Sunday, October 25, 2009

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho

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It’s off to work we go

Saturday, our good weather luck finally ran out and we woke up to a dreary, rainy day.  Luckily, I had anticipated this and had booked a Honister Mine Tour for the day, figuring that the inside of a mine would be one of the driest places in the area. 

Located about 15 minutes outside of Keswick, Honister Mine is a working slate mine that also has a variety of tours – a simple mine tour, a mine/hiking tour and the insane Via Ferrata tour.  Originally, I had seen the Via Ferrata tour advertised and had wanted to do it back in May.  However, after seeing some of the videos and photos on the Mine’s website, I have changed my mind.  Most people who know me know how paranoid about heights I am.  So a climb up a mountain face on metal rungs would probably not be a good idea.

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Just looking at these photos makes me nauseous!

For the even more insane, why not add a zipline to it?

image Cailin knows how I feel about ziplines

Kevin and I stuck to the boring yet safe mine tour, partly because I am a wuss and partly because it was raining.  On a side note, mining always makes me think of the 7 dwarfs which makes me think of my rides to work with my dad when I worked at EB – he thought it was a fantastic idea to sing Heigh-Ho at 6 in the morning.  Not FUNNY!

We got a funny old Yorkshireman as a guide and helmets on our head and headed down into the mine.  Let me tell you – that mine was cold!  My poor planning caused me to just be wearing a light jacket and sweater so my hands froze and became numb, which made my favorite activity – picture taking – difficult because I could barely push the button.  However, I got a few good photo’s of the mine tunnels and caves. 

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The Entrance to the Mine

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Watch your head Kevin!

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One of the caves that’s not currently being mined with its lava sill above

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Another cave with a lava sill above

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Kevin is grumpy cause I hit him with my light

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Ventilation Shaft with the old rail tracks and sketchy ladder

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Where we originally entered the mine

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  Honister Pass

Kevin is planning on heading back sometime to try the Via Ferrata because he is insane, but I would love to get back up to the area and hike around.  It’s really beautiful here.

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