automatic boot opening springs. The time whizzed by and before we knew it stomachs began to rumble.
Just
after 4pm, it was decided that it was time to find
somewhere to eat. One of our members chose this
moment to tell us that he needed a petrol station urgently as he was “running
on air” (something that we now expect from him). The nearest petrol station was about 15
miles away and the range on his car was showing zero, so we headed off back
towards Enniskillen fully expecting him to come to an abrupt halt, but we made
it safely to the petrol station... good to see that the trip computer on an MG
is reliable!
From
here we progressed on towards Enniskillen and stopped a nice looking roadside
restaurant where we stopped for tea.
The food was served and although it looked ok, it wasn’t great, but the
plates were cleared. Given the quality
off the food, I really wished we’d taken the barbecue with us.
The
craic in the restaurant was great, with our bellies filled it was time to call
it a day and go our separate ways, the MG ZT and the tourer for home while my husband, brother and I headed off to visit my brother who lives
nearby.
Despite the very low turnout, we had a very enjoyable day. If you’re ever in the vicinity, with a few
hours to spare I recommend that you visit the caves or maybe the Club could
organise an outing to them.
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