Great was my consternation to learn that Matthew, not blessed as I have been with great family ties to the sunny climes of Grants Pass, had never seen the Oregon Caves. The Oregon Caves are a beautiful creation in karst, tucked away on a long winding road and maintained as a National Monument.

I must admit that, while the caves are beautiful and wondrous, I found myself strangely unmoved by them - the sad result of having been several times as a child! There were, however, some parts that did still amaze me. The ‘plunge pits’ or whatever they are called are gorgeous - long well-like shafts with a gaping black hole rimmed with long petals of growth, or the one you have to climb up some steepish steps to see—wider in circumference and blooming with great Gigeresque grotesqueries, deeply alien and almost menacingly beautiful. The water falls all around, touching you coldly as if inviting you to stay and become part of the formation, your white bones absorbed in the white of the slowly building rocks, both unseen in the utter, echoing black.