There was one thing I’d never really challenged myself with and there was one question I’ve always had lingering in the back of my mind; was I scared of small spaces? I had no idea…
This weekend I had the opportunity to go caving for the first time, the chance to answer my question and to challenge both my physical and mental toughness. Swildon’s Hole is the longest cave on the Mendip Hills and the upper part was to play host for our first venture into the underworld.
Cavers Gary, Mikey, Ian, Tara and Terry.
Swildon’s was a fantastic introduction to caving, it managed to quickly get us into the spirit of things; as soon as you enter the cave you’re sliding down, twisting around and squeezing through things. The cave allowed us to experience a little bit of everything and was exactly what I was expecting from my first time down under, but I still didn’t feel challenged and I didn’t have a real answer to my question yet.
Once we’d finished with Swildon’s we decided to have some lunch out on the green, we were talking about caving and my vision about “hardcore caving” came up in conversation; a long, narrow, person-sized tunnel, the very thing I imagine when I ask myself the question. As soon as I explained this vision, our experienced caver Richard said the two words that would change our day completely; “The Drainpipe”.
Goatchurch Cavern is a cave on the edge of Burrington, also on the Mendip Hills. It has two entrances and a network of slippery passages that end with a thin phreatic tube known as “The Drainpipe” or “The Bunny Run”; 30ft of long, tight passageway only really navigable whilst travelling forwards. The image below is not my own because we didn’t take any cameras down with us, I don’t normally like posting photos I don’t own but I just had to show you what the Drainpipe is like!
Because my big mouth got us into doing this in the first place I rightly took the lead into the passage, I didn’t hesitate, I just dived in and got on with it; I knew people had done it before and I knew people would do it after me, all I had to do was focus on the goal and keep on moving. The walls didn’t close in on me, I didn’t feel a need or want to get out, I think the worst part was the amount of effort it took to actually wriggle myself through, it takes almost a surprising amount of energy to move yourself when you don’t have a lot of free space to play with. The trip through seemed to last a while, I think this was purely because I had no idea how long it was going to last but eventually I made it through to the cavern on the other side and the rest of our team followed; each and every one of us made it through that passage, it was an extremely rewarding experience and I think we all felt that warm feeling of success, there’s nothing quite like it. A few minutes rest and we made our way back through the drainpipe (in record time) and began our tiring ascent of the cave.
I felt on top of the world when we emerged from Goatchurch, I was now carrying the valuable answer to my question; am I scared of small spaces? The answer is no. I am now invincible; there is no obstacle I can’t navigate, no danger I won’t face and no challenge I would hesitate to accept!