Vultures, caves and bridges

The post title summarises the photos and the day we have just had. Not moving on today, so a later breakfast than normal before hopping on the bikes to head off to Natural Bridge. Apparently this was once on the list of Seven Wonders of the World - although reading the small print this appeared to be a list compiled in the 19th century, no doubt by Americans who had never left the country!  It was however more impressive than Natural Chimneys and, being privately owned, not free.  Before we got there we noticed some large birds circling overhead and identified them as vultures, a couple were down on the road feeding off some road kill. We got pretty close before they flew up into the trees. After getting a couple of photos I got another huge ant trapped in my shirt trying to eat his way out, so yet again had to strip off my bike shirt by the road, at which point the vultures took off in fright.

On to Natural Bridge, where we did the 2 mile round walk to visit the bridge, a 'lost river' (which had obviously been found) and a rather unimpressive waterfall.  Next we visited the caverns, going 374 ft underground with a temperature difference of over 30 degrees F. Chris had a jacket (Chris always has a jacket) but I got quite chilly, although it was certainly worth the trip. There were a lot of steps to get us up a d down the place and at one stage I thought both the guide and a couple of the tour were going to collapse or have a heart attack (most likely both) but after a few strategic pauses everyone got out alive.  After this we headed back, cycling 33 miles with over 2,000ft of ascent on a 'rest' day to the accompanying rumble of disapproval from the Mechanic.

Time to tell you about the local cyclist who appears to be stalking us. We have now been approached by him on three separate occasions and it appears that he is a) weird, b) lonely, c) addicted to giving you a blow by blow account of everywhere he has ever cycled including all turns, road names etc.  He keeps trying to give us good routes from where we are to where we want to be going something like this: take the third left after the building with red roof, then bear right at the metal post in the pavement to take a left at the fourth stop light, right at the second bank on your left, past the Cookie Lady's house and look for a right fork at a house with a chimney..............and on and on.  By this time Chris has zoned out and I am contemplating either homicide or suicide, while we both nod sagely and say 'Yup, got that' at regular intervals.  We are thinking of leaving town under cover of darkness....

Sports people over here take themselves very seriously - can you imagine Wayne Rooney uttering the following incomprehensible stream of drivel:

'Everything you do in life gets you to where you are now. I would definitely say my beginnings and my in-betweens and everything else are how I am'.  I would say they need to get out more......