A traipse through liquid ice

As our feet first touched down into the mid-calf deep ice flow stream we knew we were in for a bit of an adrenaline rush. The waters cool biting edge but through out warmest clothes in seconds and chille dus to our bones. We had to move fast as hanging around in that temperature saps your strength in no time. Quickly we trudged up the rapidly flowing stream.At this stage we were a good 15m below ground in the pitch black caves carved by centuries of fast flowing water, with nothign but our small head torches to light our path, there were about 8 daring souls in total for this adventure. After a few minuites, by now our feet had pretty much lost feeling we came to a stone slab with water flowing quick out below it. "under here" cries Harman Jon, out leader. 'Under here' was a 10cm gap of air between icy river and cold hard rock. "no way", "You're joking" and "I cant do that" were the few words spoken as we looked at the path ahead.
"It's now or never, if you go you go, make up your mind now" yelled Harman Jon above the roaring of a not so distant waterfall. With that he dissapeared under the water and through the gap.

As the water hit my chest and crept up to my neck i could do nothing but lose my breath, regain it, and yell the first thing that came to mind, "Baaaaaaaaahhhhhhh", this was shortly followed by "shiiiiiiiiiite". It was cold. For 20m we crawled through the water faces to the ceiling trying to suck what air we could, hearts beating at rediculous speeds and adrenaline pumping through our bodies. As we crawled along the roar of the waterfall grew louder, sliding through a small gap we popped out below a gushing waterfull with a delightful sight before us, the rope, our path out of this feezing tunnel. Pity it was sitting right in the middle of the downpour of freezing water. So, the final hurdle, a 3m rope climb up a overhung tiered rockface, sound fun, not so much with icecold hand. Grip after grip was laid upon that rope, though i could never quite tell if i was actually holding it hard enough. After an epic struggle against the oncoming water I finally made over the top and bolted for the mouth of the cave, where ever it was, I just ran upstream. finally, with muscles tired from the fading adrenaline rush but still buzzing we made it out, never have a felt so happy to chuck my hands into snow, it actually felt warmer...

That was cave 3/4 in the Norwiegian highlands, the past 4 days have been a traips around the the caves, about 50km from YWAM base, unfortunately its a 5hour drive aorund the mountains to the other side. The first night was spend camping in the fresh snow overlooking the mountain range. That night we spend some time in a large gaping cave lit by candle light, praying and singing praises as our words were whisked away by the thunder of the river below so we could barely hear what we were saying.
The rest of the caves we visited were winding trails carved by streams, mostly dry now with a little water deep within them. Being in the caves was amazing, the knowledge that you are meters underground surrounded by cold rock in every direction with nothing but a headtorch and your freinds to get you out. For some reason i felt right at home within the caves, it was soo much fun just wandering around exploring all the nooks and crannies, squeezing through tiny gaps like a peice fitting into the last spot on a jig-saw puzzle. Lars and Madara say 'Hi', its late here at Nordtun about 1:30am, we're still up as we had our 5hr drive back to base this arvo and filled ourselves with chocolaty goodness on the way.
On that note, i should probably sign off and crash for the evening, tomorrow is a day full of planning for 7-11 (the youth group we run every second friday) and 7-11 itself, theater sports tomorrow i think.
hope all is well.