CAVING IN RACCOON MOUNTAIN

I never knew caving existed until I joined the Atlanta Outdoors Group. I didn’t know caves are that long in distance to start with. I have to admit that I was apprehensive about the whole thing because I didn’t know whether or not I am claustrophobic and if I was going to panic in the middle of the tour. It would be extremely embarrassing to have a panic attack and having someone to carry me out. While all these thoughts bubbled through my head I decided to go ahead with it anyway because I have already paid for it and I might as well try something different. As I was putting on my safety gear I was so excited about the tour but started to realize that all this safety gear only meant one thing, it was going to be rough! Reagan, John, Claudia and I introduced ourselves and then followed our tour instructor.

 

The entrance to the cave was from the gift shop and that was pleasant enough, after 5 minutes of breezy walking, the tour guide (Chris) stopped and explained that the caving tour was going to start. We thought we should take a photo before we start and then we walked into a small crack that I didn’t know was there in the first place. Above were photos taken before the tour started, notice how clean we are.

  Entrance to the caving expedition

We climbed, slid, crouched and crawled our way and witnessed some really amazing formations that our ordinary flash cameras were unable to record. It was dark, wet and dingy. As we were crawling I felt like I was in one of those James Bonds movies where the 007 would crawl his way through small cervices to escape his enemies. There was a sense of adventure and I felt so alive! As we were crawling butt to face at one stage I was so glad I didn’t have baked beans the night before because it could have been a bit embarrassing way to be acquainted with newly made friends.

We then reached the some amazing water features within the cave; the cameras could not capture how amazing it was but take my word for it, it was spectacular. There were strong jets of water bellowing down from the ceiling. I was beautiful. I have never seen anything like it.

As you can see from the photo below, sometime there is a very rocky walkway and the drop is around 3 m and we only have a piece of old rope to hang on to. It’s can get a little scary not knowing how often these ropes were tested and maintained. There were times when I thought about giving up and turning back because it was so physically and mentally demanding, but I didn’t want to ruin the group’s trip so I pressed on hoping that it was going to get easier. Fortunately it didn’t.

When we got to the dome, Reagan was taking photos of the group and found a strange mist that was around us, I took the photos of where the group was standing as well to see if there were something wrong with Reagan’s camera but got the same result. Chris started telling us about Willy. Willy was a security guard that looked after the gift shop and entrance of the cave and one day during one of his rounds he fell asleep whilst smoking. This caused a fire in the gift shop and he died as a result. He makes appearances around the area now and again. Chris has camped in the cave many times and swears to have seen a yellow orb that stood at the end of his sleep bag and as he reached out to touch it his hands went through it like a mist and it disappeared. He told a number of people about it and many others have had the same experience. Sometimes footsteps can be heard in the gift shop but when no one is there…ooooooooooooo.



“So, um…why didn’t anyone warn me that I was going to be stuck in a haunted cave that takes 4-5 hours to tour?”

As we sat in the dome (highest ceiling in the cave) and we turned out our head lights I sat there not know how to deal with complete darkness. There have been a lot of first times today, I was a caving and total darkness virgin and this is not a gentle introductory. I came to the realization that not many of us have been in total darkness, so this is what it’s like to be blind, it was confrontational because even if you waved your arm around right in front of your face you wouldn’t be able to tell. One of the group member felt a bit uneasy about the total darkness, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to handle but as I relaxed a bit more I was a bit more comfortable with it. I just makes you realize how you light, fresh air, sight and many everyday things for granted. I felt really lucky to be alive.

As we got further into the cave the water level reached our ankles and our shoes and socks were soaking wet. Our clothes were damp and we were sweating profusely from all the intense crawling, sliding and climbing. I could smell the dampness of the ceiling that was 5 cm from my face as I belly crawled into a crack that I could barely fit into. I am petite as it is, I can’t imagine anyone more than 100 kg being able to do this. There are no toilets and we only brought 1 bottle of water as some parts of the cave were so tight we were better off not carry anything at all, other than our cameras of course. There are no toilets so we all held it in for 4 hours.

There were times when I was physically scared for my safety but as soon as I concentrated a little bit more and I focused on the tasked at hand I was ok. I had to rely on my attention to ensure I don’t fall into one of the gaps and break my leg and having Chris to drag me out of the cave. Rescues can take up to 4-5 hours and people have broken legs and cracked their heads open…The trip really forced me to focus and live in the moment which I loved. I haven’t done anything so physically demanding before and I felt so alive whilst doing it. I am so grateful for the opportunity.

Towards the end of the tour we felt as sense of victory and achievement. So this is how it feels to overcome fear and challenges that you think you can’t achieve. There were some tourists that were just touring to take a look at the rock formations and as we climbed out of a small hole everyone wondered where we came from, we were covered in dirt and was soaked from head to toe. Here are some of our pictures after we finished the tour, notice the amount of dirt and relief on our faces.

   

My back, legs, arms and stomach were sore for 2 days after. I couldn’t stand up straight the next day and walked leaning to one side.