First Week In My New Job as a Tour Guide

 I have scored my dream job as a Tour Guide at Capricorn Caves.

The Caves are amazing. 

My first week was exhausting. For the first 2 days I went on 5 tours each day with a different guide, learning where to take people on the Cathedral Tour and what information to tell them. On the 3rd day I went with a different guide on 3 tours in the morning. Each guide does their tour differently and talks about different things. 

In the afternoon I went for a walk around the site so I could get my bearings. On the 4^th day I did a bit of reading then went on a tour with the lady who has been there the longest. Afterwards she spent some time with me on my own so I could start to learn the information in more depth. After lunch, I went into the caves on my own! I wanted to play around with the lights.

The caves are up in a mountain, which is unusual, as most caves are down underground. The entrance into the caves is a collapsed cave roof with giant fig trees, roots, orchids and vines growing down from the top of the cliffs above. Stairs take the groups down into the Vestibule Cavern which is full of different colours and speleothems or cave decorations: cave coral, stalagtites and flowstone. 

I went into two other caves on the last day, a beautiful cave called the harp, with a light that shows the harp and another  that shows Batman hanging in his bat lair. It has a chimney that many dead animals have fallen down. The caves are full of billions and trillions of bones. The school groups that come through do an activity  where they sift through the guano, or bat poo searching for tiny bones. 

There was so much to see and learn, my head was buzzing. 

The Cathedral Tour is the most popular tour, it goes for 45 minutes and shows visitors the easily accessible caves. They hear a brief overview of the cave's formation, some information about bats, the extremely rare fern, Tectaria Devexa, a bit about the history of the cave's discovery in the late 1800's by the Olsen family who came to Australia from Norway as farmers. There is also an inspiring musical performance in the Cathedral Chamber.

Thousands of tiny bent wing bats were hiding-out in the Honeymoon Suite, they come and go so it was lucky they were there. They have a really stinky bat smell. We could hear and smell them from the High Dome Cave. The sound they make collectively sounds like a running stream of water. The noises they make individually is them talking to each other. Bats are the most vocal mammal, other than humans, though a lot of their sounds are a higher frequency than we can hear.

When they fly out at night they eat 400-600 insects each a night, or 40% of their body weight. They reduce the population of mosquitoes and insect pests that destroy crops. Their poo, or guano has been compacted to make the floor of the cave; roots of the fig trees grow down metres and metres through cracks in the cave and get nutrients to grow from the guano. The trees provide habitat for the animals in the dry rainforest. Bats are a vital part of the ecosystem. 

On Friday night all the staff were taken out to dinner in Rockhampton which was a really nice way to start my time there. I met the bosses and had steak with avocado in béarnaise sauce and chocolate pudding in chocolate sauce.

The reason for this delicious dinner was they had the most profitable quarter the caves have ever had, so congratulations to the team who work so hard running such interesting tours every day.

There are other tours: the Adventure Tour where you climb through tunnels and disappear up through the middle of rocks, and the Explorer Tour. It is awesome. We went in and out of different caves and saw the archaeological dig in the Colosseum Cave. They have discovered bones of ancient megafauna such as a 10m long snake that may be the mythological rainbow serpent and the thylacoleo-carnifex, the distant ancestor of the drop bear.

I spent Friday afternoon going through the caves on my own, plunging myself into darkness and experimenting with the lighting. It was a bit freaky when bats swooped over my

head, but I made it back alive.

On my way into the cave I saw a really weird insect. I think it is an earwig who has used the cave crystals to make a house on its back as camoflage from the bats. It must have taken a very long time to make it's shell. I might be the only person in the world who has ever seen it.

The Cycle of My Life

 

When I was a teenager I had a cleaning job, every Saturday morning. 

I saved up really hard till I had enough money to buy a bike. I bought a bike with gears because I lived in a hilly district.

I used to sneak out in the night and ride up the hill to visit my friends, Katrina and Jayne and get up to mischief. 

My parents had built me a little house in the back yard, it was my own room. We didn't get on very well. I wrote about my expeditions in my diary. I remember the last sentence was "Haha I didn't get found out".

The next sentence was "Un-haha. My mother read my diary." 

I wasn't allowed to ride my bike after that, or see my friends. My bike was left to rust in the shed.

Sometime latter I was sterilizing my contact lenses by boiling them on the stove. But I fell asleep and they melted.

My parents made me pay for new ones by scrubbing all the rust off the spokes of my bike with steel wool till it gleamed like new and I sold it.

Not long after that they bought my younger sister a bike. She didn't have a job.

If I didn't get on with my parents very well before, we got on really badly after that. 

I never got on with my mother till shortly before she died. And I never rode a bike again.

Some friends got me on one once and I crashed into a pole and an old lady. Lately some friends have been promising to teach me, but their bikes always seem to have a flat tyre.

I really have a negative Samskara where bikes are concerned. A complete mental block. ​

On this spiritual journey to India, we went to the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai for the powerful full moon festival. 

Swami Pujan and Betty had asked if anyone wanted to hire a bicycle to get around on. No one else did and I told them I couldn't ride a bike. But when we arrived at the bicycle hire shop I changed my mind. I jumped out of the bus with the intention of hiring one. Unfortunately none were available so I started walking to our accommodation, about 10 minutes further on.

On the way I came across a shack hiring bikes. So I got one and off I went! No worries mate, I said, "I can do anything!"

The next day I rode that bike all the way to town to the Sri Ramana Ashram. I went in the chaotic Indian traffic! It was so hard for my legs and back. I was so hot and puffed and sweaty. It took me a while to get to there. They even went back to look for me to make sure I was ok. I was ok, I was just trying really hard and trying really hard not to get killed. And I had to have a couple of rests crossing at the intersection then trying to merge back with the traffic.  It took me a while to get over the effort.

I was so proud of myself. I thought I had overcome the psychological block I had against bicycles. 

Apparently not. The universe had a lot more work for me to do. The bike got stolen. 

I'd been assured that no one would steal a bicycle in Tiruvannamalai and it was locked. But a set of circumstances led it to being in the same place at the top of a dirt road for too long. 

I had to leave it overnight as it was too dark to ride it back to Sunshine - our accommodation.  But it was still there after breakfast. We had breakfast a short distance from Sunshine at a very nice open air cafe Da Mantra Vegan Cafe. It was new and clean, with a very nice owner.

We went to a Kirtan sing-a-long, which wasn't my cup-of-tea. A room of spiritual people were singing Indian chants to awaken the universal consciousness within. It was definitely working for some of them. They were like lunatics.

After the chanting finished, I walked back to get my bike but it was gone! I spent the next 2 hours, in the heat searching for it. I was pretty pissed off. Especially when I got back to Sunshine to have a shower and they had taken my soap.

It took a while to get the poor bicycle-hire family to understand what had happened because they didn't know much English. I had to go and download Tamil language on google translate because I couldn't get them to understand the word stolen or taken. All our conversions were mostly done with body language and a few clear words. We were all upset. They wanted me to give them enough money for a new bike. I offered to give them enough for a second-hand bike. 

That night I was meditating with my group and an energetic feeling descended on me, like a shower of stars falling over my head and body. It came with a message..."buy them a new bike. But go with them so in return I would have an experience."

On the way to dinner I went and told them so they wouldn't need to worry. I arranged to come the next day at 11am and go on the back of the lady's motor scooter to the bike shop in town. We rang up their friend who spoke good English so there was no miscommunication. He said it would be easier if I just gave them the money but I insisted we were going to do it my way. 

The next day, after breakfast, as I set off on my adventure, I called back to the girl's that with this transaction I was going to change the economy of India.

I got on the motor scooter with the bicycle hire lady and her little scowling son. We got as far as the cattle market that had sprung up as part of the festival, about 800m up the road, when we ran out petrol. Then there was no phone reception so she had to walk back to get some petrol. I stayed in the heat and chaos with her scowling son, surrounded by a crowd of cows and strange Indian devotees with shaved and painted heads. She arrived back with some petrol. Her husband came on another motor scooter with their little daughter and we set off again. 

We stopped at 3 ATM's till we found one I could get 5000 rupees (about $100AUS) to pay for the bike.

The roads were totally packed with people and motor bikes. We accidentally bumped into 2 police women on their motor scooter! Ooops. I said sorry but I don't think they understood English. We drove past the ancient temple - It was fascinating.  

There were crackers being let off in the street and road blocks but we got to the bike shop. 

They took me out the back and showed me a bike. It was pink but it was too expensive and it was too big. I got them the same one as the one I had hired for 4000 rupees ($80AUS). 

Then they wanted me to buy their little girl a tricycle. Poor people always get greedy and want more. I don't like being taken advantage of. I bought the children a cheap plastic toy each, but I didn't give them the toys right away. They hadn't attempted a smile the whole time.

Then they wanted me to ride the bike back to their place! It was miles away! I can barely ride a bike let alone through that chaos! They ended up transporting it the Indian way. By loading it across the husband's scooter and with the little girl on the back off they went through the crowded streets.

I went back with the wife. I asked her to drop me off in the town. I was still feeling pissed off. I decided I deserved something for myself for a change. I went and picked up the saree I had ordered. It took a while for her to fit the blouse. (It didn't end up fitting very well, I kept it tight with safety pins). But the Saree was beautiful. A lady appeared from somewhere and dressed me in it.

​Then I went for a relaxing lunch at the Dreaming Tree where they have reclining lounges on the floor. I had cold coconut juice and creamy pumpkin spaghetti The whole restaurant stopped and turned to watch me come in. 

After lunch I went back to the shop where the young man had given me the Ganesh statue and bought myself an expensive blue topaz bracelet. It was very beautiful. I went back with the wife. I asked her to drop me off in the town. I was still feeling pissed off. I decided I deserved something so after a refreshing lunch I bought an expensive blue topaz bracelet from a friend in a shop I met the day before. He had given me a ganesh statue as a gift for no reason. Pujan thought he must have wanted to marry me. But  it was just a lovely gesture on his behalf.

I was also fitted and dressed in the beautiful Saree I had bought. 

The next night they were lighting the fire on the top of the mountain. A million Indians walked like an ocean around the sacred mountain. We were having a feast on a rooftop restaurant with a view to watch the lighting of the fire and the fireworks that went off everywhere all around the city.

I tried to put on my Saree but I didn't do very well. The bicycle lady grabbed me and took me into her hovel. She, her mother-in-law and sister-in-law all helped dress me properly. It takes a while. I was a late for dinner & they were getting a bit worried. I explained I had left Sunshine wearing the Sarah version of a Saree and had been helped along the way to appear as I was.

The same thing happened in the morning. I still hadn't given the children the toys because the sister had 3 small children so there were 5.

That morning we went for a wonderful walk around the back of the town, through the fields. It was much fresher than the dirt road. The houses were nicer too.

We went to hear a Sufi singer. I loved the meaning of her songs she told before she sang, about emptiness.  I stayed as long as I could but I had to leave. I felt I had to have my own experience before we left.

I walked to the market in town and bought 3 more plastic toys. I had lunch and a nap back at Sunshine. Then I took the toys to the children. Also some lovely handmade soap for the ladies. 

The tiniest boy got rings to arrange in order on a stick. The eldest boy plastic coloured bricks. One of the girl's got snapping fish you have to catch with a magnet. The middle boy got a squirrel that ran along the ground with sparks and when the oldest girl got a doll that lit up as she rolled along the ground they all cheered with happiness and ran off to play with their new toys. I never saw such joy. It was like Christmas.

Then I had an idea.

Bettie had told me that this lady used to be her cleaning lady. She had been studying computers when her family had decided to take her out of college and marry her off. But the husband was lazy and didn't bathe or take care of himself.

I had brought a notebook-computer with me, thinking it would be useful. But it wasn't. It was slow and heavy and took up too much space in my luggage. I asked her if she would like to have it.

We went to Sunshine with the kids and I gave it to her. She blessed me and actually kissed my feet. Back at her place her old mother-in-law gave me a Bindi and painted dots that are blessings on my forehead.

Then they asked me if I would join the family on a journey around the mountain. Traversing the mountain clears away your sins and cleans your karma. We went all together on 3 motor bikes. 

I have never forgotten the way she told me it would be very jolly. It was magical. And they brought me a gift of 2 bangles. They mean more to me than the expensive one.

The next morning I was leaving. I saw the little boy playing with his blocks. He smiled and waved. He wasn't scowling any more. The husband waved. He was washed and sitting out the front of his shop in clean shirt. 

The wife and brother-in-law invited me in for tea and breakfast. But I only had time to say good bye. 

I wanted to change this woman's life. So I did. I feel sort of like a good angel who appeared in their life and showered them with gifts. They must have deserved it or the universe wouldn't have set it up for their bike to be stolen.

The Long Walk

 

The next morning I rode my bike up to breakfast but I left it at the top of the road because the side street is dirt and really rough with lots of pot holes and mud. I thought I would be able to ride it on our expedition that day. But everyone else was walking, so I had to walk.

We walked so far! We walked around the mountain and back for two and a half hours. Oh, my poor painful feet!

The first part along the busy road was horrible, noisy and smelly. Then we got to the nice bit that was blocked off to traffic. It was cool under the giant trees with bright temples along the way. It wasn't very crowded because the festival hadn't officially started yet. 

All the Indian people wore their best clothes and bare feet. A lady gestured at my feet to say I shouldn't be wearing shoes. There was no way I would walk on that dirty road in bare feet, besides my feet were so sore. I wondered what they would do if they cut their foot, they would be sure to get an infection. There is so much rubbish in India, laying around everywhere, it is so dirty.

The lady, her husband and daughter sort of became my walking companions, we would fall behind each other, then catch up and smile at each other again. We got to a blue temple. I wasn't quite sure what to do. I was standing near the exit watching and the lady came up and gave me a blessing, dabbing sacred ash on my forehead. So I took my shoes off and went in. A couple in my group were there. We all put some money in the offering tray and the Brahmin priest gave us a blessing of a necklace made from string with a nut on it, a small packet of sacred ash and dabbed my forehead with ash again. 

We were very popular on our walk. There weren't many white foreigners there. Everyone wanted photographs with us. They were very polite about it, and I suppose when you think about it, I was taking lots of photographs of them too. They loved that.

The orange men are called Sadu, holy men (beggars realy) but they are given rice, fuit and milk by the ashrams

When we eventually got back to the corner, Fran and myself decided to stop walking and get a rickshaw into town. I was so grateful.

I went shopping for some presents and clothes I needed to wear. I eventually found what I wanted, some embroidered tops and Indian pants in a shop where I was served by a lovely (and handsome) young man from Kashmir. We had chai tea had a chat. He was talking about opening his own shop. I told him I was sure he would. And since then he has! He gave me a Ganesha statue as a gift. Pujan thought he must have wanted to marry me. But it was just a kind gesture. (N.B. Actually we are still friends years later, I helped him as best I could to get through Covid and he managed to keep his new shop open.)

Our group met up again at a restaurant called the Dreaming Tree for dinner. 

The Great Deepam Festival at Arunachala 2019

 

4th December - 12th December 2019

The city of Tiruvannamalai has grown up around a Holy Mountain called Aranachala where, in ledgend, Shiva manifested as a collumn of fire to eliminate the ego. The ancient Arunachalesvara Temple is dedicated to Shiva and specifically to the element of fire, or the God Agni. The history of the temple dated back 1000 years. The juge masonry pylons were built in the 9th Century. The temple has had gifts added to it by ruling dynasties of later centuries.

My room in Tiruvannamalai had a small window with a rooster in the field outside and large ants crawling on the floor, I left them alone and they left me alone. The mattress was big & comfortable and they fixed the dribbling faucet in my shower before it fell off.  In Auroville I had bought essential oils and a burner, the scent of geranium and cinnamon still transports me there. I perched my little kettle on a rather precarious stack of boxes and books so the cord could reach the plug to make my essential coffee. I made it quite comfortable, decorated with scarves and the ganesh statues that appeared. The garden was pleasant and green and there was a yoga room on the top floor with a fantastic view of the mountain.

There was a great vegan cafe, Da Mantra, up the road, we could go to anytime to enjoy good fresh drinks and food in a relaxing open-air setting with wifi. We ate there a lot, for breakfast, some lunches and dinners.

We were staying in a town near the ashram of Ramana Maharshi, an Indian sage who became an enlightened being at a very young age and sat in a cave for all of his life. Many thousands of followers sought his teachings and millions still flock to his ashram every year.​ We climbed up the hill to visit his cave. It was pretty cool. 

We were very impressed by an industrious man who made us beautiful, freshly squeezed orange juice half way up our climb to Sri Ramana Maharishi's cave. He had carried a whole box of oranges and all his equipment all the way up the winding stone pathway - including a sling-shot to keep the monkeys away. He deserved a good tip.

There are other people with stalls along the path selling statues. They all say they made them. But I think they were lying. They pretend to be chiselling at stone making statues but all their statues are the same. I still brought one, of Patanjali (the sage the yoga sutras are attributed to) at the top of the trek to commemorate my climb. It's not really basalt, it's just painted, a little piece chipped off his nose, I'll dab a bit of black paint on it.

Pujan said Arunachala has a very high spiritual energy. A whole lot of stuff manifested that I had to deal with. It wasn't very pleasant, but you have to deal with stuff if you want to over come vrittis.

I had a terrible pain in my foot that lasted the next 3 years. Hopefully I have just had it fixed through a series of torture sessions at the physiotherapist.

I went into town in a rickshaw to get some better walking shoes. It was mad in the city! It was packed with people, it was raining and it was authentic. Most of the million people who were pouring into the city had bare feet. I have no idea where they all slept. They just kept coming, hundreds and thousands of them, for days and days and days. A huge, dark ocean of people walking, all in the same direction; clockwise around the mountain.

 

 

I'm Back!

I lost my account and I just found my way back in! Hooray! 

I've been following my inner self and it guided me to this most beautiful, calm and quiet place in the world to live. I think I arrived in Paradise. 

I'm going to upload my travels since Matrimandir and I'm going to share all my research on the Chakras, as I had to close my website I know the world is missing the research.

I'll do one each day, starting tomorrow. Leave comments if you wish, it's nice to be encouraged.