Caving

I went caving with the scouts one weekend. I thought it was going to be like a tourist attraction. I was very wrong. When I got there with my friend, we were given helmets with lights. 

We were ready to go caving. On the first part of the journey we had to go down a muddy hill. I slipped every third step I took. On the bottom part I slipped again and the boy behind me said, "That's about the tenth time you've slipped so far."

We came to a very fast flowing river. The adults had to help us across. After that, we climbed up a very muddy bank, but thankfully I did not slip because I had trees and roots to hang onto. 

When we came to the cave entrance, we climbed down steps to get to the entrance. In the entrance we squeezed into a little hole to find ourselves facing a mud wall. I could not get up because my shoes had no grips on them. Finally an adult helped me up. 

We had to wait a little while because it was our turn to go through the "key hole". The Key Hole is a place where you hold onto a rope and go down a wall of mud. Then you go down a crevasse and you wait until everyone else has gone. 

After everyone else had come down, we went through a very small hole, not everyone could fit thought that hole, so some people went through a bigger hole. The next room we entered after the hole was a room of rocks. I waited until the last person had entered the room, then everyone turned out their lights and a leader asked if we could adjust to the darkness. One boy said ten minutes and the leader said "No, you can never adjust to this darkness, this is as dark as dark can get." I thought that was really cool. So I thought to myself that I had seen everlasting darkness. 

Then we were on our way, we were squeezing through tight places. One time, my batter pack for my light caught on a rock. I managed to backup and turn my battery pack sideways. 

We were walking down a muddy slope when we came level we walked around a rock and were looking at a long stalagmite. The guide said to us after everyone was there that they called it ET's finger and space ship. The stalagmite and barely visible stalactite looked like the fingers in the movie. The spaceship however looked exactly like a spaceship. The leader asked the closest one to the spaceship to put their light under the spaceship. Then he asked the rest of us to turn off out lights. When we did we could see a faint light going through the spaceship. I thought that if you put lights all around it it would actually be like a replica of the same thing. 

Then we kept on walking and walking until we saw what looked like a GIANT stone, but in fact it was another one of those stalagmites. This one was called the "birthday candle" because it had a little tip on the top like the wick of a candle. The leader showed us some stalagmite and stalactite that had been broken off, boy were they heavy. 

Then the next moment we heard a person shout out that we were going abseiling. I saw some writing on the walls of the cave that were from 1968 and 1954! So I decided to make a monument of the year 2000. I made a clay bird and stuck my name and date in the clay. 

I was the last scout to go abseiling. I thought it was fun going, thought my coat and hair got stuck. When i got down all the other scouts were playing in the river that ran thought the cave. I started playing int he water too. Then someone said to come and see the glowworms. I went upstream and people said to turn out our lights. When we did I saw lots of glowworms on the ceiling. I went father than most people. I went with a leader and a boy deeper into the cave where I saw what a glowworm looked like. It looks like a long thin pipe with a blue light on the end. When I got backup stream we waited for the last people to come down. Then we started downstream. Then from out of nowhere there were rapids. They eased off enough to get onto land. The others went through the water and they got soaked up to their chest. I was lucky. Then back through the rapids. Every rock you had to try and find out how deep it was down at the bottom. One rock I was too fast and I slipped and bend my left leg back and down when my other foot. That meant I stretched my right leg. 

On the other rapids I was slow. So I made my friend, Melissa, wait for me. Then we lost the group. There were people behind us but too far behind, so we and to make the decision of going up the great wall of mud or go further down the river. I decided that we should take the water route. I was right, the river made a sharp turn but the group was ahead of us so we chose the right way. Then suddenly my friend yelled "yahoooo we're free!" I jumped up and down as soon as I saw light. We had come out of the cave and we went back across the river. On our way up the hill we found ourselves facing another wall of mud, but at least this time there was a grass to hole in to. I was crawling the rest of the way up the hill because my shoes were so slippery. I got a prickle in my finger and it really hurt. When we got back to the car park my mum and dad were not there. Now don't you worry and don't you fret because they were just running late. While we waited I had hot Milo and a cookie. 

I was soaked all the way through to the bone, but it was fun anyhow. I really wanted to go caving again, but not the same one!