my first caving adventure....

I had a super time caving yesterday. It was in an amazing place by Worms head, the only way to get there was by climbing down a cliff face. while down there I was told that the cave was completely submerged in water for 9 months of the year and only the last couple of weeks they have been able to go down there. This scared the crap out of me! 

The entrance was a shock, I really did think "shit i'm going to get stuck in here!" I was reassured that they have had 'heavy people' come down this cave and that the first few metres were the hardest.... they lied through their arses I can tell you! the first few metres were the hardest but so was the next 6 hours! don't get me wrong I had an amazing time! I used muscles I never knew I had and managed to get myself in positions only a gymnast can do! Once I got through a few passages, chambers and got deeper into the cave I saw some amazing stalactite and stalagmite it was beautiful!


http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/stalactite_and_stalagmite.aspx

Once we got as far as we could they went through a bolder choke so they could start digging... that was my limit and refused to go through, it didn't look safe enough and thought we shouldn't all go through incase it fell.. yes I pussyed out! I stayed behind with another caver while the other two started digging. while in this beautiful chamber I was told what to do in emergencies and what would happen if the cave flooded while we were inside. this did not help my nervousness one little bit! I was told to turn my helmet light off and be quiet, so we both did... absolute silence and absolute darkness... have you ever seen the film 'the decent'? this immediately popped into my head and shat myself! 

I was asked to go into a hole that no one had beed down due to it being so small and that I was the only one who would be able to fit, what did I do? stuck my body in and thought 'screw this no one has ever been down here before! I might get eaten' crawled back out. 

It was time to make our way back out, by this point I was exhausted and had to crawl and drag my body back out by just my arms while carrying a bag of heavy drill batteries that I had to be careful with hmmm.... ok. I don't know if I thought getting back was harder than getting down there because I was absolutely shattered or because it just was! I got out and the first thing i did was take all my gear off and collapse on the rocky floor my knees and elbows were red raw. My shoulder killed and did not want to hike another 45 minutes up a cliff with a heavy backpack in the blistering heat! but i made it.

today I woke in total agony but it was totally worth it! 

The cave bottom left