We were led to the mouth of the caves by two guides. As luck would have it, the English speaking folks would be led by our perfect specimen of a man. Both TooToo and I trudged forward eagerly, followed by Cecile and Su. Soon, the wonders of nature took over my earlier preoccupation with the guide. It was indeed spectacular … the caves I mean! And when we reached the natural bridge that ascends 50 metres above the Reka River, I was in absolute awe.
We moved on to a narrow ledge after crossing the bridge. A slip on the ledge would mean a 50-metre drop to the cold, underground river below. Just at that point, Su suddenly collapsed. We were all shocked and worried. Fortunately she was still conscious but was breaking out in cold sweat. She was able to assure us that she was not in much pain but that she had absolutely no strength to sit up and walk. We laid her down on the wet ledge and one of us went to call our guide.
At first, we thought of dragging or carrying her all the way back to the entrance. Little did we know that we have walked quite far along in the network of caves and we were right at the mid point. It would take us equally long to return as it would take for us to move forward. Thank god for that! For a petite lady, Su sure weighed a lot! (Yikes! She’ll kill me when she reads this. Luckily she is still thousands and thousands of miles away. :D) A few in the group were quite concerned but a few others stared at Su and us, probably thinking “what weak Asians”! :p
Our guide was quite efficient in organizing the rest of his group to follow the second guide. And luckily for us, they had communication devices in the underground caves which he used to call for a stretcher. We waited and waited and waited. Meanwhile, Su seemed very comfortable lying down there with TooToo using her jacket to prevent droplets from the stalactites above from dripping onto Su’s face, and with our handsome guide rubbing her temples, hands and back to keep the circulation going and the cold at bay. Both Cecile and I were hovering beside her, trying to make her more comfortable. We kept asking her to eat something as we suspected that it was her gastric playing up. But our contrary friend refused.
Without a whole group of people, the caves became more eerie. The rush of water underground became more distinctive and I was beginning to feel the cold seeping under my skin. As I was hovering above Su, I suddenly noticed her peeking at us and smiling at our worried faces. What a fake! She was already getting better but was keeping quiet and enjoying the attention and the comfort! Hah! She realised she could not keep that from me (after all we are old friends). She whispered in Cantonese to me, “I am sure you must be dying to be in my position now.” Her reference to the guide doing such “lovely things” to her was clear. Hah! That faker!
Finally, help came with a stretcher and Su was lifted on to that stretcher. She demurred but we insisted as we did not want her to collapse on us again. Also, it was our little revenge for making us so worried. Hehehe … The stretcher was quite unique in the sense that the head portion could be lifted by a person and the feet portion had two rollers. Therefore, a person could be strapped on to the stretcher and be dragged along. Ahh … such indignity! The passage out was also at an ascent and thus, at some point, the stretcher would be heaved upwards by the two strong Slovenian men. It was a long way down to the river, more so when one was being heaved upwards by two six footers or more! Barely a few minutes on the stretcher, our friend insisted she could walk to the end of the passageway. We almost made her lie on the stretcher, considering all the inconvenience everyone had to go through to “rescue” her. Hahaha
We finally reached the caves exit without much incident and were welcomed by the beautiful sight of waterfalls. What an afternoon! And a drama queen was born!
Skocjan Caves
Peik Lean Y.
