5.07.2013- Crawling up a hill

The fourth day is upon us and we are still all female and still in the realm of slow beginnings. Washing finds all mornings isn't really an adventure in the Gorges. Adventures, however, can often times be too versatile and for me having to spend each day surrounded by a group of lovely ladies has turned into a game of walking on a rope. You can never be too sure what happens when so many females gather in the same place and the ugly truth is women understand women at times just as much as men do. So we're waiting for the big boss with toothbrushes and dirty hands washing daub and very sad looking pot-sherds. It's all archaeology people, it's a marathon not a sprint. But we are starting to feel eager and wanting to dive into a cave-hike (mostly because that was what we were originally told we would do). So after a lovely meal for lunch we head for the target, but it's more like A target because we keep hearing these little pieces of information about other caves we might venture to. At this point we learn not to try predicting what the big boss's plans are, probably one of the most valuable lessons of this barely started dig. So we get out of the cars by the side of the road and then straight into the woods we go. Little did we know it's gonna be straight up hill from there on. Now when it comes to describing a hike everyone has a different take, so try not to take mine too seriously. I think the climb is delightful; the clear and present threat of falling rocks not so much but we can't have it all. And yes, there was some undignified crawling in places where the soil is so slippery you can already see yourself falling down. But this is not just a hike, it's the road to an excavation site, so we do need to carry buckets, tools and such up hill. It's not easy for anyone but the mood does seems to lighten up when Aruna drops her bucket and it tumbles down the hill into oblivion. I can't stress enough how much this is not a vacation. About an hour (or maybe more, I think it was more but it shouldn't have been) we arrive at this magnificent cave. The big boss is carrying the generator Jenny up so we can have some light inside the cave and actually start digging. Everyone that's been on an archaeological excavation will tell you it's not just troweling and looking pretty. You also need and array of other abilities but as undergrads we rarely get the glitz and glamour and we end up with carrying buckets of soil and sieving through them. Not that anyone is complaining, it's the way the archaeological food-chain works. And while there are some times I am far too pessimistic about the learning side of a dig, valuable, invigorating lessons such as “Be aggressive with the trowel” speak for themselves. We're gonna be late for dinner again. Not really surprising. Going down- hill was a different kind of fun and while the multiple bruises on my body testify to that, I feel like I've won the jackpot by coming here. The best bit of hiking is I get to feel like a bad-ass character from an action film taking place in a jungle (but shush, that's a very personal secret connected to my unrealistic fantasies of actually having an interesting life). So yeah, I am quite happy. Wonderfully physically tired and unable to get angry- simply because I don't have the energy. We're going back to the cave tomorrow. And it would be a lie to say no one thought even for a few seconds they would rather stay up there rather than having to go back again. We go to bed at 10 - living the good life, huh. Tomorrow's gonna be a whole different adventure.