Heart of Darkness

Horne Lake Caves – A Caving Adventure. Hey, it was on Groupon and a great deal so I bought it. “Are you guys really this old?” asked our incredulous guide. “I can’t believe it.” Yeah – because we were probably the oldest people who had ever gone on this ‘adventure’ and he was wondering how he was going to get out bodies out. 

OMG, I thought I was going to die. For five hours, three couples (the other ones were in their early thirties and then there was Roger and me) lived underground crawling on our bellies in water, gravel and over rocks to get through 12 inch high openings in the rock. Do you have any idea how difficult that is???? I have renewed respect for navy seals. We belayed down a rock face searching for small finger holes and footholds… knowing that the worse was still to come. And there is was, a picture of hell. A narrow long silver ladder hung in the middle of a large cavern. One by one we belayed down to a rocky outcrop. Then we had to reach out to grab on to the ladder and climb down. It was hellish. Every muscle in my body strained and quivered as I tried to hang on. 

The problem was – we had to go back up the ladder, climb up the rock wall, get down on our bellies and slither back to the daylight. Climbing back up the ladder was incredibly hard. I can’t remember ever doing anything more physically challenging. And, I had such a large responsibility. I was carrying every 65 year old woman in Canada on my back. I had to make it to the top! I did and I made it back out of the cave. Wow, talk about a full body workout! I’m tougher than I thought.