Lu
Member
Always been drawn to the dark side of life and things in general and what is darker than inside a cave?!! :bow:
I also happen to absolutely love all things rocky.
Started by poking around at holes when trekking and from the first try caving day at Cheddar I was completely hooked.
Just absolute exhilaration when underground. The whole world is forgotten when I am caving.
At the end of a day's caving I feel like I have been on holidays for a week and completely happy and refreshed ready to face the "ugly" world for another week.
Nats
I also happen to absolutely love all things rocky.
Started by poking around at holes when trekking and from the first try caving day at Cheddar I was completely hooked.
Just absolute exhilaration when underground. The whole world is forgotten when I am caving.
At the end of a day's caving I feel like I have been on holidays for a week and completely happy and refreshed ready to face the "ugly" world for another week.
Nats
crickleymal
New member
robjones said:Rachel said:I can't run, throw, catch or move in a co-ordinated manner and I look stupid in sports gear, so it's the only physical activity open to me
Ditto me - and as I have a beard and glasses, there was only one outdoor activity open to me...
You're me, you are
I heard about it from a friend of mine who lives down by the TAG region here in the US. It sounded like fun! Another friend of mine who lives in New Mexico picked it up and loved it. When we had a huge meetup of a bunch of our friends in Seattle, a few of us went out caving in Washington. I was hooked, it was so much more fun than I thought it would be, and I felt good at it. Like, i twas challenging and hard and sure I needed help sometimes with obsticals, but I dunno, it just "clicked" with me. I still love squeezing through holes and being "holy shit, I just made it through that!" it's so much fun! And I love feeling like an explorer. Even if others have seen this cave before, there is something so cool about not knowing what's ahead until my headlamp lights it up. A friend of mine has a quote, not sure if he made it up or if he found it somewhere, but it basically goes like, "Darkness is exhilarating yet impossible to remember. It's why cavers keep going back to the depths." (I knjow I screwed that up, but its the essence of the quote) and I have to say...I agree with it. 
Well, there?s a whole new world underground, that?s quite different to the one we know and love up here ? a world made up of ever changing, scenery, with crawls, squeezes, caverns, streams, rivers, cascades, waterfalls, shafts, climbs, shimmering stalactite grottoes ? a world of mystery. Consider some of the natural features that are regarded as tourist attractions and you?ll find waterfalls and canyons (think Niagara, Grand) near the top of the list; in fact many years ago I went to Crete, where they were running tourist rips to the Samaria Gorge where scores ? probably hundreds ? of folk would do the trip (talk about ?getting away from it all?). Anyway, what?s the most spectacular gorge/canyon in the UK? Probably the Main Stream Passage of OFD, several km of underground river; if this was open to the sky, people would come from miles around to gawp at it, paint it, photograph it, explore it, fall down into it . . . yet it?s only accessible to the privileged few ? cavers.
Similarly, it?s often said that the highest waterfall in England is Hardrow Force in Wensleydale, but there are, of course, dozens of much higher waterfalls underground ? again, only accessible to the privileged few. But you don?t just get to see them, you get to really ?experience? them; I bet however bored and jaded you may be, you?d come out buzzing and refreshed after a trip down, say, Juniper Gulf.
Add to this the possibility of new exploration.
So, to sum up ? caves are beautiful, magical and mysterious places, exploration of which is interesting, exciting and fun.
Similarly, it?s often said that the highest waterfall in England is Hardrow Force in Wensleydale, but there are, of course, dozens of much higher waterfalls underground ? again, only accessible to the privileged few. But you don?t just get to see them, you get to really ?experience? them; I bet however bored and jaded you may be, you?d come out buzzing and refreshed after a trip down, say, Juniper Gulf.
Add to this the possibility of new exploration.
So, to sum up ? caves are beautiful, magical and mysterious places, exploration of which is interesting, exciting and fun.
TheBitterEnd
Well-known member
Can't have highest waterfalls mentioned with out putting in a plug for Cautley Spout...
As to why, I like JFK's phrase "we do these things, not becuase they are easy but because they are hard". That said I agree with all you said, Fulk
As to why, I like JFK's phrase "we do these things, not becuase they are easy but because they are hard". That said I agree with all you said, Fulk
TheBitterEnd
Well-known member
No, can't say I have - may be we should put it on the meets list 
Littlemig
New member
I had a job with Urmston borough council investigating the occurance of depression on a nearby estate. Having blindness in one leg I inadvertantly strayed too far and fell down a depression in a field sustaining a broken monacle. I noticed that in the depression the sheep spoke a different language to those on the surface - so my interest in potholes was born.
I then went on to study at the 'Speleological Higher Institute of Technophobia' under Dr Stabismus of Utrecht, a colouful character who was a candlewax melter until his firm went into liquidation but who was inspirational in his desire to catalogue all 1589 different viscosities of derbyshire cave mud. He had a theory, which I am endeavouring to prove, that all cavers are afraid of the dark...............
I then went on to study at the 'Speleological Higher Institute of Technophobia' under Dr Stabismus of Utrecht, a colouful character who was a candlewax melter until his firm went into liquidation but who was inspirational in his desire to catalogue all 1589 different viscosities of derbyshire cave mud. He had a theory, which I am endeavouring to prove, that all cavers are afraid of the dark...............
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