Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 2115

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The Daily Dormouse.
(aka Bike, est. 2007)
Part 2115
by Angharad

Copyright © 2013 Angharad
All Rights Reserved.
  
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I hated to think what my blood pressure was like and as for stress hormones–they’d be off the scale. I’m seriously thinking of getting a ball and chain for Trish, though she’d most likely use it for demolishing more than arguments.

I walked out to the mouth of the cave and tried to see what I might glean from looking at the striations of the stone. Nothing much came to mind other than how pretty some of them were in their rich tones.

I was wondering how best to get help, given the paucity of mobile phone signals when Trish calmly walked out of the cave and asked what all the fuss was about.

“How did you get out?” I demanded after checking she was unhurt.

“The same way I went in. I only went for a wee.”

“Danny and Cindy have gone looking for you,” accused Livvie.

“I didn’t ask them to,” replied her sister defensively.

“You coulda said where you were going.”

“ I said, I’m going for a wee, what’s in here?”

“You were small enough to squeeze back the way you went, the other two are probably too big.” I offered.

“There’s some daylight coming in from somewhere.”

“Which means there’s got to be a hole outside somewhere.” I looked at Trish and she nodded. “But have they gone the right way?”

She shrugged, “I dunno.”

“Can’t get a signal,” fumed Simon.

“Shouldn’t think grouse have much need of mobiles,” I chided.

“Oh that’s all we need,” Simon nodded towards the low cloud or mist which was heading our way.

“Trish thinks she saw light entering the cave from above.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Stay here with the others while we see if we can find the hole, it might provide an alternative way out.”

“You’ll get lost in the mist.”

“No we won’t, I’ve got my Garmin in my bag.” I pulled it out and established the position of the cave mouth, then went inside to try and determine where the light might be entering but could get no signal. So much for modern technology.

After a couple of minutes thought, I stood in the entrance to the cave and asked Trish to walk towards the fissure and to count her steps. Watching her I was able to make a guess at the direction of the fissure and thus the holes in the roof of the cave.

We left Simon muttering but in charge of the remaining girls while we walked quickly along the small ridge the caves were under. Some ten minutes later we were able to start climbing. The mist or fine rain was beginning to reach is and the grass and other herbage became wet quite quickly, making it even more treacherous under foot.

Visibility began to close in and we couldn’t see much more than about fifty feet ahead. Our search became ever more forlorn and dangerous and I asked Trish to hold my hand so I didn’t lose her again.

As we were walking virtually blind, I used my compass and Garmin to direct us to a spot where the light might have been entering the cave. Ten more minutes brought us to that spot but there was nothing but a gorse bush. Trish was so cross that she picked up a stone and hurled it into the bush only for it to clatter after it fell through the bush. We both looked at each other and walked carefully to the bush.

Creeping under it on all fours, having taken off my Lowe rucksack, I discovered under some broken rocks there was a hole going down into the ground. I asked Trish to pass me my torch and whistle. I told her to stay by my bag and to take her own off. If anything happened to me, she was to use my GPS to find her way back bearing in mind that the edge of the cliff was less than fifty yards away, but which direction in the mist was the difficulty. She knew how to use the Garmin and I asked her to just reverse the directions and follow them and they would take her back to Simon.

I scrambled over the rocks and peered into the darkness below. I blew the whistle several times and waited. For a moment I thought I heard voices, then a flash of light–someone was swinging a torch about. I whistled again. Danni called back to me.

I shone my torch and he said he was in a passageway about ten feet high and about the same wide. There was nothing to climb up.

At least we knew where they were, once we could organise a rescue. I dropped them in some chocolate bars and told them to stay there, we’d get help but it would take some time as a fog had descended. I also told them to conserve their torch battery.

Now we knew where to come, I’d marked the spot on my GPS, we set off to find our way back to Simon. Much of it was simply following our earlier footsteps in the rank vegetation but occasionally I had to use the reverse journey facility and my compass. It took about half an hour to get back.

Simon was ecstatic that we’d found them all we had to do was go back to the castle and get help, then he looked out and saw the fog. Following our footsteps back would be very difficult and possibly dangerous journey of about four miles.

“If only we had some rope, we could get them out.”

“Can’t you knit us some?” he asked unhelpfully.

“Very funny.”

“Pity we couldn’t use wire,” he said to no one in particular.

“Why where did you see some of that?”

“About a hundred yards back down the track, they’re repairing fences.”

“Show me,” I insisted and telling the girls to stay in the cave and not move, we went back towards the wire he’d seen. After ten minutes of frustration we found it and then discovered we had nothing with which to cut it, so my idea of using it instead of rope was no use. Then something orange caught my eye. Some wooden boxes secured with bailer twine wrapped around them.

After undoing the knot, we discovered about twenty feet of the twine. For those not versed with this rural fix all, bailer twine is used for bailing straw and other cereal stalks and is enormously strong and is usually bright orange or blue. We could try for a rescue if Simon felt up to it. He did.

Back to the cave we collected the others and using the same method as before we found our way back to the gorse bush and the entrance to the cave. I asked the children to stay quiet and to stand still as it was dangerous and more holes might occur. That frightened them and they did as I asked.

Then tying the end of the twine to a bottle of water I threw it down the hole and the voices down below confirmed they could see it. My plan was simple, tie a loop in the bottom to hold a foot, hang on tight and Simon and I would haul them up to the surface.

Danni seemed more enthusiastic then Cindy who seemed to wimp out somewhat. However, he wanted her to go first. Reluctantly she agreed. By wrapping her arms and legs around the twine, she managed to get hauled straight off the ground–Simon pulling like a small pony heaved the girl to within a couple of feet of the surface where I was able to hold out my rucksack and she grabbed the belt enabling me to haul her out and a few minutes later, grubby but safe she emerged to join the others.

Danni being bigger would be more of a challenge but Simon suggested he was more than capable of hauling his daughter out of the pit. I tied a bit of stick to the end of the twine and dropped it back down.

Simon began to heave and very slowly Danni started to rise. It seemed like hours before I felt him pulling on my rucksack handle and I could help to haul him out. He scrambled up and I grabbed his hand pulling him safe. Finally, we both crept out from under the gorse bush and we hugged both of us weeping with delight. Smon came to join us and I noticed his hands were ripped to shreds where the twine had cut into them. He’d said nothing about his discomfort and I kissed him and thanked him for his huge effort.

“D’you think you can navigate us home?” he asked.

“Of course. I have no sense of direction but this thing does.” I waved the GPS and calling the others to come together we set off back towards the cave and thence to the castle. It was going to be a very long walk.

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Comments

Bike 2115

I quest you could say the Garmin save the day. Even though I'm not a fan of GPS it kind of save the day!

Richard

Interesting Geology

littlerocksilver's picture

I know that small caves could be weathered into cliff faces of sandstone; however, I'm wondering if Cathy misobserved, and that the caves were actually in limestone?

Portia

... and here I was

Expecting Trish to discover something significant and exciting... skeleton of some ancient and lost king... lost crown jewels... thriving cave dormouse colony....

Spelunking in the colonies

When I was young we used to play in what I now know are called "Geological Breakdown" caves. One we loved to play in until one day we came back and it had partially collapsed. That was the end of that. :)

Gwendolyn

Bailer twine ...

... is the universal farming version of zip ties, toe straps and duck (duct?) tape. They are what holds the world together :)

I'm old enough to remember when binder twine was actually used on binders during harvest to tie cereal straw together to make sheaves which were piled in sixes as stooks ready to be loaded onto a trailer and eventually stacked to await threshing. We 11 year olds were the tractor drivers. It took two of us because we weren't big enough to reach the pedals so one steered and the other operated the clutch and brake. These days the whole operation is done with a couple of workers - one on the combine and the other driving a tractor and trailer to transport the grain. Plus, of course it would be illegal to allow school kids to drive a tractor - especially junior school kids :)

Seems Angharad has let us off lightly today. It all seems to have turned out well. But who knows? They aren't home yet.

Robi

I seem to remember,

it was legal to drive tractors at aged fourteen on farm fields but not on the roads. Dunno' if it's still legal

bev_1.jpg

All's well that ends well

Wasn't that a play by Bill Spokeshave or summat?

Trisha is only 8 but her 'trouble age' is much older.

S.

Baler twine or Binder twine.

Yep, it's also good for using as a belt when belts are broken. Priceless stuff, resembling unravelled string but actually cheap, strong and durable.
Involuntary speleology; not a sensible outdoor activity. (Or would it be called indoors?)

Still lovin' it Ang.

Thanks.

bev_1.jpg

We're on our...

We are on our third and fourth Garmins... (The first one had no battery! It only worked plugged into the car. Second lasted longer. We do need to update our maps in our current ones, though... LOL To many changes to roads. LOL

Glad things worked out as smoothly as they did. Simon's quite strong - lifting two young teens... And pulling that thin line. Glad he had gloves and such to help strengthen his grip without ripping them up. Also glad the line didn't fray.

Thanks for the episode,
Annette

Great episode

Trish causing trouble again. Goddess wait until she is in her tweens *gasp*.

The flip flopping gender references to Danny/Danni is driving me crazy at this point.

Kim

Action, adventure

and family fun

Goddess Bless you

Love Desiree

GPS

I own a Magellan GPS 315. However, I much prefer using my Army Lensatic compass and 1:50's and 1:25 topo maps for land nav.

Back when I was stationed at Ft Campbell KY, I went with several other members of my unit to go explore part of the Cumberland Caverns. We entered at the Greenhouse entrance with the plan to come out through the Upper Post Office entrance. Our group arrived in the large cavern that had the 2 Post Office passages. Like I stated, our intention was for all of us to go out using the upper passage because the guy with us was familiar with that passage and not the lower. To use the upper passage you have to work your way along a ledge above the lower passage and then climb a rope 10 feet. I took tail-end Charlie so I would be the last one out. The person in front of me said he did not like climbing ropes but attempted to climb anyways. For around 30 minutes he attempted to climb until he stated that he refused to continue. This caused a problem in that we could not just leave him there on his own so I elected to remain behind with him while the rest of the group went on ahead to go get someone familiar with the lower passage. I ended up spending an additional 3 to 5 hours in there while we waited. My companion was not too pleased with me when I kept putting out my carbide helmet lamp to conserve fuel and also got pissed at me because I refused to also keep my flashlight (torch to you Brits) on. I just told him to effin shut up, sit down or lay down as we were in no danger as long as we did not go wandering around.

Oh, once a guide did show up the fellow who caused me to remain in the cave found out there was another reason why it would have been better for him to just climb the damn rope and go out the upper passage. The lower passage is quite narrow and the young man (he was one of our Battalion Cooks) had to squeeze through several spots. If I remember correctly, I had to push him through at least one spot.

Too Much Excitement !

Oh Angharad,

sometimes you make so many things happen it gets quite terifying. Briarifying even !

I guess I should be thankful for the small mercy, at least you never had the chord break as Danny was being hauled out. I got so nervous I was expecting something like that, with him falling back from more than half way up, landing on the rocky cave floor and needing to be rescued by helicopter, with a broken back or something like that....

Please go easy on them all, for the rest of this trip. We have all gotten to love your characters so much, after all this time, we do not want anything really bad to happen to any of them.

This is supposed to be fiction and fantasy, but sometimes it gets too like the Real World, which is often just too horrible to the people in it.

XXX

Briar