Adventures in Rock Canyon

So since Josh and I were going to go and do a slot canyon, I needed some emotional and technical support from my Forsyth Sisters. I somehow convinced Megan and Kara to come with Josh and me up to Rock Canyon. As Kara said "the girly girl of the family" meaning me, needed a beginners lesson in repelling. I have to admit I was terrified but since these ladies are so tough I had to try and act brave. Megan showed me how it was done with her new man "York" oohing and aahing from below. Then Josh made me go. Kara was so kind as to belay(sp?) me from the bottom so I felt safe (I guess since I didn't know that it made a difference in the tall mountain I was climbing off). Thanks to my awesome family for your support and expertise. I couldn't have done it without you.

Cranney Reuion

Look at this baby monitor, Dad!

"Can I catch it?"
"No, they bite. Besides, they're way too fast."
"Aww, he's little, I bet I could catch him!"
"No you can't. I'll give you twenty bucks if you catch him."
(In high-pitched baby talk) "C'mon, little baby dinosaur, I'm not gonna hurt you, hold still now, I'm just gonna pet you, and give you a cookie."

You can't see how fast everyone's moving in the second photo, but after Dad stalked for a few seconds (the upper limit for ADD stalkers), Keven, despite being extremely startled, snapped the picture just as Dad did a full-body lunge and the monitor leaped over the edge of the slope (which is a lot higher and steeper than it looks).

Can I have $20 if I catch a bird?

This is on the sea wall of Galle, a very ancient Moslem trading fort captured by the Portuguese in the 1500's, then by the Dutch (who headquartered the Dutch East India Trading Company here and built it into a huge fort enclosed by gigantic walls), and finally by the British colonists from 1800 until 1948. It is full of ancient mosques, wonderful old creepy churches and cemeteries, and surrounded by massive stone walls, 60 feet thick in places and cut through with tunnels.
We spent a very large portion of our time here feeding crackers to the birds.

How about this goat? Can I have $20 for this goat?

After he caught the goat, he tried saying soothing things to it in baby talk ("Ohhh, yes, him's a pretty little goat, isn't him?") and holding it on his lap and rocking it. But that was just a freaked-out goat.

A turtle! I caught a turtle!

This albino Olive Ridley turtle was rescued from a fishing net years ago, and then got swept out of her pool by the tsunami, which swamped the whole hatchery under eight feet of water, destroying everything and killing the parents of the man who runs the place. Every household in these beach neighborhoods lost family members along with their houses, but somebody found Lily and carried her home.

Cuddly little things.

Isn't it remarkable how Dad loves to cuddle with all animals regardless of how prickly or wet they are, how hard they bite, or how desperately they do not want to be cuddled?

Turtles!

We followed this little hand-painted sign to a turtle farm on the beach; where supposedly this old man who buys turtle eggs from the locals hatches them and puts them out to sea. We pulled up and he started jabbering and showing us a fenced-in garden plot with little mounds staked out with initialed notes. Great, I thought, he's got nothing to show us so he's making a big deal out of his turtle graveyard. I liked him a whole lot better when he started scooping away sand from one mound, because anyone who is so willing to exhume a grave so you can have a look is okay in my book. He uncoverd some soft eggshell fragments and then suddenly there were flapping, struggling baby turtles everywhere. Live animals buried in the sand just seem terribly unnatural; we could not have been more startled if he had uncovered a squirming litter of puppies!
Afterwards we each took a handful of turtlettes over to the pool where they could swim for a couple of days before being released.

Hard at work on the job site.

The two head honchos conferring while the worker bees wait for orders. We had great weather for working while Dad was here - cloudy enough to hold back the heat but no rain. Nope, it didn't start to storm until we took a couple of days off to drive around the south tip of the island. Then we got a nice typhoon/monsoon combo that made the gorgeous beaches and jungle temples really memorable. Oh well, Dad always enjoys leftovers and rejects and mistakes better than perfection anyway. He was a very Cappy Hamper.

Hard at work on the- Hey, I'll bet we can climb this thing!

"Dad, you don't have a harness!"
Ok, yeah, gimme that tool belt, and a couple of t-shirts and your purse strap... Voila! I'll be real careful. Bye!
He doesn't look too high up on the last photo but he was actually 140 feet up. The workers were genuinely frightened.
Note to Mom: When he talked me and Kev into all three of us going up together we only went up to about 60 feet. It was exhilarating; the wind was fierce and the tower was swaying and you could see rolling jungle for miles around!