Today was a very humid “sweat-dripping-off-face” day. We left Fuli Camp at 9:00 in the morning to walk to the road where a van picked us up. The pathway along bumpy rocks and gravel which our eight feet tredded was a sweat drenching experience. Way tooooo sweaty toooo early in the morning.  🙂 It was so nice to be distracted by the eye catching local village farmers tending their fields of rice. My eyes were drawn to the rows of grapevines which were protected by a plastic roof as well as Chinese newspaper draped along every cluster of grapes. The attention getting karsts that outlined the the horizon were helping me to not focus on the heat of the day. My ultimate favorite distraction was a particular karst that was within a homeruns distance which had a certain shape that mystified me. The lines of this karst drew me in. The way the shrubery climbed up and down its sides was amazingly unpredictable. I was so happy to have these distractions to remind me that I was living in a postcard. Even though it is flipping hot outside, this timeframe of my family and I being here living like the locals is precious. Embracing the moments is a major priority, whatever the weather.

We arrived at the paved road desperately seeking shade. We waited a moment or two overlooking a very happy land of green that laid right before our eyes. Breathtakingly beautiful. The van arrived and it was time to head out to the Yangshuo area. We were embraced by the wafts of cold air coming from the vents in the van. What was that called? Oh yes, air conditioning/AC/air con. We had forgotten the feeling of coolness with the simple touch of our fingertips since we lived in a place at Fuli Camp without AC for six days thus far. Today was the beginning of some major heat and we didnt have to stay out in it very long today because we were on our way to visit Moon Water Cave. Our guide, Lola, was great. She is an expat whose home country is The Netherlands. She has lived in the outskirts of Yangshuo in a village for three years. It was great to pick her brain about her lifestyle here. (She lives in a home without AC. Just fans and open windows and doors cool her off.) As we conversed in the cool van we saw people of all kinds visiting Yangshuo and people selling their wares to the tourists. One of my favorite people I saw was a local man riding his motor scooter with his prized money makers riding in the basket behind him. Three little real monkeys dressed in Chinese ethnic clothing with hats to match. That was a bit shocking for me to see outside my window. It was a great opportunity to smile again.

When we reached our destination my youngest daughter was very relaxed. The last two nights were tricky for her as it was hard for her to get to sleep due to the heat in the tent as well as waking up with cries of discontentness and pain from her mosquito bites. My husband was a bit concerned about her as we started our big adventure of the day. He has climbed this cave three times. For our two girls and I it was our first time. My husband did a great job of explaining to them what it would be like however some things just need to be experienced. So, we changed into clothing that we didn’t mind getting wet, muddy, and dirty. We made sure to do our “last chance potty” as we couldn’t go potty while inside the cave. We put on our hard hats and got our flashlights fastened to our wrists. Then, we boarded a big canoe-style boat which was rowed by a couple of local people. (The cave is run by a local family.) We glided along a gentle carrying stream to our starting point of the walking part of the journey. We disembarked and began our journey of a thousand steps (or more). Personally, I did not know what to expect. As a young child, I visited one cave in California which I didn’t find very exciting. Now, I see things differently, through the lens of being a parent and what my children perceive. This caused great excitement to share something so rare and so special and so cold. It felt sooooooo good to be out of the blasted heat outside. Who would’ve thought it would be so refreshingly cool inside this karst. With our footsteps going up, down, around through slippery steps, wet steps, and stable steps I realized that we were walking in living Chinese history. I communicated that to my girls because I didn’t think that my “xiao bao bao” (small treasure daughter) could grasp the depth of stalagmites shaping themselves for a couple of hundred thousand years. Our cold journey took us through so many generations worth of natural river and river water carving the inside of this grand karst. Lydia stopped us early on in our journey (around the 500 step mark) to talk about the very first explorers that discovered this cave. They did not have flashlights like we did nor the white fluorescent bulbs that appeared here and there along our path. These explorers didn’t have a railing like we did nor rope that we were using. We had a good conversation about what it would be like to be those explorers. Lola then preceded to turn off the fluorescent lights. Then we really noticed how dark it was and that with our flashlights shining we were able to see some things. However, she dug into her bag and showed us what it was kind of like for the explorers. We turned off our flashlights while she turned on her little gas lighter. Wow! One little flame amongst the darkness. Amazing! It actually gave off a broad range of light for it’s size. However, the explorers must have walked at a snail’s pace to be able to realize what was surrounding them. Plus, how……how could they return to their entry point? Lola mentioned that leaving a trail of crumbs like Hansel and Gretal wouldn’t work. It was at that point, that I understood there were some very brave (and crazy) people who discovered this place and throughout many, many years it would be a place for my senses to experience. The sound of our echoey words was unusual. The way the river water tickled my toes and provided a cooling comfort was absolutely refreshing. The popcorn, bacon, columns, stalagmites, and stalagtites my eyes took in were concrete evidence that history is a reality within this area of China. My favorite thing to watch was the diamond-like sparkle of the droplets of river water collecting at the bottoms tips of the stalagtites. Each drop sparkling for a purpse to shape and mold the earth within this cold and dark place. It was a completely different world in here. I found myself falling in love with China all over again.

We discovered that two animals live at Moon Water Cave; Tom and Jerry. First we found Jerry in his territory. A quick moving black spot, he was. An animal who enjoyed eating tasty morsels like cave crickets. Further along we heard and saw Tom in his part of the cave. Tom and Jerry are bats. We also had a good conversation about being super safe in the cave. For example, if one of us fell down some steps and broke some bones it would take about two days to rescue an injured person from the point that we were at in the cave. Every once in awhile we would see reminders thong the path warning us to be careful. For example, the English translation on one of the signs said, “Beware of to Meet”. This sign required us to look at the simple illustration of a man’s head with his hard hat on “meeting” the low parts above our heads. Many times the adults had to duck. My xiao bao bao was very happy about that as she was walking behind me exclaiming “Duck!” when I couldn’t see. I appreciated her sweet help.

As we continued our way through Moon Water Cave, we approached a square pool of browness. At first glance I could see about six inches of water sitting on top of a brown layer of mud. My daughters were pretty excited about this part of our first time cave experience. Baba (Daddy) showed them the way into what is called the mud bath. A few slippery concrete steps led us into the mud bath. I recorded in my brain the utterances my family made. Utterances that told of the weirdness of texture and their new bodily experience in the thick, dense, clay-like mud. I commented that perhaps they truly felt like a water buffalo in a countryside pond. They had to learn how to mix the water layer with the slow moving mud in order to move more human-like. After they figured out how to use their bodies and adjust to the way the mud felt they had a tremendous amount of fun attacking Baba with the mud. I watched all of this as I was trying to remove my wedding ring from my very plump finger. Lola mentioned that anything could get lost in that mad bath. She tried once to enter the mud bath to experience it. That first time created her to be a spectator for all of the other visits that she has been to this cave. She did not like it. That’s fine for her to watch people as she is the Insight Adventure’s guide that leads groups of people through the cave. I figured out that I wasn’t drinking enough water in the heat, therefore my fingers were swollen. I eventually got my ring off and gave it to Lola who took good care of it for me. It was my turn to experience the craziness that was happening with my family in the mud. Indeed, it was not mud that I was familiar with. It was watery mud at my knees. It was flexible sticky mud at my calves. The mud was like clay amongst my feet. My first utterance was, “Ohhhhhhhhh, I don’t like it. I don’t like it.” I’m sure that many women around the world would’ve loved the opportunity to reap the health benefits for their skin with this type of mud but I am not rich-blooded….and thankfully so. It took some time to get used to it. I took my mind off of it by grabbing the cake-y mud from my feet and shaping bowls with my seven year old at the concrete edge of the mud bath. That was a blast! Until, my ten year old came charging up to me with gobs of mud that suddenly became thick dredlocks in my hair. She kept attacking my back and literally painted mud on my purple shirt. My youngest daughter soon joined the effort of demolishing me with mud. “No more purple! No more purple!” she exclaimed as she tried to make my shirt completely brown. The next time I saw my husband of 17 years, I could not recognize him. He looked like he was made of chocolate and was wearing a mud mohawk on his head. Oh boy! I felt like I was in the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Oompa Loompas were my daughters completely “chocolated”. This mud bath experience was full of smiles and laughter. We realized we needed to get out as my seven year old became cold. She was shivering without any complaining. We got out and grabbed our flahlights and water bottles and headed towards the sound of rushing water.

Lola was a bit concerned and thought we might have to turn back. I did not know what our next footsteps would bring us. My husband did. He was fairly confident that we could do it. I said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about but we can do it.” With that we decided to forge on and not turn back. At this point, I did not know that our journey of a thousand steps was really a journey of two thousand steps (at least). The rushing water sound was the very refreshing however a lot of it was coming through down on path. This was not the river water that we experienced earlier in our journey. This was a waterfall that we were climbing up through to get to the outlet of the cave. Suddenly, I realized that we were in an Indiana Jones movie with a quiet internalizing ten year old and very cold trembling seven year old. My oldest daughter seemed determined to go through whatever came her way as she carefully followed the path that Lola led. My youngest daughter was starting to cry and seem very anxious about the path of rocks that could not be seen due to the rushing water. There were pockets of only water and no visible path that had to be well thought through before entering. Is the water deep here? Where are some good stable footholds? How will we get through this part? This caused my seven year old’s anxieties to become real fears along with her cold body temperature. She steadily cried, however, she never gave up. There were many opprtunities at this point of our journey to trust. To trust that Baba would be there for her. To trust that we will get through the next part. It was not easy for anyone. We all had our difficulties. In order to get out of Moon Water Cave we had to press on. All of us had a vivid opportunity to persevere…..even when it is hard. I was so glad to see my seven year old and her Baba’s relationship grow deeper as they needed each other. We all needed each other. Whether it was my cheerleading to encourage us or Baba’s leg that became a foothold for us to get over the big areas of water or Lola’s words to point out which spot in which rock would be a good hand hold, we all helped each other. All of us needed help at some point along this journey. All of us were helpful to someone at some point along the way. I clearly saw how difficult it was to move forward up through the waterfall. For example, I heard my water bottle fall. For an instant it became invisible as the waterfall rushed so quickly amongst the rocks. The next instant I saw it below my foot and knew that there was no way I’d be able to retrieve that. It was gone. The power of the cool water had literally swept it away out from under my feet. That was just a thing, a water bottle. I was so thankful that during the most difficult moments that we were all protected and healthy to persevere and work as a team. This experience at Moon Water Cave boldly illustrated the Chinese proverb that states, “To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time but we must keep stepping.”

One last thing I learned was how to keep myself motivated. I did not experience this while we were in the cave. It surprisingly came to me after we reached the outlet. After we saw the view from our tall perspective I wasn’t expecting the difficulty of getting down the karst in the terribly hot weather. I don’t think my body has ever sweated that much. I was beyond ready to be done with the entire experience. Actually, I wanted to get back into the cold cave inside the karst. While my youngest daughter was finally warming her body up, I was overheated and bothered as I slowly stumbled my way down with an open blister on one of my heels and a bad sore spot on the top of my other foot. Since I knew I wouldn’t be heading back into the cave I started singing. I knew that we would be cleaning up our muddy selves in a body of water somewhere along this leg of the journey. I motivated myself by looking forward to cooling off in that water. I sung the first song that came to my mind which was “Dive” by Steven Curtis Chapman. “I’m diving in. I’m going in. In over my head I wanna be.” With how hot and sweaty I was there was absolutely no way I was going to be shyly entering the water. If it was going to be as cold as that river water inside I’d jump right in. Once I really got into singing the song and getting lost in the words, I heard the crowd of ducks quacking. I knew that we were getting super close as those ducks were located on the oppositie side of where we were going to clean ourselves and be free of the dried on mud. Oh, what deliciousness it was as I dunked my whole body all at once into the cold river pond. True refreshment for my hot weary body and soul. I relished in the cold water as my family became a bunch of monkeys grooming each other, trying to get all of the mud clumps out of different strands of hair, mud pile ups in ears, mud stained in our clothes. It was the most awesome way to end our journey at Moon Water Cave. We weren’t able to stay as long as I would’ve liked amongst the cold water due to a Chinese man pointing out my youngest daughter’s blue-ish lips. After we changed into clean dry clothes we were on the road back to Fuli Camp. We happily ate a well deserved lunch of sub sandwiches at 2:00 p.m. in the van.

Tonight we reviewed over a light dinner what it meant to be a family experiencing teamwork, perserverance, and motivation through our cave journey in China. To quote my seven year old, “It was a muddy day. It was hard.”