Based on the original words of Ruth Stasiak - Ode to Dragon's Breath Cave
From deep in the back of an adventurous mind
The thought of Westminster - what will we find
Let's gather some people, equipment and food
Cavers and diggers, experienced all
Gather together to answer the call
Plotting and planning, dreaming and scheming
Collecting equipment, repairing and cleaning.
Regular meetings are fruitful, but long
In trying to anticipate what could go wrong
All caving and digging equipment - the best
We'll make a success of this challenging quest.
Slowly but surely the plans formulate
We hope and we pray they won't be too late
Team members work hard, and all things start humming
Some people drop out, but others are coming.
A learned professor from US of A
Attended a meeting and gave his OK
When we get to the cave we'll see him again
And prove that his trust in us isn't in vain.
The aim of our journey is no real deep mystery
To go back in time and examine Earth's history
In order to do this, bones must be collected
From deep in the cave's chambers, all carefully selected.
Who, when, where and how - responsibilities shared
Even camp duties - no one is spared
Preparations are finished, we're ready to go
All are aware of the things they should know.
The first major camp at Rising Star farm
Lee is welcoming, Natasha full of charm
They go out of their way to make harsh camp life easy
They are helpful and generous, warm hearts, spirits breezy.
The kitchen is set up in huge army tent
The latrine is there and has huge airy vent
An ingenious bush shower hung from the trees
Is okay in the daytime, in the evenings you freeze.
Last-minute hitches and problems befall us
We deal with each gremlin, determined and callous
The day of excavation is suddenly looming
Can we finish in time, heads worried, hearts booming.
Six fit scientists, excited and ready
Heavily loaded they'll move very steady
They travel in convoy, the journey is far
Two hundred meters through dirt, dust and char.
The chute seems to stretch to unreachable ends
Meter upon meter (with occasional bends)
There're bruises, missed turnings, loose cabling - the heat
And hour after hour in the cave - gosh it's great.
The journey is over, we set up the gear
Digging gear, caving gear - damp mustn't get near
Checking and sorting till everyone knows
Where each item is placed and where everything goes.
After working so hard for many long weeks
The Rising Star touches anticipating cheeks
The contest at last is about to begin
Mere mortals or Dragon, we hope we will win.
Unplumbed depths and unknown cave
The prospects are stirring, but really quite grave
Intrepid explorers are hoping to find
Things previously unseen by probing mankind.
We dig and we delve, we scoop and we scave
Collecting the samples from bottom of cave
Descending, ascending, undignified wriggling
Crawling and climbing and setting up rigging.
The end of each day leaves us tired and sore
Tomorrow is coming - we'll go back for more
We tend to our cuts, our bruises and aches
A slight inconvenience, we've got what it takes.
The work is involved and groups come back late
The food is all ready, shall we eat, shall we wait?
The campfire each evening is always quite busy
Discussing the day's events leaves us feeling quite dizzy.
Deep in the darkness on Dragons Back rope
A complicated changeover, the climber missed her stroke
Efforts heroic - a rescue quite brave
Cavers jumped into action, their companion to save.
The cave walls are hard and we pay the levy
Three weeks of digging, the toll is quite heavy
A thousand or more bones come to the surface
All to be stored, deep in science's safe
Everyone worked hard and all did their best
And made the adventure a resounding success
We reached the end of our endeavour
We love it when all our plans come together.
The end
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