>>399861>>399957>>399960About five years ago I was in a show-cave ; large dark shadows beneath the lit area ; "hmmm nobody watching" [in fact nobody even on the half-hour walk up in the sunshine]
Jumped the railing, climbed down a 15metre slope explored a bit , then found a water-worn pathway : "cool, I'll follow this down".
Following, climb down log washed into the cave, down a five metre drop, through some stand-up squeezes, lot of bends, Drops , and then cam to a Sump : Dead-End.
"Oh well that was fun, back I go".
Following the water-worn pathway back up : and came to a dead-end boulder-choke with a few-hundred tons of boulders : pathway blocked , "OK, obviously this didn't just fall now : Backtrack".
Returned to the Sump ; “Now look for where you went wrong” - working back up carefully, looking for side routes , and came to the choke again without seeing anything.
Now not feeling very good , breathing too fast , “hey maybe the air isn't good here ; No I am just panicking” - Longer breaths ; still panicking : think of yelling for help : but remember the deserted car-park, the empty track up , OK OK OK.
Back down to the sump; and look really hard working back up ; notice a tiny dark vertical slot “maybe it's a way out sideways somehow” ; Try it : it goes on ; up.
Find a log going up a cliff into darkness : “I think I can climb that , yeah pretty easy” ; get to the top and stand-up to continue walking : Look back down at the Log and realise it is the Log I Climbed-down about an hour ago . . .. this is the right way back.
I hadn't even noticed squeezing through the 'tiny dark vertical slot' on my way down because of the way it opened straight afterwards ; And that Slot is what I missed Twice trying to come back up.
