Last weekend (20-21 October), Patrick and I jumped in a mini-bus on the Friday night with 18 other Scouts and 1 other Leader and headed west to Mt Eccles National Park. A further leader, Brett, drove up in his own 4WD towing a trailer with all our gear. After an extended stop at Hungry Jacks just outside of Geelong, we finally made it to our camp site a little before midnight. We then had to wrangle 19 kids to put their tents up, stow their gear and go to sleep. Somewhere around 1am, Brett, Tim (the other leader) and I finally got to bed.
The following morning Brett cooked a fantastic breakfast of bacon and French toast for all 22 of us. This was a great way to start the day and provided sustenance for the first part of our caving adventure.
After breakfast we set up a production line for the kids to make their own rolls for lunch. Once this was done and tidied away we were off to meet the caving team for our safety brief.
The caving team are one of the many adventurous activity groups throughout the scouting movement and come from all over the state. Their experience and willingness to share that experience with scouts is part of what makes the whole adventure great. Some of these guys don't belong to a specific scout group - they freely give of their time so scouts can have a caving adventure. And they run these trips one weekend a month for ten months of the year. That's commitment!
Anyway, after our safety brief we were kitted up with helmets and split into three groups. Each group had pretty much the same caves to visit, but on a different timetable.
The first cave my group went in was a pretty easy affair and the kids acclimatised quite well. Through tunnels either crawling, hunched over or sliding on their bellies, they were equally at home underground. And enthusiastic!
After our first cave we took a little walk and settled down close to the cave exit for lunch. We took some time to get to know each other a little more (scouts involved in the weekend came from 1st Upwey, 1st Belgrave South and 6th Melbourne from near Kensington).
After lunch we walked across a small valley and headed to our next cave. All of the caves in this area were formed thousands of years ago from lava flows and are quite rough throughout. No stalactites here!
The caves required a great deal of crawling, sliding, pulling and just stamina to get through. It was an awesome experience.
In our last cave on Saturday, we had made it inside and were relaxing in a cavern. Some of the kids were making noises about wanting to keep going as they wanted to see more of what there was to see. The caving team told us there were two possible exits - one with a slightly longer route (crawling all the way) and a slightly shorter route with crawling and a tight squeeze. The group broke into two and I decided I would try my luck with the squeezier option. After all the kids and our guide were through, it was my turn. I crawled down the tunnel and lay on my belly, with my arms stretched in front, as I entered the squeeze (also referred to as a letterbox). I was wriggling and clawing my way through, getting up to my shoulders through the gap and then I felt like I was stuck! Great. What now?
I called over to our guide, Greg, and told him of my predicament. He told me I was through. My shoulders were past the gap so I should be right to power on through. Good in theory.
I took a few deep breaths, gathered my thoughts and tried again. Brute force and determination pushed me through that hole. Gee it felt good to pop out on the other side! What a rush.
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