The Lost Sea! Tales of Ben Sands..

Sailors who travel seas wouldn’t mind another sea on the world map, but what if by magic one whole sea disappeared! No fellow environmentalists! Am not talking about the fast disappearing Dead Sea! That is a concern but anyway, here am talking about a sea, which has been lost off the map of world seas! Really?? Really!!

What if I told you a story? Of curious children! Well all children are curious! But if I tell you about this boy who was way too curious for a 13 year old! He climbed down into a cave, and walked nearly a quarter of a mile and entered a small rabbit sized hole and discovered that there was water in the cave! But with his tiny lantern, yes! He was carrying a small lantern! Psst the story is really old…Long long ago types! J Ok now our bonny boy! He realized that he had found something so unique and wanted everyone to know about this discovery of his! But how much water was around him! He could not see much! So what did he do! Made wet clay balls from the mud fisted out from the shallow waters of this very water body and began flinging it across the expanse of water…all he heard was a plop, plop and plop!! The clay balls never managed to find any wall on any side! The clever boy concluded that it was indeed a very big water body that he had stumbled upon! Excited with his discovery, he raced back home and told everyone in the village about it! None believed because all villagers thought they knew the ‘moonshine place’ well! #alert whiskey lovers!! Moonshine!! http://www.olesmokymoonshine.com/about/  

But finally this boy’s father agreed to accompany him to ratify the boy’s find! And what disaster! The cave and its entrance totally disappeared! After chiding the boy to stop dreaming, the boy’s father was off on his way! The boy grew up, believing that he did indeed see that water body underground and there was water below those caves!! He withered and became an old man all 70 years of age! And one fine day, some people came knocking on his door! Was he that little boy who said there was water in the cave? Ah! Yes! And yes indeed there was water! Rediscovered around 1965, that boy was honored for his find and that cave which has the water body, was named after him! He was Ben Sands! J And what had he discovered! Well something really unique! Deep inside a mountain near Sweetwater in East Tennessee is a remarkable body of water known as The Lost Sea. http://www.thelostsea.com/history.html

Listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as America’s largest underground lake, the Lost Sea is part of an extensive and historic cave system called Craighead Caverns.  So 300 feet below ground, there indeed is this Lost Sea! 800 feet long by 220 feet wide! Even to date, only 13 acres of this Sea are mapped, and the most expert divers have searched this place only to get a faint idea that there are more caves, cave rooms filled with water, how many, how much water, the actual depth of this entire water body is still a mystery! With the deepest points of this water body as deep as 70 feet and water and the room which holds it, constantly at 58 degree Fahrenheit, bejeweled paths with Anthodites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthodite, Lost Sea is indeed a bucket-list place to be! And an experience worth each penny they charge!! J And yes! How do I know all this? We went there to find it out ourselves! What is the more fun part! Near blind rainbow trout (a fish variety) which leaps out of this water to eat food! Part of an experiment being carried out by the team researching the Lost Sea, these fish were introduced into the Lost sea a few years ago, and the research about how these fish thrive 300 feet below ground level in a water body completely devoid of sunlight.

 All this exciting information and the bits of silence in between the noise of water gently lapping around our boat, which ferried us across the biggest water rooms of the sea, as tall as 35 feet above the water level and 70 feet deep water below…

And then there was the wide eyed baby A nestled at my bosom, sensing the difference of this place! Different sensations piling up her tiny self, as she saw ma-sha ma-asha (fish) and pa-pa-pa (water)

A sense of wonderment filled us up and so did a sense of admiration for that teenage boy, whose curiosity led the world and eventually us to this place!

Such wonders of the world! A big satisfied tick on my bucket list this visit! J

Ruby falls, Tennessee

Always aching to have the “one in a lifetime” experiences, we set out to find places of interest in the Midwest…With the 4^th July weekend fast approaching, we scanned hurriedly on the map of America, reactivating our rusty Geography lessons regarding the geographical wonders of America and general topography…we always knew two mountain ranges in America, the Smoky and the Rocky mountain range! And as it was the monsoon season in India, our regular trekking season, we were all the more inclined to travel to the mountains! Smoky mountains were our choice for the trip! And were we disappointed? Never ever a moment!

The lush greenery in Nashville greeted us and set the perfect tone for our hilly sojourn. We drove merrily past the cities and towns and headed south, towards Chattanooga. Sounding strange on our tongues, we kept repeating all the different Red Indian place names we encountered whilst we drove…Our first halt was Ruby falls, just read quickly through the history of the falls here http://www.rubyfalls.com/pages/History/, just to get the hang of what I describe next…

Reaching the lookout mountain, well that was our first taste of hilly roads, and mountain terrain of the States, and we must appreciate the perfect road condition and ample road signs, warnings and caution boards at the right places! The roads had perfect landings and shoulders, how we wish Maharashtra learnt about them too! J

We drove through thick rain, yes! Thick indeed! The rain was almost out of any Yashraj or Dharma production movie! Big drops dropping off the clouds in such profusion, we could hardly see beyond a few feet! And the mist hung low in the mountains, so through the curtains of rain and swirling mists, we reached this magical land of the Lookout Mountain!

There we entered the lift that took us 1120 feet below the ground! Upon entering the mountain from inside, we marveled at the calm and darkness that spread around…Our guide led us around the falls, gave some super expert tips regarding the caves and the stalactite and stalagmite formations in the caves! We walked around the various ‘rooms’ of the caves. Each route was laden with limestone deposits, mineral deposits and some amazing natural formations. The Stalactites formed chandeliers in our path and the stalagmites rose to greet us, their faint irradiance and soft sound of running ground water, created an ambience beyond words! The Selenites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selenite_(mineral) amazed us with their flower like shapes, “growing” on the low ceilings of the caves.

After a mile long trek, which involved a lot of bending low and walking down dark paths, we entered this cave ‘room’ with an opening the size of a marriage hall! Imagine thousand feet below ground an opening which is so deftly carved out by underground water movement! And the guide simply switched off the guiding lights here! The calmness now had a fearful edge! The silence and darkness assaulted us with their magnificent potency and all pervading presence! ‘You will all go blind in a few months time if you continue to stare in the darkness…’ the guide informed! Our pupils stretch out trying to seek light and in the process, get damaged and soon are rendered useless in darkness! Wow that was some trivia!

As the room lit up, we could see cave pathways, as small as rabbit holes or just the size of a double spread newspaper; these pathways were open to exploration! But we really couldn’t stomach that idea! Especially after the recent darkness episode! We left this room, thinking about the sages of India who meditated in the caves of Himalayas, and also about thousands of mine workers around the world! Suddenly perspectives changed, and newfound respect rose for these people!

We walked into the final hall of the cave; the final sight froze us in silence! Literally!

With temperatures hovering around 58 degrees Fahrenheit Celsius, crashing our silence, was a massive waterfall, gushing into the pool below…what a sight it was! Gooseflesh prickled our skin and smiles wreathed our faces, eyes marveled at the sight and the real pricking feeling of being a mere human being, just one of the average creations of nature seemed to gnaw away at our ego…Such a delightful creation was this! And for nobody in particular, hidden away thousand feet below the ground surface, in the heart of a mountain, gushing, rushing and delighting itself in a way!

Read more about Ruby falls here http://www.rubyfalls.com/pages/About-Us/ and do go visit this superb place once! And yes if you folks are in Europe, a must visit on these lines is another marvelous creation of nature, beautifully protected by man..The Truemmelbach falls http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/truemmelbach-falls-water-in-a-corset-of-stone.html  

Geography learnt like this would be so interesting! J Am glad my baby A is learning it so!

On the side note, all this wandering included my baby girl, just shy of being one year old! I carried her in my trusted http://www.becobabycarrier.com/ beco baby carrier!

PS: I am not being paid to endorse any of the links or sites above.