A cave tour

by Nataliia Lehka (Ukraine)

I didn't expect to find Ukraine

One summer morning, my friend and I were getting ready for our hike in the mountains. I was afraid of climbing and hiking, but I joined the mountain trip because everyone else in our summer camp was going. In the middle of the trip, heavy rain started and the path turned muddy and slippery, but we kept going up. I walked behind the whole group. Every now and then everyone had to stop and wait for me. I was afraid to fall down and I could not catch up with them. At one point, the mountain got very steep, and I panicked because I was afraid to keep going up. I was stuck standing there for a while; then I calmed down and joined the part of the group that wanted to return. As we finally approached the bus, I swore that was my last time hiking ever. A couple of years later, when I just arrived in the United States as an exchange student, my college was organizing a trip to a mountain cave near our town. I thought it was a great chance to explore the area, so I signed up. My idea of a cave tour was quite different than it turned to be in reality. In my head, a car would take us to the cave, we would walk inside, take pictures, and turn back home. So, I was a bit surprised when I approached the car that was supposed to take us to the mountains and saw our guide handing out helmets. I thought, “wow, they are being so cautious; in our country, we don’t wear helmets when we go on a cave tour.” It did not worry me much though, so I took the helmet and got in the car. The second surprise waited for me as we reached our destination. We had to go down the hill to reach the cave. Luckily, the weather was pleasant and the path was quite easy. But what happened later made me promise myself to always make sure I have the right picture of where exactly I was planning to go. Our guide took a long rope out of her backpack, and from that point we had to continue going downhill with a rope to be on the safe side. Everyone was so cheerful and relaxed that I did not want to show how scared I was. Although my hands were shaking, I followed the instruction and slowly went down with everyone else. I felt so proud of myself for not running away until I saw what was inside the cave and realized why we needed the helmets. It was a dark and damp place. Right at the entrance, we had to climb a huge slippery rock to move further inside. Within minutes, everyone climbed it and I was the only one left at the entrance. I panicked. I could not go back by myself, I was scared to climb, and everyone was waiting for me. Our guide tried to calm me down, she offered me a hand and promised I would not fall. I could not just be standing there, so I took a deep breath, grabbed her hand, took a step forward and started moving up. My feet were shaking and sliding down but eventually, I managed to climb the rock. I felt relieved. As we moved further, I did fall down a few times, climbed up slippery rocks, and squeezed through tiny cracks. For some reason, however, I was not scared anymore. When we were leaving the cave, I did not even notice how I climbed down the rock that scared me at the entrance. As we were in the car going back, I realized that I found something I did not expect to find in that trip. I found the courage inside me I did not know I had. I could face and overcome one of my biggest fears. One autumn morning, I was hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains. The morning frost covered the trail and made it slippery. But I was going up to see the sunrise at the top of the hill, free from my fear.