Who Moved My Cheese - White Cliff (Dry Caving) NSS CFC 11/6

Who Moved My Cheese - White Cliff (Dry Caving) NSS Central Florida Cavers 11/6/05

We had a great time on Sunday. Ten adults and 5 kids showed up to do some dry caving (White Cliff) and some not so dry caving (Ocala Cave). We meet at the McDonalds in Belleview at 9 AM. It was a great day for caving.

The first cave on our agenda was White Cliff. We parked across the street from the cave and meet Bill B., the keeper of the keys, before we started the darker part of our journey. We geared up in the parking lot and headed across the street to enter the cave.

http://cavediver.net/photopost/showp...cat=504&page=1
http://cavediver.net/photopost/showp...cat=504&page=1
http://cavediver.net/photopost/showp...cat=504&page=1

We entered through a cement hole in the ground, about the size of a water meter; into a very small room and it was here that our journey began. Past the small room we entered into an off angle fissure fracture room; where we had to brace ourselves across both walls, with our bodies, to avoid falling into the abyss. Some of our group went for the natural false start and the group turned back to proceed down into the maze.

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At this point things got tighter as we proceeded on. It was hands, knees and bellies for most of the way. We squeezed through some small holes to proceed to other parts of the cave. At about this point, the group branched off into smaller groups. Some took the right fork, for the lower section, and we took the left fork. One branch led to another, with arrows painted on the wall, which pointed in the direction out.

At the next juncture, we went right. This area had a series of small tunnels, which looped back onto the original rooms. It was a little hotter back in this area, because it didn't have as much fresh air in it. We turned and headed down the other way, until we also walled it out. Now it was time to back track, to find the other half of the cave (the lower section).

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Most of us gathered in the larger main room. I took some pictures, while we regrouped, before we continued. The group I was in went left and under a low overhang, into a larger area, which went to a dead end with a small rock hill. The kids climbed the hill, with Mike, to check for any going leads.

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Next, we went back to the room and took the right passage into the lower section. We had two options in this room also, the way to the left looked promising, but it led to a dead end. The way down through the small hole led to more cave. It was about 12:30 PM now and we had to get to another cave, so we regrouped and headed out.

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