Day 7 (Fri)
This was the most epic day, and my favourite despite the twisted slightly embarrassing oopsie ending.
5-TumblingRock01 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
We were doing Tumbling Rock. Now a bit of history on this one - it was the first TAG cave I ever did back in July last year. I only made it to the Christmas Tree room because by then I was VERY migraine-y and sick. In fact, I scared some peeps because I laid down on a rock and insta-fell-asleep and it was a bit hard to wake me. (Yeah I know, rocks suck heat, bad idea to sleep on one, I wasn't exactly thinking other than "make everything stop!!!!!!!!!!") So, I really wanted to defeat this dang cave and make it all the way back to Mt. Olympus this time! However....woke up in the morning with a migraine on the horizon. Took two pills before even getting to the cave - which did help, I kept it staved off and entered feeling fine this bit of info is only important because I can only ahve 2 in 24 hrs, and it's not a med you can cheat on.
So we entered about 11am, a nice early start. Nathan was at the house that is right at the entrance (it is SSCi owned now - a conservancy - and with Nathan living there guess he prettymuch manages it for them) so he was our call out this time. David told him 6-7 hrs or so, that we were going all the way back to Mt Olympus and if we had time Terry's Terrible Tiger Teeth as well.
This was an extra fun trip. You see, I want to come back to cave there in the UK, and I have David and Tenzin hooked on the idea too - they are my original cavebuddies here and I want them to experience how awesome it is there in the UK too! So the idea was hatched for us to make a "Natural Cavers" calendar for this year. <shameless plug> you should totally message/email me if you want one </plug> (although...I'm looking through the photos not sure if we got enough good ones for a calender, but you should message me anyway!)
So we entered the Tumbling Rock. Tenzin checked out a hole in the ceiling close to the entrance. See? Told you he is a little monkey.
5-TumblingRock02 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
Anyway, continuing on we made it to the Elephant's Feet:
5-TumblingRock08 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
and there was another hole in the ceiling that of course Tenzin had to check out again (and David wanted to as well, he tried once and almost got stuck with his legs, wanted to see how little Tenzin did it)
5-TumblingRock09 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
I couldn't get through it with my hips so again I resided to look at pretties and take some photos while they played. *sigh* I really ahve to do something about those hips. It was suggested I break them a few times. That might be a bit drastic.
We continued on then...and while before the guys were doing the fun playful stuff soon I could do something they couldn't...in the Handstand Room!
Next came looking at all the pretties in the Pillar Room:
5-TumblingRock12 by
Sunguramy, on Flickr
scrambling over Wildcat Breakdown too where I even defeated the evil "F**k You" rock with much ease in comparison to last time. I am told every cave has one of these rocks. This one sucks, especially if you are shorter than 6 feet tall. You have about a 1.5 foot wide dropoff to get across, slide down this FU rock about 4.5 feet (it's about a 50-60 deg angle and slick) catching the 0.5 ft lip at the bottom before the nice big dropoff after it, then straddle that to get to the next rock and the rest of the breakdown. If you're tall, it's decently easy for hand holds while you slide. If you are short, erm, good luck, it's a free slide without anything really to help ya.
From there we went to King's Shower and Topless Dome. We decided the mud crawl above King's Shower NAKED. Best. Idea. Ever. Although a hint to any of you doing this in the future, in the "naked" besides keeping your helmets/shoes/gloves, keep your kneepads. You'll thank me for this warning. Who knew beneath all that lovely squishy mud is a lot of sharp rocks? It was still a blast though, and Topless Dome was a nice natural shower (~400ft, waterfall!) to rinse off before putting clothes back on.
We were excited once we arrived at the Christmas Tree room and there were still the decorations on it! Sadly though, since we thought they were taken down the weekend before we didn't have the power box for them
so we couldn't light it up. And, since already 4.5 hrs had passed we knew we had to book it so I didn't even bother with a photo.
Lots more breakdown and two sandy bellycrawls later we went back up..and up....and up...through a boulder choke 3D ish maze like passage. Finally found our way coming out of the top of a huge room with breakdown from all the walls like a cone shape, the center of the room a low point. Finally found the crawl to go through, and in this area is where this cave turns from limestone to shale. Let me just pause here to say I HATE SHALE. Seriously, it's rough, sharp, smaller breakdown "boudlers" that are loose and wobbly....YUCK. Anyway, the smell of tar soon hit our noses and we knew we were about there! A bit more breakdown, and there it was, Mt. Olympus! I saw it! But...I did not make the climb up to it. The tar....the tar...ewww the smell was horrible and my migraines are *usually* smell-triggered (they started with a HAZMAT inhalation exposure and now just certain smells/compounds seem to be the worst triggers). Tenzin and David went up it quick (aka about 20 min) while I waited...and we were now at hour 6 inside the cave and we knew we *really* had to book it out of there. Nathan can do this trip to Mt Olympus and back in 2 hrs but he's done it a bajillion times and knows the exact foot placements in the exact routes to go the fastest and easiest etcetcetc. it would be hard pressed for us to get back out in an hour...it's usually a 6-8 hr trip to Mt Olympus and back.
Knowing we had to book it and the fact that I wasn't dizzy yet we definitely had turbo cave mode in full swing. But...we soon ran into some problems. a.k.a. that crawl that had elluded us on the way in? The way out it was still ellusive...finally thinking we found it we entered the boulder choke in the wrong area and ended up very twisted around in that 3D maze, we could see in some little cracks streamway below us, we knew we had to work our way down to it.
We did find a hole big enough for Tenzin to squeeze down and climb through. It was right near the "15 MPH" sign which was a great landmark...we were indeed just somehow above where we needed to be and way past the point we should've been back down to the stream. Using our voices, David and I (still up in the boulders worming our way through them) called back and forth with Tenzin (now down in the stream, with our bags to make our worming a lot easier, this was a no-room-for-a-pack area we were in!) we ended up working our way all the way back to the breakdown room....and realizing we took the wrong crawl that we should've been down below more underneath the breakdown, not up high near the ceiling. Oops. At this point too, I was barely hanging in there, my migraine really starting to take a toll on my body and the boulder crawlings used up a LOT of energy especially when not feeling well. We were now 7.5 hrs in to our trip, and quite late for our call out of 6-7 hrs as it was likely at this point a good 2 hrs back out still, even more depending how much I slowed us down.
As we re-approached where Tenzin had left our bags by the 15MPH sign, we saw a light ahead. We called out a hello and it answered...it was Nathan, who worried we hadn't made it out yet had come in after us, making a call out for 2 hrs from the time he entered that if he wasn't back to call in cave rescue. (Which, the odd thought crossed my mind that well then I'd get to meet Brian finally, as he was on the CR team for this county.) Anyway, luckily of course we were fine and finally un-lost and on the right path. It had only taken Nathan 38 minutes (yes, he was timing it so he'd be out in time, as hopefully no rescue was needed of course) to get to us, crazy fast that is! Anyway, we followed him back out of course since he knew the fastest and easiest ways.
By this point I was getting dizzy and disorientated though from my migraine. Tenzin walked behind me, a good thing as I tried turning around a few times I was told to go the wrong way. Everything from the time we got back on the right route to the exit is blurry to me, I don't have clear memories of it. I remember by the Christmas Tree room I was almost always on my butt because I was feeling so dizzy and like I was going to fall over I figured I can't fall if I'm on my butt already. Even so, I am told I slipped a few times and was often calling out for directions because apparently I didn't know which way to go, even with someone in front and behind me in line. The only time I remember falling was on an easy barely sloped huge shelf, no falling danger here, I was walking across it and yet still somehow fell, almost rolling off it (which, that would've been bad, it was enough of a drop injury would've happened) but at least my instincts were in tact and I grabbed a hold and held on for dear life, but I think I had stopped rolling to be honest, by the time I grabbed the hold, although I couldn't tell that for sure so I held on for a bit anyway!
When we got close to the entrance, Nathan dashed out to make his 2 hr callout, we were about 15-20 min behind him in emerging. Considering it had to be less than 1.5 hrs from the time he found us, and we were not far behind at all, I am shocked I made it out that fast. I...really don't remember any of getting out other than stumbling along trying not to die when I fell and/or the room spun or I saw weird things and 2 inch gaps suddenly looked like they were asking me to jump over a 5 foot huge crevice (which just let me say, does shit for balance and distance/depth perception!)
Total time in Tumbling Rock was 9 hrs. It was pitch dark when we got out so no after photo
And...at least I defeated Tumbling Rock! ha! I finally saw Mt Olympus! Although I feel no rush to go back to that cave again! haha.
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Day 8 (sat)
We were supposed to meet up with Stephen who was going to show us a new virgin cave he'd found. This was also our vertical trip of the week - entrance was a 75ish foot drop
The fact that it was 2am before we even got back to camp the night before though meant the early start of 9am to meet Stephen the next day was not gonna be fun - especially with me recovering from my migraine. We set an early alarm as he is an early riser to hop in the car quick and drive up to where we could get cell service, call him and push it back, then fall back into bed. He said 9am was already pushing it late as it was a 1.5 mile hike in the woods and he wanted to be back out before nightfall. (I still don't see how this is impossible, but he's the one who knows this cave so went with what he said) but he did say another hour would be ok, so we should meet at 10am instead. Yay an extra hour. Drove back down snuggled back into the sleeping bags.
We arose and got moving and were 15 min from the meet point when a new message came in on my phone. It was him, saying to call him that there was a change of plans. So I called, and found out that he decided 10am was too late a start and so he was canceling our trip and to contact him next time we were down there. Needless...we were a bit PO'd but what can you do? I thanked him for being willing to take us in the first place and hung up. We were now the wrong direction from the caves we knew of with drops that David's 100 ft rope could do, a good prolly 2 hrs out from those. (There are a lot of caves, but the number of vertical that can be done with that short a rope that we had directions for was only 2.)
David remembered directions to a cave he'd heard of (never been) that is basically "park by a bend in the road in this town and walk across a field and then up to the left trail 100 yards up the mountain" that is a vertical cave. We thought we had the right area, I saw an old gentleman doing some yard work hopped out to ask. We were exactly in the right area, and he told us exactly where across the field to walk to. So we hiked up there and found a beautiful entrance that I am sad I didn't get a photo of - the waterfall pours right out of it about 80 feet below into a pit. Gorgeous. But, no where to rig it anywehre near close enough that David's rope would work, and it was cold and none of us felt like changing to do a wet low crawl to see what was further back than we could see peering in. So no cave on our last day.
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Day 10 (sun)
Was simply spent packing up camp and getting to the airport in time for our flights out.
(All my photos are now up on
www.flickr.com/sunguramy if you want to see more and I got lazy waiting for the files to upload so some of these are smushied grainy ones, sorry about that!)