Mato Grosso

Yet again its another early start, yesterday we had a chill out day apart from the training we had to do for todays activity. This involved abseiling and rappeling which id never done before, and trust me it was harder than it looked. With our training in the bag we made our way to Abismo, we had to be one of the first people here as they take two groups down seperately and to ensure we could catch our bus we needed to leave site at 11. The stress of catching this bus was really getting to me, everything really had to drop into place and there was little margin for error.
We were all equipped out in our safety harnesses and helmets before being attached to the line that would take us down. Mark and i would go down ttogether and once we were sat in the shaft it was time to descend with our legs entwined we slowly lowered ourselves into the abyss . I think they must have slowed the rope up in someway , as from our practice that we had yesterday trying to take the friction off was a lot harder. Slowly we dropped down into something i had never imagined i would ever see. It was like being in Middle earth stalignites and stalitites were everywhere . I dont know whyi was shocked tat the gave was so dark as the only source of light was a small whole that we had been lowered through, it was also still early , but it really was like finding an alladins cave. The journey down was quite hard work and by the time i reached the bottom i was exhausted . We waited for the rest of our group to descend and everyone was of the same thouht that if it was that hard aseiling down, how hard was it going to be Rappelling back up. The cave is 70m below ground but was much bigger that i imagined and i couldnt believe what a force water and calcium can have. Once we were all together our guide Mateus took us in a little dinghy and showed us the various formations around the cave , it was jaw dropping stuff at how different even the textures of the limestone were. In the water below us were even more formations and we headed back to a wooden floating platform to don our wetsuits and investigate further.The water was so cold when we got in but after a while your body adjusted . There was something quite eerie about this place and as we snorkelled around it was like having a mirror reflection under the water. After a short while i got out and got dressed as time was pushing on Mark followed shortly after and once dressed we were put back into our harnesses. This place should definitely be attached with a wonder of the world certification its beauty is breathtaking. It was time to make our accent and once strapped in i was nervous about the task ahead, i was winched to about half way up which i wasnt expecting and then hanging in mid air i tryed to do the technique that wed learnt yesterday but for some reason it wasnt working , i was petrified , here i was dangling on a rope trying to shout down that my clamp wasnt working and noone could hear me. After what seemed like forever , but was probably 3 or 4 mins i was winched up again, to just below the entrance, it looked like i wasnt going to have to rappel after all which i was pretty glad of as my arms were still hurting from last night and my legs were shaky being at such a great heigt, with my hands either side of the rock i was hauled slowly through the final part.Back on level land i was shocked to see that it was actually the guys and girls on top that had physically hauled me up, and now it was Marks turn, i did feel sorry for them in that heat its bloody hard work pulling 14st up 70 metres. Mark joined me and after a big thank you we ran to catch our taxi . Back at the hostel our bags were already packed and id bught sandwiches the night before so after a quick bite to eat we sat waiting for the bus that was due at 1230. It was supposed to be a three and a half hour journey to the airport then a further 30 mins to downtaown then a taxi from there to the terminal was abouut 20 mins but at 1245 the bus hadnt arrived . It eventually turned up at 13.10 so we were going to be cutting it really fine. We arrived at the airport at 530 and had accepted we wouldnt be catching the bus tonight, but when we got in the taxi we explained the situation and he drove ike a lunatic, going through red lights down little short cuts and just 5 mins from the terminal there had been a crash. It was 550 as we sat in the traffic i was devistated we were so close yet s far away, hen nigel mansell started weavin his way in and out and we cleared the crash. the time was .6.01 and i ran to the ticket office while mark grabbed the rucksacks. The bus hadnt arrived yet, and must have been caught in the same traffic as us. I was so happy , but when i came to pay for the tickets it wouldnt accept my card, rucksack on my back i ran to the cashpoint and withdrew the cash just as the bus was pulling in , i quickly ran back and paid and we boarded the busRead more