A tight little squeeze

Wow.

HOLY WOW.

"One of the top 20 Urban adventures in the world"- The Observer Escape Guide


Caving & and all its glory

Yesterday we decided we wanted to do caving underneath the city of Budapest. Within the last 100 years the cities of Buda and Pest have been finding massive expanses of dry caves created from the thermal waters that have been under the city/region for centuries.

We looked at the brochure, and thought hmmm.. lets do it. There were a few people standing in National Geographic-esque caves, smiling in full caving gear. How fun! A real tour!

So it turns out the owner of our hostel is one of the guides. He and another couple came with us to the caves and were just as psyched. Luckily we went at 4 on a Friday, and the amount of people were slim pickins'. There was about 15 of us in total, mostly girls.

We were given very explicit instructions, and of course (for dramatic effect I'm sure), had to sign the 'this isn't a death waiver' death waiver. After this, we put on HUGE suits, they are identical to wet suits, except plastic, and a diaper on your toosh. Again, NEATO, how professional and adventurous!

Then they handed me the biggest helmet I've ever worn. Yes, the kind that gives your head a cramp as you invariably favor which ever side of your neck is stronger.

There were two guides, and luckily,because the owner of our hostel was in a cave training program, it was the four of us and a guide. SERIOUSLY! So we trek around 3/4 a mile to this really grungy looking steel door. He jimmy riggs it with a key a good hard shove and some lovin' and 5 minutes later, we're in.

The whole cave was completely dark. We all switched on our lights.. From here we had another set of brief and explicit instructions. "watch your head" "check your lamps batteries" "x,y,z..."


So, we're descending down this tunnel that I'm already doubled over trying to fit through and we arrive at a ladder. A metal ladder complete with rust and falling into an abyss. I immediately had Erik go ahead of me, and he happily complied. He knew if i fell it'd be on his face, but a good man will do anything for his lady:)



Alright, what seemed like forever passed, and we arrived at the bottom of the cave. We got a 'you ready?' and we set off.




Now here is where it got REALLY serious (in a good way) really fast. This wasn't a educational 'hop there' 'pose here' tour. We were seriously caving. Although the translation on the brochure was near perfect they forgot to mention that we were legitimately caving..

We walked up to a wall with no holes. Huh? What are we going to scale this?
No, not nearly. I failed to see a whole about 16 inches high on the VERY bottom of the ground. It was approximately 2 inches wider than my hips and made a snake like chain for about 25 feet. Before I even had a chance to run for the hills, start to cry, or second guess my abilities, I was on the ground, arms extended shimmeying my way through this worm hole.

Some parts of the cave you rode on your toosh, which was an 'ahh haah!' moment, explaining the diaper I'd been carrying around for the last hour. You drop, scoot, lay nearly flat, WATCH your head, and go. The only catch is, some of these areas were so narrow, the instructor told us EXACTLY how to position our bodies.

If you didn't do it? You didn't fit. "OKAY GUYS, we're going down. LEFT ARM HERE. Right arm behind your head. Head down. Legs to the right, water on your left".. Woosh, he was gone.







As I said before, it was all happening so quickly I had little time to really grasp what I'd gotten myself into. And while I was blissfully going through these worm holes and trap doors of nature, the other lady in the group wasn't. She had a bit of a mini panic attack.I'll give it to her, she held it together, but she wanted easier routes and a shortened routine.

Who would've thought I, Madeline Duffy, the scardey cat of all things high and slightly risk filled would be zooming toosh first/ face first/ arms first through the caves of Budapest and LOVING IT... (Luckily enough for our whole group it was just the initial shock, we eased up for about 30 minutes, and by the end it was fine.)

When we were reaching the end, we came up to a very small hole in one of the walls. Quite impressively, our instructor went under the hole, popped his arms and head out first, and squeezed through a hole that looked like might give a rabbit some trouble.
'Okay, who's next?'

Uhhh, me! .......Did I just offer myself for this? Outloud? Indeed. It was as if I was out of my body. "Yes, lamb to slaugher? Check." Of course I'd like to go through a circle in the air and finagle into a gymnast tight ball before swiveling to the ground. With the help of our instructor, I slowly completed it successfully. The feeling was unbelievable. The mental poise and concentration that goes into moving your body a precise way and analyzing the space is really something I would've never anticipated. Erik tried and couldn't get his shoulders through. It was a valiant attempt, that we both got a good laugh out of.

As we finished I didn't want to leave. This was amazing! It was probably the best day of our trip so far. Here are some pictures so you can see just how real it was!