Amanda stood in the sun and watched Cat and Kass leave. Indi had disappeared into the cave somewhere behind her a little while ago. Amanda pulled the camera out of the bag and was attempting to set it up when Indi returned and yelled out that she’d found a little underground waterfall. She seemed surprised that Cat and Kass had left already. She reported that the cave was quite vast and curvy, with lots of different tunnels leading off, easy to get lost in.

Amanda half fiddling with the camera still listened intently while Indi described what she’d found from her hole in the cave.

“How deep do you think it goes?” Indi asked.

Amanda turned to face her. “I don’t know it could go quite the way down. You should be careful you know. Don’t want to get lost in there.”

Indi looked sad for a moment but then her violet eyes lit up with a hopeful glint. “Maybe we could map it out?”

Amanda gave her a sympathetic smile. She knew Indi hated to be sitting around and just doing nothing. She also knew how much Indi loved the sun. That cave was probably feeling pretty restrictive. “I did give the rope to the others,” Amanda cautioned.

“We could just go in a little bit,” Indi pleaded.

“But I suppose if we took it slow and careful we could make a map,” Amanda added.

Indi grinned wildly.

Amanda made her wait a little longer while she set up the camera. Indi gave her advice from the cave every now and again. Eventually Amanda got out a pencil and paper and explained to Indi some basic caving safety points, like how to make a caving map, and how important it was to keep track of where you were going and to make sure you could always get back the way you came.

“I didn’t go in too far before,” Indi explained, but she listened patiently and took the advice on board.

Amanda gave Indi a pencil and some paper. She kept some for herself as well. She explained that it was best they stick together but having both of them keep track of where they were was better than just one.

“What if we end up with contradicting maps?” Indi asked.

“Then we follow my one,” Amanda replied with a wink.

Indi frowned, then laughed. “I guess that makes some sense?”

“It’s just back up,” Amanda explained, “but more importantly it’ll make sure that you’re paying attention to where you are going, okay?”

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Indi nodded, with extra enthusiasm.

Indi waited very patiently, at least, what was patiently for Indi, as Amanda got a few more things ready. Every few seconds she’d ask Amanda another question to the point where Amanda would get half way through looking for something and forget what she was looking for. She always answered Indi’s questions though, after all it wasn’t like they were in a hurry or anything, it would take Cat and Kass at least a day to get back to them.

Amanda did wonder what would happen if they didn’t find the sunscreen.

“What’s the deepest cave you’ve ever been in?” Indi asked.

Amanda paused with her hands half way inside her pack. “The deepest? Well the deepest I’ve ever been in goes just over 2000 metres down but I’ve only ever been a few hundred metres down that one, which is still several kilometres in mind you, given the windiness, and a couple days underground. There’s another one that Sirius and I did with the kids that goes about 1000 metres down until it hits a sump. No one knows what’s beyond it. We spent about a week in that one.”

“A week?”

Amanda nodded. “It’s got a couple of tricky traverses. Not too much in the way of abseils though, which would actually make it faster. It’s more of a slowly wind your way down kind of one.”

Amanda pulled a pack of batteries out of her pack and laid them on the ground, then a small day pack that had been scrunched up small. “This one isn’t particularly durable, but I then I don’t expect we’ll be doing much in the way of squeezing through tight spaces.” She gave a soft smile which faded as she noticed Indi was pouting. “We’re not going to do any crazy caving Indi, just having a look around at the easier stuff. We don’t want to go getting stuck in any tight passages and needing rescuing when Cat and Kass get back. This cave should have plenty of nice easy stuff though, hopefully.”

Indi rolled her eyes then pushed her glasses up her nose.

Amanda pulled a bunch of snacks out of her bag and put them in the smaller one along with the batteries and spare torches.

“So how come no one knows what’s beyond the sump in that other cave? Don’t people dive it.”

Amanda nodded. “Sure some have gone in a few hundred metres but not much further. Not to the end.”

“What about you? Did you dive it?”

Amanda shook her head this time. “I didn’t take the gear on that trip.”

“Do you cave dive?”

Amanda screwed up her face and gave a small shrug. “A little, I’ve done more in the open water, and not stuff like that, mostly just short bits. Cave diving’s some scary shit. I mostly stick to easy caves anyway, with some exceptions.” she added the last bit with a mischievous smile.

“Like the 1000 metre one? You took your kids on that though?” Indi asked.

“That one’s not so bad apart from the length and the two traverses and they can be set up so people can follow easily. It’s the technical setup and getting to some of the initial anchors that’s hard, but it’s mostly safe if you know what you’re doing. This is probably more dangerous since it’s unknown territory for us. I probably should have tried harder to find a map. The caving community can be a bit coy sometimes though. At least this area’s not known to be too deceptive. What you see is what you get.”

Amanda closed the small pack and stood up. “Okay...” She trailed off as she eyed the packs.

Indi looked up at her questioningly.

“I’m just wondering if we should set up camp first,” Amanda explained.

“We can do it when we get back,” Indi replied.

Amanda shrugged. “Sure, it’ll keep things clean at least.”

“Ready?”

“Ready.”