28/06/2010: 7hr splunking extravigansa

OK, it never rains but it pours right? I've been saving up some posts because the last hostel didn't have internet.

28/06/2010: 7hr splunking extravigansa

Today I went on the trip that almost didn't happen because of insufficient bookings though it turned out that another group of 3 people signed up in the evening so it was a group of 5. The trip was advertised as 7hr trip into one of the caves in the area that started off with a abseil into the depths. This was seriously underestimating the trip.

We started off by going to a ex woolshead where we were given combined wetsuit leggings and toresoes and a wetsuit jacket to go overtop of that. There was also a neoprene belt to go around the upper waist that was apparently supposed to keep our kidneys warm. Then we got thin booties for our feet and rubber boots on top of that. Finally we got a harness for the abseil which would also be used several times as an attachment to some safety lines through the cave and an orange helmet with a light on.

We trudged down in our strange getup and lined up on platform next two ten thumb thick ropes that descended ~100 metres into a ravine with a river running through it, entering and exiting at either end through the cave. This cave was allegedly 5km long with this entry point about halfway.

After sliding down the ropes for about 15 min we got to the floor and had lunch. Then we entered the cave and were in water for pretty much the rest of the day. One of the neat thing about going down the ropes was seeing some sideways stalactites growing from the walls. Apparently they start off going straight down like normal but then curve out as moss grows on them and alters the direction of water flow.

We were going up against the flow of the river and that was a very good thing for safety. The force of the water would change frequently depending on the width of the cave, sometimes it was wide and shallow so that the top of our boots were dry and sometimes when the cave got very narrow or steep moving felt a bit like rockclimbing with gravity turned 90 degrees. We would not be able to touch the bottom, were quite buoyant in our wetsuits and the current was so strong that we had to pull our selfs along the cave wall. This whole experience was loads of fun. According to our guides the water was as high as it could be and still allow people through, infact it had been closed over the weekend because of that.

Occasionally we would leave the water to scramble over boulders or avoid having to climb up waterfalls or just for a change, sometimes we went through low gaps though I think that was more for the photo opp that it presented rather than necessity.

Perhaps surprisingly I was rarely cold, It was only when we stopped twice, once to get a silly shot of people emerging from a small waterfall and once to turn off the lights to look at glow worms near the end of the

At the end we went back to the sheep farm and were fed a small amount of steak and then some roast veggies and salad for dinner. Yum.