Caving

Camp Daily Reflection

Today we had an awesome day. My favourite thing was caving. I loved caving because I saw about 30 to 40 glow worms. I like the rope challenge when we had to climb down a hole. I love squeezing through holes and tight spaces. I like it in the caves because it is different and it is actually warm inside the caves compared to the outside where it is raining.

Moment in time:

We are now entering the last and final cave and I really don’t want it to end now. I look up. I see three wetas. I jump with fright. I think to myself, “man, wetas are so ugly!” I am just calmly walking through the caves, bending and crouching, jumping and crawling. I look all down the front of me and I am so muddy. Most of the mud is from when we were standing outside one of the previous caves and we all decided to have a mud fight. I got hit a couple of times but that doesn't matter because I like getting dirty. I secretly think to myself, if I get really dirty, then I will get to have a longer shower and that way I will stay warmer longer!” We walk a little while longer when I think to myself, “I am such a weirdo because if I really think about it, by getting more dirty, it doesn’t mean that my skin will get dirty, it only means that my clothing on the outside that I am wearing will get dirty.” I think. I bend down because I  nearly bang my head. “Wow. That was close.” I say to Lily who is in front of me. “What was close?” She answers back. “I nearly just banged my head.” I tell Lily.

“Eww, Gross!” I shout. We are walking through water and it is sinking into my wet and dirty shoes. Finally we are past it and now my shoes are soaked right through. We climb up a slippery slope that has these holes in it that look like foot hole. So that is what I use them for. We are all standing on the top of the bank. It is right next to the road. We all cross the road and we are standing on the other side of the road. “If you want to go back to camp, go and stand with Mrs Hill and if you want to keep caving and go down the rope, go and stand by Mr Moriarty.” Says Miss Hill. I run and stand by Mr Moriarty. I really want to keep caving because I love it. Being in a cave feels like it is my other home to me. I just love it!

The people who chose to keep caving started walking down the slippery slope and back through the wet and muddy water. “Great.” I moan to myself. “I nearly had these shoes nice and dry and now I have to get them all soaked through again.” Actually, I don’t mind because I love caving. I feel a rush of nervousness run down my spine. I am really hoping that the rope will hold me and that there are places in the hole to put my feet in because if there are no holes, I might get major rope burn on my hands and man, that hurts when you have to keep going on with what you are doing when you have rope burn. We have reached where we are going down the rope and it is a drop that goes down into a cave. “That is where we will be going!” Says Mr Moriarty excitedly. He starts to climb down the rope with Miss Hill guiding him at the top. “Lean back and you will feel a big flat and smooth rock” Miss Hill says. I am standing there and wondering how big the hole is. “I have reached the bottom!” Shouts Mr Moriarty. It is now Olivia’s turn and as she goes down I am feeling more and more nervous.

It is now my turn and I am standing on the edge of the hole. I am gripping the rope tight. “Flick!’ I turn on my headlamp and begin to climb down. I lean back and feel the rock. To me, the rock doesn’t feel all that stable but it must be. Everyone has been leaning on it for years and years and it would be pretty unlucky if it was to fall on me out of everyone who has been on it. I am feeling for my way down now with my headlamp off. A big puff of dust falls from the ceiling and lands right in my face. I can’t feel anymore rocks down below me. I start to wonder if I have touched the ground. I look down and I see the ground. I have made it down. I am so proud of myself for making it to the bottom. Olivia and I get told to go down to the back of the cave and we can explore it. I find this hole so I crawl through it. Crawling through the gap was quite a tight squeeze but I get through. Now all the people have gone down the rope we are all crawling through the gaps and getting our photo taken when we stop. We turn off our torches and headlamps. We look up and we can see these little glowing things on the roof. “They are glow worms!” I whisper to myself. I am actually seeing glow worms for the first time. They all look like stars in the night sky.

Once we have all walked back up the rope we start to walk back to the van. As we are walking all our shoes go “squish squelch!” We reach the van and we all pile in. We all go back to camp and have showers.