Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 474
Cave Dwellers
Hello Everyone
At the back of the Sandy Cove Beach there are some caves and tunnels that lead up to the town of Rocky Bay. These tunnels were used in olden days by pirates and smugglers to hide booty from the customs officers, and they then transported it inland for sale.
Bill and Bob love exploring the caves and are always hoping to find some treasure left behind from some forgotten stash.
l don’t believe there is anything left in there that hasn’t been found in all of the long time since they were frequented by smugglers.
We don’t go too far into the caves. We don’t want to get lost.
There are some intrepid people who love exploring cave systems. They are called pot holers (spelunkers). Anyone who wants to go potholing should always go with trained experts.
Sometimes people get lost, stuck or injured in caves and then they will need cave rescue teams to go and help them out.
We know that at the beginning of human existence humans lived or sheltered in caves if they could find one that wasn’t already inhabited by animals. Sometimes they ventured deep into a cave system.
You might know them as cavemen.
We still have their art left on the walls of the caves they inhabited from many thousands of years ago. They seem to be very fond of painting animals.
We can’t know exactly what they were thinking when they chose to paint these animals.
The animals in the drawings were the kind of animals they would have hunted so they were of great importance in their lives. Was painting the pictures showing fascination of and reverence to the animals that lost their lives to feed them – or just a kind of illustrated menu?
They also liked leaving impressions of their hands – what you could call an early version of a selfie.
You will find Britain’s only known lce Age cave art in Creswell Crags.
There are many ancient sites throughout Europe, America, Africa, Asia and Australia with cave art.
But did you know that there is still human habitation in caves today?
And no, l am not talking about Batman actually.
People around the world are still using caves as homes – and also places of worship.
Where caves are available it might be easier for humans to carve out rock to adapt what is already there than to build walls; especially if building materials are scarce in the area. Caves have been used by families and hermits in Europe to live for centuries but today are mostly inhabited in warmer places where the caves can afford shelter from hot sun.
The special name for a cave dweller is troglodyte.
There are troglodytes in lots of places around the Mediterranean, Middle East and China.
You will find caves turned into dwellings in Tunisia, Southern ltaly, Turkey and France.
The Native Americans have turned caves into homes for thousands of years.
Today, between 30 and 40 million Chinese people live in cave homes called yaodongs. They are warm in winter and cool in summer. They don’t require much heating or air-conditioning so they are very ecologically sound – but unfortunately they often do not do so well in earthquakes.
These homes in the mountains of Northern China have been created by carving into hillsides made of soft earth and have been popular way of living for centuries. Nowadays, many have electricity for modern appliances.
With so many people living in caves there is more land left free to be used for farming.
Many caves around the world nowadays have become tourist attractions.
The most famous one in Britain is probably Mother Shipton’s Cave. lt has a petrifying well – petrifying means turning things to stone.
lt is situated in the Royal Forest of Knaresborough.
Mother Shipton’s real name was Ursula Southeil and was known as a witch and soothsayer. Soothsayers see the future and tell fortunes. lt was said she was born in the cave.
The well is actually a waterfall and visitors hang objects up in the waterfall to be turned into stone.
This happens when the water which is carrying small grains of minerals runs over them. Eventually, the objects acquire a coating of stone and they look like they are made of stone.
There are many magnificent caves around the world for tourists to visit.
There are ice caves under the Alps; there are caves decorated by carvings at Petra in Jordan.
The Caves of Drach in Majorca have an underground lake where musicians in a boat appear to an audience seated in a specially-constructed auditorium and play beautiful, classical music.
The four great caves, originally formed by seawater, are connected together and have many beautiful stalactites lit by coloured lights.
lt is quite a long walk through.
The lake is called Martel Lake. lt is 115m long and 30m wide and up to 12m deep in places. lt is one of the largest underground lakes in the world.
lt is not a cave for living in but many tourists visit it every year.
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Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: What did one cave man say to the other?
Bill: l don’t know. What did one cave man say to the other?
Bob: “Do you fancy going out clubbing tonight?”
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
Stalactites hang down from the cave roof
and stalagmites form from minerals dripping
from them onto on the cave floor
Cave art
Potholing
Cliff dwelling
Native dwellings in New Mexico USA
China
Tibet
Mother Shipton’s Cave
An ice cave
Petra in Jordan
The Caves of Drach
Cappadocia in Turkey
At least 2,000 years old – dwellings with terraces and gardens
A modern underground home
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, Bill and Bob were telling me that they had had an important visitor come to their school.
It was Constable Bobby.
I asked them what they had done that was so wrong that they needed a visit from the police!
They told me to stop teasing them. The visit was very serious and important.
Constable Bobby was teaching the children how to be street smart.
Can you guess what Constable Bobby told the children when he talked about how to be street smart?
Bill and Bob told me.
He had told them that they should never go off with strangers or get into a car with a stranger.
They should never go off with people they did know, if their parents did not know about it. If they just disappeared, their parents would be very worried.
They should never take food or drink from strangers.
It is a good idea to take a mobile phone out with you in case of emergencies, but you should never look at it or talk on it as you are walking along the street – and especially as you cross the road. This is really dangerous.
You should always be careful when crossing the street. Some cars nowadays are very quiet and you may not hear them coming round a corner.
You need have your wits about you at all times.
You shouldn’t listen to music as you walk along the street either because you need to use all your senses as you are out and about.
If you see someone with a white stick or a guide dog, you can politely ask them if they need help – if they look as though they need help.
They might be trying to cross a road or feeling for a doorway.
If you went out on your bicycle, you should always wear a helmet.
You shouldn’t go on the road unless you had had proper tuition and had your parents’ permission to do that.
If you cycled anywhere you should not listen to music or look at your phone. You should pay full attention to what you were doing.
You should never play in the road or on a railway track. You should always be very careful if you had to cross a railway track.
STOP + LOOK + LISTEN
BEWARE OF TRAINS!
DO NOT WALK ONTO THE TRACKS
If you take your dog along the pavement or a public footpath over farm land, you should always keep it on a lead.
These are very important lessons to learn.
Don’t you agree?
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Quick Quiz
Can you un-muddle these words to find animals that sometimes like to hide, live or hibernate in caves?
- eles
- rebos
- tasb
- nilos
- sucotopes
- hifs
- tars
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A LAVENDER PlLLOW PRESENT
As your crop of lavender ripens this summer, you may want to dry some of it to use in lavender bags.
If you put a stash of dried flowers into a fabric bag you could then put it into this knitted parcel to put into a drawer or give away as a small present to someone – it already looks like a present.
Don’t put the dried flowers directly into the pillow because they will fall through the knitting.
If you want to make a bigger pillow, cast on 25 stitches and knit as many rows as you want to.
The pattern for the pillow in the picture is as follows:-
PILLOW (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and lavender-coloured dk yarn cast on 15 stitches
Knit 18 rows of stocking stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
- Turn one piece of knitting upside down so that you don’t get a thick ridge at the top of the pillow
- Using Swiss darning, embroider two bands on each piece of knitting to represent ribbons wrapped around the parcel – they will be in different places on each piece of knitting so that they match up when the front and back are sewn together – the design will be a mirror image
- Sew a small bow to the place where the ‘ribbons’ cross on only one side of the parcel or both sides as you choose
- Using over-sew stitching and with wrong sides together sew around the seams and stuff with stuffing and a small sachet of lavender or just a sachet that is made to fit inside
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- eels
- bears
- bats
- lions
- octopuses
- fish
- rats
