Lost for hours deep inside a mountain...

Описание: No matter your level of preparedness, caving is dangerous and unpredictable, and things like this should never be attempted without a lot of experience and a careful assessment of the risks. Even with all of that, there's always the potential for things to go badly wrong, as we almost learnt the hard way...

Music: Thylacine - Satie II

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When I first heard about the possibility of linking two iconic Cape caves via a long, narrow passage through the rock, I was immediately intrigued. When Emily was in town, her, Jono and myself decided to give it a go, with the help of Robin and Marc, two new friends from a local caving group who had done the traverse before. We started in the morning, hiked up to the tiny, hidden entrance of the first cave, and then made the extremely tight descent into its main chamber. From there, we followed their memory and our maps as best we could, aiming for the lower and more technical option of the two variations of the route. After more than three hours making our way through a series of almost impossibly tight squeezes, we suddenly realised we'd found our way back to the first chamber , despite thinking we'd been progressing forward the whole time - a scary reminder of how easily one can get lost underground, no matter how thorough your maps or preparation. Rather than risking getting even more lost, we opted to exit the way we'd come in, and leave the traverse for another day.

Robin and Marc have extensive caving experience, and Jono, Emily and I have also spent a fair bit of time underground - repeating this adventure should not absolutely not be attempted!