Adventure caving is not for the faint hearted.
Indeed the thought of squeezing your body through caves not much bigger than your head is – for most – more a form of torture than a leisure activity.
So you’ll understand my surprise when confronted by four middle-aged women last Saturday morning, all keen to test themselves against Mother Nature.
A former Caves employee, Jodie Robb had coerced her friends - including local journalist Sophie Jackson – to join her on an expedition underground, primarily as a fun form of weekend exercise.
To make matters worse, a local camera crew recorded our every crawl, climb and curse (and I can tell you there were plenty!) as part of a new Capricorn Tourism ad campaign.
Team Sophie (as they soon became known) started out quite well, negotiating the ‘Zig Zag’ in the dark with relative ease, through the ‘Hideaway’ and on to the ‘Guillotine’.
Finally, with confidence levels relatively high, I introduced the girls to one of the jewels in our caving crown – ‘The Whales Belly’.
The ‘Belly’ is, in essence, a hollow rock with a tight way in… and an even tighter way out!
“You are kidding me!” was Sophie’s initial response (edited for some of our younger readers).
“The trick is,” I explained, “to get your feet up on the ledge to the right, put your arms together like you’re diving through so your shoulders and nice and small, and wiggle your way to freedom!”
“That easy eh?” she replied, without a hint of sarcasm.
But after much sweating, and almost as much swearing, she was through.
After a relaxing walk through the Cathedral, Team Sophie were on the home stretch of their first adventure caving experience.
“That was incredible,” she said during our well- earned drinks break.
“I seriously thought we were going to get stuck during some of them… but it’s surprising what you can fit through if you keep wiggling and twisting!”
Couldn’t of said it better myself Sophie.
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