Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I could be confused with Bear Grylls

Monday was a public holiday here so I went caving with some okes. Pete Flynn, who is Andy’s partner on igiveada.mn, invited me to come along. It was a few other people from Pete’s other company. There were a total of 5 of us. What happens is that you park down in Kalk Bay and hike up the mountain for about an hour. Once you get to the top you have to find this one small trail that takes you to a rocky area. The cave is not a big hole in the side of the mountain that you expect. We actually had to climb down this little hole into the cave. We were down in the cave for about 3 ½ hours. It just keeps going and going! Totally amazing! Of course it’s pitch black, so you have to take a torch (translation= flashlight). And it’s wet and dirty so you wear old clothes.
It’s not just walking around either. It’s climbing up rock formations, down rock formations, squeezing into small little passage ways, and sometimes just walking normal. It was simply incredible and so hard to describe.


This is me climbing down into a hole.

What raised my anxiety level was having dinner with Andy and his wife Cath the night before when they tell us the story about Andy getting stuck in that very same cave for about 10 hours. He tried to fit through a very small space called “The Narrows”. He didn’t quite make it through and in trying to fight his way through he got wedged in the rocks. He was trapped. Oh, I failed to explain that he was horizontal and crawling on his side. Luckily some of his friends were still behind him and were able to go back out and call for help. By the time they came back a few hours had passed. Eventually the firemen came to help, but it still took about 7 more hours to get him out. They had to get a harness around him and create a pulley system that eventually pulled him up and then out. Pete crawled under him and held Andy’s head up for about 10 hours! So, that little story made me a little anxious. Andy’s a little bigger than me, but not by much. (I mean, who can compete with my ghetto booty and giant legs? There is a chance one of calves would have gotten snagged in a rock.) We did eventually get to that section and I politely declined. Pete started to go through, realized it wasn’t a super idea and turned back.

Pete in "the Narrows". Yes, this is the right direction.

Just another crazy adventure in Cape Town. This place is Hectic!! Bear would have been so proud.
Cheers, Casey

3 comments:

Tim Palmer said...

Thanks for telling me about the blog. I've got a lot of catch up reading to do! I can't wait to hear about it all when you get back. Let me know if you have a big shindig where you share. Tim

Caleb and Adrienne said...

I'm getting nervous/claustrophobic just reading your post. More power to ya!

-Adrienne

Kevin said...

Bear Grylls would be proud... until you wussed out on the narrows, or course. Only kidding... I guess we have to start doing smart stuff like that when we grow up, huh? Looked awesome - thanks for sharing.
KBell