What a day.
It started out with me waking up at 7:30 to catch my 8:30 bus to sappong. Unfortunately I missed it, so I had to take the 11:30 bus. I spent the morning shopping and buying gifts for people, as well as stuffing my face with food.
Finally we get on the bus and we’re on our way. This time my luggage is actually on the bus I’m on, rather than another one going the same way(which happened the day before). I was certain I would somehow miss the bus with my luggage and never see it again. Luckily that never happened, but I’m not letting my backpack get on a vehicle that I am not on in the future. Drivers schedules be damned.
Anyways, I finally made it to the cave lodge. Shout out to Tyler Gary for recommending this place. As soon as I stepped in, I knew I would have a good time.
Here’s a pic of the common area
And my dorm bed:
The owner, Jon, is a bit of a legend. He’s a caving master who is the unofficial guide and guru of the 200+ caves around this area. He also wrote a book, Wild Times, which describes everything from his caving adventures, to building the cave lodge(twice! It burnt down once), to being accused of murder. Thrilling guy and thrilling book.
Anyway, I get here, and I’m just itching for some adventure. So I look around, and Mr.spies has got a few “treasure maps” on the wall describing a local cave. Here it is:
Its called big knob(which I can relate ????), so I decide to go for it.
So I’m following the map, pretty easy going so far, and I finally get to the part where it says go through a cornfield. Basically trespass through someone’s crops. I felt a bit uneasy about it, but I go ahead through the fields and come upon the second fence; at this point, the adventure turns fun. A cute lil dog comes out of nowhere, and jumps through a hole in the fence, which leads to an obvious path. I assume this is the way to big knob, so I go ahead and follow him.
And this dog means business! He leads me for a bit, going onto the trail. Eventually he stops, and I’m sorta guessing we’re not on the right trail, becuse it’s small and hard to follow. I’m guessing a missed a turn somewhere, and after about 20ish min looking for the correct trail, I follow the fence and find the obvious path.
After this its smooth sailing. Cookie(as I later found out he was called) is just running up the trail with ease; he’s hopping up on rocks twice is height, navigating cliffs like they’re a breeze. What a talented dog!
Here’s a pic with him after I gave him a treat for taking me to the top:
Great dog.
And here’s the view from the top:
But the adventure is just beginning. I walk around the top of big inob, and stumble upon a geo cache! Unfortunately the pen was shot, so I couldn’t write anything in it. Here’s a pic of the cache. If you’re going up there, bring a new pen!
Then I remembered Jon said there was a cave up here. So I looked around, and sure enough I found one:
This is the entrance. Near the back of this first cave there was a hole that you had to get on your hands and knees(but really.judt your stomach) to crawl through. So I do just that and emerge in another mini cave. Here’s a pic of the hole:
On the otherside there is a small hole that a decently sized human could fit through. I had a suspicion it led somewhere, but being a bit closteophobic, and being on my own, there was no way I was going down it. Here’s a pic:
Besides this hole, there was another obvious cave. I lowered myself as much as I could, but even with my rock climbing skills I didn’t see an obvious way to get back up from the ground floor of the cave if I jumped all the way down. I later learned from John that there is a way, and it’s easier to do with 2 people, but I remained unconvinced. He also said that is were the cave “starts”, so I’m a lil bummed out I didn’t go all the way down, but better safe than sorry. Anyways here’s some pics. First is a pic of the cave floor I was too scared to jump down to.
The above is the entrance to the second part of the cave I climbed down. The next pic is of the cave in its entirety:
Anyways, during this time, Cookie was barking and whinning; I guess he thought I slipped and fell or something. When I eventually emerged from the cave he was gone 🙁
Here are some injuries i sustained during my adventure:
The rest of the day was fun as well. When I got back to the cave lodge, we had a giant Xmas dinner(it was Christmas). Everyone at the lodge was invited. I met a bunch of cool people, had some drinks, Facetimed Molly, and read a bit. The feast was delicious, and day 1 of my cave lodge experience complete. Today I was “mcShit”.
Merry Christmas y’all.