I'm a pansy

... or at least, that's how I feel every time I try to hang with my two brothers. I'm afraid this post will be most interesting to those who have had the (potentially dangerous) experience of meeting them:

They look harmless enough here, don't they? That hill behind them is our destination for the day. Things start getting hairy when Dan decides to stop for lunch at a location "sheltered from the wind:"
My highly developed sense of vertigo starts kicking in right about now, just a gentle nudge reminding me that my choice of profession hasn't exactly honed my foot-eye coordination.

We get to the top without any mishaps. Emboldened by lack of injury, I decide to point out a rather intriguing hole in the ground.

At this point my pride decides that it's a great idea to ignore my claustrophobia, despite the fact that the only preparation we appear to have is two flashlights, one of which is showing signs of fatigue. But what do I know about spelunking, right? Caves are supposed to be fun, right? I think this might even have been a genuine smile:

That didn't last so long. The hole soon developed into a vertical fissure. My claustrophobia humbly ceded place to my previously mentioned and suddenly overpowering vertigo.

Need I say that nobody knew of our whereabouts, we had no safety gear, 1 1/2 lights (Dan dropped his shortly after this pic and had to climb further down to retrieve it), and were using pre-installed ropes of dubious quality.

As you might have already guessed, we did indeed make it back out, and I believe that the wounds covering my arms, legs and back will all eventually heal without any permanent scarring. Although I'm still a pansy, I can proudly say that I did not wet my pants.

Still, David doesn't look so innocuous now, does he?

On the way back down, guess what we found? Yep ... another one:


Since I've already posted far too many pics, I'll jump to the part where I survive to spend a few happy and precious days with the rest of my family.

So - that's how I spent my summer vacation. Sorry for the lack of posts while I was actually over there.

And Karl, a very big congrats on your stunning Eurographics performance!