The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2115 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

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.