My new activity for the next couple of months is Caving. The training package is "Certificate of Attainment: Horizontal Caving". It's a certificate III level course. We will be assessed on our ability to guide clients through a cave taking into consideration minimum impact requirements.
Today was our first practical day in the caves: Jenolan Caves to be a little more precise. We were taken through the Plughole adventure cave during the morning, which has been described to us as a good beginer's ability level, plus is has some amazing cave features (speleothems). Then in the afternoon we were given an extensive tour of the tourist cave system with some history of the cave area and its early days as a commercial opperator.
There's a big difference between the adventure cave and the tourist caves. The features might be slightly easier to see and on first glance do look more impressive in the tourist caves, but nothing beats being able to only just make out the black abys of the cave with a head-torch only, or scurrying through tunnels and squeazes with limestone inches from your face.
I have definitely been sold on caving. It ranks higher than a clear, clean abseil.
