I can now say that I have been spelunking in the caves of Alachua County. Not only that, but we did it in the middle of the night! It was pretty awesome, once I got the guts to go down.
A bunch of guys came over from Jacksonville on Saturday to come with us. George, Reno, and a couple of Chris' old group, the 'Night Stalkers,' Jason and Mike Palmer came. Chris calls Mike a real pretty boy. I think he's pretty cool. Jon, Chris and I didn't leave for Salem's apartment until almost ten Saturday night. After messing around for a while, and finally convincing everybody to get off of their asses and go, we climbed into the back of two trucks and left. Salem's new roommate, Bedea, came along. He had already been to the cave a few weeks ago and was sort of our guide to get there. I climbed into the back of George's truck with Chris, Mike and Jon. It was almost a forty-five minute trip, two-thirds of which is through cow country and forests in the middle of nowhere. It got pretty chilly in the back of the truck, so three of us were crammed up behind the cab to keep out of the wind.
The caves are out in part of Newberry. There were very few houses or anything for that matter as we got closer. There was also no moon, or city lights, so you could see the stars pretty well. We had heard all about Devil worshipers and people that fuck with your cars while you're in the cave. Bedea and Salem decided before we left that they would wait with the trucks. We found the spot pretty easily, but we couldn't find the entrance to the cave. There were a couple of other holes and entrances, although they were twenty feet straight down or filled with dirt and trash where somebody had tried to fill it. We suddenly saw lights coming and turned off all of our flashlights. It turned out to be this guy all by himself named Otter. He looked pretty repulsive and said that he just came up from staying three months in Miami. He use to live nearby and has been all throughout the caves. He showed us where the entrance was.
I was the last person into the entrance. It's a pretty small opening and is pretty steep at the beginning. You then half to literally get on your stomach and drag yourself for almost fifteen feet. Salem was crying about us leaving a flashlight with him, and he took mine. Jason was in front of me but only had a penlight. It started getting hard to breathe, and I couldn't see worth a shit. All of the flashlights were up ahead and they couldn't shine them back because it was such a tight passage. I said fuck it and turned around and climbed all of the way back out in the pitch black. I went back up with the guys and we talked up there for a little while. Another car or people came up. There were two pretty cute chicks and three guys. They had been before and were carrying cases of beer and shit like that. The girls were already pretty messed up and went off into the woods for a second to pee. They then went down.
Otter told us that our group could probably hear us from one of the holes that went straight down so we went and called to them. They were all just hanging out in the big room right after the crawling part. Our eyes had adjusted pretty well to the darkness and Salem finally gave up the flashlight. I decided to go ahead and go down. I got almost to the room and saw that they had built a fire. I shined my flashlight through the opening into the room and wiggled it around. I heard somebody that somebody is coming so I turned off my light and lay still. It was funny. I then slid down over a big rock into the room. You could easily stand up and it was really cool. I thought before that the so called cave might just be cracks between giant rocks in the ground. I was really surprised when I saw that the caves were actually formed by springs and were pretty smooth. there was a part with water along the ground. I was the first to yank off my shoes and walk through it. It split into a Y and I went both ways to see what it was like. It was really awesome how the caves kept going. The water was knee deep at the deepest point in the center, and I was running all around. They were afraid to get their feet wet and I was glad from my experiences of exploring up in Georgia. I felt very comfortable leading them when they finally convinced everybody to come along.
Being first, I kept seeing all of the cute little bats. They were very similar to the ones at Busch Gardens. Chris never saw them, but if he had, he probably would have run screaming for his life. He swears that bats aim for your head and stick to your hair. He says that then you have to have surgery to get them off. I thought they were really neat, though. We later ran into the other group up in another 'room.' This one guy told us about some pretty cool formations that are in the caves. He borrowed my flashlight and his girlfriend, Mike and I crawled through this tiny hole in the corner floor which opened up somewhat to a passage. It soon became filled with water which we had to crawl through which got us almost entirely wet. I crawled in with this guy's girlfriend and we crawled side to side, pressed against each other, and talking with our faces two inches apart. She was drunk, you could easily smell it.
The guy then kept going as Mike and I decided to turn back because we were running out of light. The bastard wouldn't turn around and give me back my flashlight. We all waited for quite a while back in the room. That fucking asshole actually stole my brand new flashlight that I got for Christmas! I asked his friends what his name is, and they told me. I know that he lives on campus so I think I'll look him up. I let a lot of the air out of one of their tires,a nd would have pissed in their gas tank if I would have thought about it a few minutes earlier. A couple of them were telling me to really fuck up their car, and were going to give me George's knife to do so. Oh fucking well. Shithead!!!
It was rather cold riding all of the way back at one in the morning all soaking wet. It was fun though and I'm glad that I went so that I can say that I have been. I was glad to be able to tell Emily about me doing something physical that she herself hasn't done. Fran‡oise gave me a call last night about German and I told her about going to the caves. She thought that was pretty cool and said that some of her friends went just last weekend, although she has never been. She sounds really attractive on the phone.
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