I started blogging a couple of months after I had my first spelunking adventure (I say 'first' because I may actually be crazy enough to do this again). The reason I signed up for it...other than happily agreeing to follow my friend Suzi just about anywhere including the deepest depths of an abyss...turns out literally......but actually I signed up to face one of my lifetime phobias. One I've struggled with throughout my childhood...a deathly fear of dark, closed and/or crowded spaces.
Voila! It so happens that I documented my thoughts from that spelunking experience within the immediate twenty four hours following the adventure, to share with friends and family on Facebook.
It makes sense to add this onto my blog.
TaDA!! A flash back to my spelunking adventure from September 2013:
Of course I didn’t realize I’d signed up for eight plus hours (that’s right! Eight+ hours!!) of non-stop crawling, squeezing or reptile like slithering of my body through all kinds of uneven, tight, small, dark, slippery wet and icy cold spaces within our planet.
Who knew my spine and neck could even withstand all of this (go figure!) or that I could actually use nothing more than my stomach and mere willpower to move me through those tight scary spaces at times when all my limbs were twisted and entrapped like a broken ragged doll in a very tight box.
Well so much for facing my fear of crowded, closed or dark spaces! Done!
Claustrophobic no more!!
Happy to announce that!!
Highlights included playing earth worm for eight hours in that wet sticky clay like mud that we were crawling through the entire time; having our tummies and faces dipped into icy cold pools of water (my friend refers to those as 'ice-kaka pools'...kaka I think stands for sh*t from other languages. Yikes!!).
Highlights included playing earth worm for eight hours in that wet sticky clay like mud that we were crawling through the entire time; having our tummies and faces dipped into icy cold pools of water (my friend refers to those as 'ice-kaka pools'...kaka I think stands for sh*t from other languages. Yikes!!).The occasional ultra-smooth slippery spaces that had us convinced we were going to fall and plumage to our deaths any minute (as there were some dark endless scary pits around for real!); to our fingers and toes being numb from the cold, while our teeth were clattering away incessantly on and off while we waited for the others in turns to squeeze through the same holes anxiously while listening to their screams, cries and curses…BIG YIKES!!
Ah! And the young twenty something year olds who looked like Abercrombie ad-models all signed out and abandoned us after the first few hours. To be fair there was some bits of blood and tears involved here!
Ah! And the young twenty something year olds who looked like Abercrombie ad-models all signed out and abandoned us after the first few hours. To be fair there was some bits of blood and tears involved here!
And- Me!!? I was perfectly happy to tuck my tail under so to speak too and quietly follow behind but my brave friend Suzi would have none of that! Bless her soul! Thank goodness for our guide Darwin too (for his patience...knowledge...)... for ensuring we came out of this in one piece with all our body parts intact still.
Thank goodness for sunlight and bright open spaces! Oh wait! I’m digressing!
Highlights also included being tied to a rope (in case we slipped off and broke our jaws…who needs teeth anyway!?) while being let down or climbing back up a heart pounding thirty feet drop into eternal darkness; Well! Talk about a fast lesson in rock climbing! What with wet muddy shoes, icy-cold slippery surfaces…and the encouraging comforting voices from friends in the darkness telling you-you can do this even after you realized your life was actually in danger! Yup! We made it!!! Eight plus hours through eerie mystical Hades!! Yup- the place really exists!!!
Today I have invisible bruises head to toe! My ribs, my pelvic bones, my arms, my neck and pretty much all surface areas of skin are a bit sensitive to sunlight and touch!! Also I can't seem to scrub the smell of mother earth's guts out of me, regardless of aromatic soaps or number of showers....and my eyesight is still adjusting back to the concept of daylight-proper....Yet I feel like the Indian Indiana Jones! Fears conquered and alive to talk about it!! YAY!!!"-
AND...YES I totally recommend experiencing this at least once in your lifetime - and if you're lucky go with a true Indiana Jones style spirited guide like Darwin....but please do NOT try this without a guide regardless!
Today I have invisible bruises head to toe! My ribs, my pelvic bones, my arms, my neck and pretty much all surface areas of skin are a bit sensitive to sunlight and touch!! Also I can't seem to scrub the smell of mother earth's guts out of me, regardless of aromatic soaps or number of showers....and my eyesight is still adjusting back to the concept of daylight-proper....Yet I feel like the Indian Indiana Jones! Fears conquered and alive to talk about it!! YAY!!!"-
AND...YES I totally recommend experiencing this at least once in your lifetime - and if you're lucky go with a true Indiana Jones style spirited guide like Darwin....but please do NOT try this without a guide regardless!
KIDS- DO NOT TRY THIS ALONE!
Links to pictures from this trip added below. Although after the first four hours we forgot to diligently take pictures to document things like the thirty feet drop (which requires a separate write up in itself- the near-death life experience and drop etc.)- understandably. We focused instead on staying alive and other silly priorities like that. GULP!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201897146608831.1073741845.1188765488&type=1&l=99089ca3e8
