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Original poster

People who do potholing for fun

193 replies

StrychnineIntheSandwiches · 02/02/2022 14:33

I just watched this extremely distressing video of a fully grown man squeezing his fully grown self into a letter box sized hole. He probably doesn't even know where that hole leads. Pennywise might be down there waiting for him. He might never comes back.

'Ah' his friends will say 'but he died doing what he loved most, squeezing himself into creepy little caves'.

I'd rather walk across broken glass to embrace a naked Nigel Farage than go potholing.

twitter.com/jeremiahjw/status/1488607102452912129

OP posts:
Mustreadabook · 02/02/2022 23:16

@Justkeeppedaling

My father got stuck in the same cave in Wales where the chap was stuck for a few days last year. DF got stuck in the late 1940s/early 1950s. He went down with a friend and it rained and the stream rose and they couldn't get out and had to stay there overnight. I haven't inherited his derring do.
He is probably one of the legends of our caving club! As far as I remember it’s only happened twice since the cave was discovered?
bicyclesaredeathtraps · 02/02/2022 23:17

Potholing/ caving is terrifying. Went once, knew I would hate it bc claustraphobic, and did. If you've read Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen you'll be able to guess what my overly active imagination filled those caves with...

SourMilkGhyll · 02/02/2022 23:34

As others have said, it's not all squeeze little gaps. There are many different caves / potholes out there. Some of the caverns are gigantic things. Some tunnels are ones you can walk through and not touch the roof. Some are small and squeeze. Some are dry and some involve wading through streams.

Norgie · 03/02/2022 07:00

Nope, nope and thrice nope.
I'll be spending enough time down a hole in the ground when I'm dead and gone, thanks.

Brahumbug · 03/02/2022 07:29

I tried pot holing as a teen and enjoyed it, but we didn't do anything to extreme. Definitely wouldn't do it now as the arse and tits are are too big! Another sad caving incident is the Mossdale Caverns Disaster. Terrifying how quickly that went wrong.

catwomando · 03/02/2022 07:54

@meow1989

Nah mate, just watching that has made my elbows feel too big for my skin.
Yep. For me it's not over-big elbows (which is brilliant) . It makes my bits go all funny, and not in a nice way. Grin

Unfathomable how people enjoy this, stuff of nightmares. In a tiny space, with millions of tons of rock above you, no light, the possibility of drowning ,or being crushed to death, or just getting stuck with no way forward or back. Going into the black with potential of never seeing the sun again. For fun? No. No. No.

Comedycook · 03/02/2022 08:11

I am far more likely to die/need medical attention in a car crash on the Motorway to get to the CaVing club than by caving

What are you basing that on? Numbers of accidents or proportion? If the former, then of course, vastly more people drive cars than go potholing!

Honeyroar · 03/02/2022 08:12

I’ve just (stupidly) looked at a couple of clips on YouTube about the Nutty Putty incident. They have head cam footage of down there before he got stuck. It was horrible- so narrow. And so far! I couldn’t watch. I just don’t get the appeal. It looked so claustrophobic.

Comedycook · 03/02/2022 08:12

I spent a lot of time yesterday watching potholing videos on YouTube!

Datada · 03/02/2022 08:28

On Netflix, there's a series, 'Could You Survive This''. A young couple who had never been caving, went into a barely explore cave, for just a 12 hour session!!! They left their little daughter with granny. What?
The presenter is named Creek, and is quite the character, he will show you how to make a grass rope, 3 wingspans long!

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 03/02/2022 08:48

@TheVolturi

My dad was a cave expedition leader when I was a kid. He used to take me and my sister, I was absolutely terrified but I was too scared to say so, so I had to just go along. There are actually some caves that you have to go completely under water to get through (like a tunnel, but filled with water) it's absolutely crazy. I definitely don't have the nerve or the inclination to try it as a grown up. I suppose if you like adrenaline rush it's one of the best things you can do, but you have to be so alert and check the weather forecast constantly, as caves can flood at fast.
I saw a prog. about a similar one, where they’d taken kids and shoved them through an underwater tunnel. Only they hadn’t realised that there was another tunnel underneath, and one kid went through that by mistake. At at the end they realised they were a kid short.

Thank God he’d ended up in a chamber where he could sit, but it took a major rescue effort to get him out.
The stuff of nightmares. I’d never let a child of mine be taken pot holing by stupid reckless potholing men. Or ditto women, come to that. Risking their own lives is one thing, but children….

TheSecondMrsAshwell · 03/02/2022 10:01

The Fascinting Horror version of Nutty Putty on YouTube scared me so much I had to turn it off, so I didn't know what happened at the end (it was a fair bet that he died, or it wouldn't have been on that channel). The creepy background music didn't help. That's only seconded by a vid FH did on an amusement park in New Jersey that had a loop the loop waterslide. If you didn't gain enough momentum, you didn't get through the loop and would be injured. Gave me the panics looking at it. It's pitch black in there and how do you get out if you get stuck?

I can see the appeal of potholing, to a certain extent - seeing places that only a handful of people have seen..... But I'll wait with a flask of coffee by the entrance thankyousoverymuch.

Hestyo · 03/02/2022 16:50

This thread is reminding me of Enid Blyton's The Secret Mountain where the two boys have to swim up the river to get into the mountain and there are points where the water touches the roof so they just have to pray they get through it before they run out of breath... Shock

Also seen The Descent. As if pot-holing wasn't bad enough without a tribe of people-eating crawlers in there.

Original poster
StrychnineIntheSandwiches · 03/02/2022 17:00

@Teenagequeenwithaloadedgun

I don't understand why he's smiling at the end of that video, I'd be screaming 'get me out of this Pennywise infested hole of doom'.

Also that hole would have to be significantly larger for my arse to fit.

I know!!!! Grin

I don't think he's human at all. He's probably just a hologram they use to lure people to their potholey doom.

OP posts:
Original poster
StrychnineIntheSandwiches · 03/02/2022 17:04

@Justkeeppedaling

My father got stuck in the same cave in Wales where the chap was stuck for a few days last year. DF got stuck in the late 1940s/early 1950s. He went down with a friend and it rained and the stream rose and they couldn't get out and had to stay there overnight. I haven't inherited his derring do.
Was he frightened or did he just look on it as a bit of an adventure? I think a night spent stuck in a cave, not 100% sure if you'd actually make it out the next day, would feel like an eternity.
OP posts:
Babyroobs · 03/02/2022 17:06

I did it once as a teenage on an activities holiday. I still have nightmares about it now and think it relates to why I get claustrophobic and panicky now. We were literally crawling through tunnels on our knees. It makes me feel sick thinking about it now.

ivfbabymomma1 · 03/02/2022 19:53

vm.tiktok.com/ZMLFDtEhJ/

I found him on tiktok explaining how he fit etc

Booklover3 · 03/02/2022 20:11

Did it once on a school trip and really enjoyed it. But I’m too wide and unfit now. I did enjoy watching people explore the caves at Wookey Hole though. I said to DH when I’ve lost some weight and am fitter I would love to have another go.

BigValue · 03/02/2022 21:07

Like people have said it’s not all squeezing through tiny gaps and being in water. You could just have a little walk. You don’t even think about all the rock above your head once you’re in there. There’s a lot to see. It’s a good laugh and you have a head torch!

pointythings · 03/02/2022 21:12

I used to do it before the kids, loved it. Got arthritis now so I can't do it any more, but it's wonderful. See the fossils and the formations, climb and crawl, experience absolute darkness when you turn your head torch off. It's one of the best things I ever did.

FrangipaniBlue · 03/02/2022 21:16

Even just reading this thread has me sweating..... no way am I clicking that link!!!!

XenoBitch · 03/02/2022 21:16

When I was a teen, the local police ran this scheme for kids to do various activities in the school holidays. My mum signed me up for pot holing. Never again!
We had to crawl stomach down along this teeny corridor that culminated in this teeny hole to get into a bigger chamber, and I was the last through. My battery pack got snagged. I got stuck, and I was convinced I was going to end up as an abandoned skeleton down there! Everyone laughed at me!

Not RTF but I am sure Nutty Putty has been mentioned. And Reddit seems to be full of videos of skinny men breathing in to fit their rib cages into teeny entrance holes.

Original poster
StrychnineIntheSandwiches · 03/02/2022 21:19

@xenobitch, I hope you did escape and haven't typed that message from the afterlife!

OP posts:
tokyo1 · 03/02/2022 21:20

All I could think of was imagine the creepy crawlies down there. Eeeeek!

MarshaBradyo · 03/02/2022 21:23

Watching The Rescue

Really good but wondering how much was recreated later or filmed (the four men rescue for example)