The Cave - Take 2!

This past week we made another bold attempt at finding the cave. Spirits were high and confidence in the nineties when we set off at 7 pm on Friday night. I know what you're thinking, "7 pm in February? Won't it be dark then?" Well...yes, it was. And I know we couldn't find the cave before and ended up sleeping on the beach in the rain as a result but this time was different. You see, we'd been back during daylight and found the cave then so it meant this trip was much more likely to succeed.

As it turned out, we found it really easily this time. There were no wrong turns or stopping for directions. It was a guys' navigational dream come true. We got to the cave at 9 o'clock and made a fire. Well, Alan and Collin made a fire while I sat about and wondered when I'd finally learn how to make a fire.

We ate some food and eventually went to bed, or "bag" as the case may be. It was a bit chilly and slightly damp, although very tame compared to the DELUGE we slept under that fateful night last September. There was the occasional drip but that was all. I was sleeping on a slope, though, and whenever I woke up I found myself half on top of Alan whose only response was a slightly different snore to the usual one.

In the morning we got up and made some rolls and sausage. The sausage meat was cooked on a piece of slate which was pretty impressive work on Alan's part. Again, I was more of a spectator than a real participant. I did participate in making the food disappear. I've been doing that for years so I'm quite good at it by now.

We had a wee walk round to the top of the cliff overlooking our campsite. Collin "happened" to bring his abseiling (rapelling to you N. Americans) equipment with him. After a look around, we found a pretty good spot to anchor the rope and he proceeded to set up the equipment and then cheerfully hurl himself into the abyss, slowed down only by his skill with a rope. I thought he was mental. Then he tied the harness etc. onto the end of the rope and sent it back up to me using the pulley. "There you go!" he shouted and all of a sudden I started to feel a tad uneasy.

You may be forgiven for wondering why a rock climber such as I would go weak at the knees at the thought of abseiling. The main reason is that I'm used to using a "GriGri" for belaying. This device has an automatic locking mechanism so if you suddenly let go, it catches you. Well we were using the "old school" option of the basic abseiling device. If you let go of the rope with this one, you fall at full speed. (Still reading Mum? It's ok, it's got a happy ending!)

It took me a considerable length of time to convince my body to roll over the edge of the cliff while holding the rope quite firmly in the "locked off" position. I was so nervous I almost backed out and gave up completely. Finally when I was hanging there, it was pretty good. I didn't do it exactly right, though. The proper way to descend is to let go your grip slightly on the rope to let it slip through your hand. Well, I kind of chickened out and fed the rope through my hands a few inches at a time. It was pretty pathetic really, looking back on it. I mean, Collin was bouncing off the wall (his feet, it was his feet) and there I was going down at about 2 feet an hour.

So there we are. That's another couple of "firsts" for me. My first sleep in a cave and my first abseiling experience. Hey, I just realised something. I wanted to do something new each year and I've done that already in February. I need a new goal now...

I leave you with a picture I took of a stream as we made our way back to the car.