Tight Squeeze

0:00Today's podcast will feature two claustrophobia inducing stories about cave explorers. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Into the Dark, and it's about a man who faces a nightmare in a bat cave. And the second and final story you'll hear is called Last Wish, and it's about an explorer who tries to find a new undiscovered chamber inside of a cave. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

0:43So if that's of interest to you, please offer to go skydiving with the Amazon Music Follow button, but be sure to replace their parachute with a trash bag. Okay, let's get into our first story called Into the Dark.

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1:58Visit usaa.com slash bundleauto property to see how much you could save. Multiple product savings do not apply in all states or to all situations. Savings subject to change. Restrictions apply. Membership eligibility and product restrictions apply and are subject to change. USAA means United Services Automobile Association and its affiliates, San Antonio, Texas.

2:26On August 4th, 2019, a 28-year-old man named Sombora left his farm in rural Cambodia and headed off into the jungle. His goal that day was to climb the nearby Chakrai Mountain and try to harvest as much bat guano as possible. So bat guano is bat poop, and it makes excellent fertilizer. And in the jungles of Cambodia, there are all these mountains, including Chakrai Mountain, that have these cave systems full of bats, so it's a great place to go looking for bat guano. And Sum and his family, they would go out there and harvest as much as they could in order to support their farm. This is kind of like their main business.

3:03And so on this particular day, Sum was not just going to climb this mountain and go into random caves and hope for the best. Today, his mission was to go to one cave in particular that he knew had a ton of bat guano inside of it, mostly because the other people in the area that went out harvesting bat guano, they wouldn't go into this cave. And the reason for that is the cave was really, really narrow and tight and frankly dangerous because of it, and so they didn't go into it. But Sum was a very slight guy with a narrow frame, and so he could basically get himself into tight spaces and reap the benefits of places like this cave.

3:40And so after hiking for about an hour through the jungle and then up this mountain, Sum finally reached the entrance to this particular cave. And it was an opening that was about three feet by three feet, and you really couldn't see very far into it. But Sum knew what he was doing and pretty much immediately got down on his stomach. He got his flashlight out. He took his guano bag, which had a long strap coming off of it so he could drag it behind him. And he began wriggling his way into this opening. Now, the way this cave system roughly worked is there was this narrow entrance that went kind of straight ahead like a tunnel.

4:12But then periodically, as it continued along, there'd be these kind of like pockets, these openings, where it would get big enough where Sum could actually get up onto his hands and knees and kind of move around a little bit. And it was inside of these pockets, these caverns, where all the bats would be. And that's where most of their poop was. And so all Sum was trying to do as soon as he went inside this cave is get to these caverns and then do his harvesting. And so Sum, he wriggled his way forward, he got through that first tunnel section, and he entered the first cavern. And sure enough, there were quite a few bats on the ceiling, and there was all this bat guano, about a pound of bat guano.

4:46And so he scooped it all up, he put it into his bag, and then he kept on moving through the tunnel into the next cavern. And as he was making his way down that second stretch of tunnel, shining his light ahead, he saw what looked like the walls moving up ahead when he was looking into the next cavern. But he knew that was not actually the wall moving. There was a whole bunch of bats in this next cavern. And so from his perspective, it seemed like there were way more bats in that cavern than this one. And so in theory, this next cavern was going to have a ton of bat guano. Potentially, all he would need for this entire journey.

5:18He could just pack his bag and leave after this next cavern. However, there was a small problem. Now, some had come to this spot many times before, and he knew that going from the first cavern to the next cavern had a little bit of a hiccup. On the ground, as you cross the threshold into this second cavern, was a crack in the ground that basically ran perpendicular to the way this tunnel ran. Now, the crack was only about six inches wide, but when you were over it shining a light down into this crack, it was like it went on forever. It was like this unending hole in the earth. And so Sum always just got creeped out climbing over this crack because there was really no way to go around it.

6:00You really had to go right over the top of it because all he was thinking about is like, what's down inside of this deep hole in this cave? It's reminiscent of how people are scared of really deep oceans, like thilassophobia. It's fear of what's down there. And so Sum just really didn't like it. But again, he knew there was going to be a ton of bat poop if he could just cross over that crack, and so it was worth it. And so Sum, he wriggled his way through the tunnel, he reached the crack, he kind of shined his light down, and again saw just this never-ending pit that just shot straight down into the earth.

6:32But Sum took a deep breath, He wriggled over the top of it successfully, and after he crossed it and he was about to enter into the cavern to get this huge bat guano payload, he felt something tugging on him, and immediately he was terrified and he whipped his head around wondering what could possibly be grabbing him, when he realized nothing was grabbing him. It was his guano bag that he dragged behind him with that big strap. It had gotten stuck on the crack itself. Sum was immediately relieved because he had really hyped up the idea that maybe there was some monster behind him or something, But there wasn't.

7:03And so he just kind of grabbed his strap and kind of jimmied the bag out of the crack. But as he did, he lost his flashlight. So he's moving the bag and he kind of fumbles the flashlight. And the flashlight rolled backwards into the crack. And as soon as this happened, and Suma's watching with horror as he's seeing the light kind of jostling around as it tumbles down into the crack. But then it comes to a stop. Like it didn't just fall endlessly into the earth. It got wedged at some point. and the light from the flashlight was actually shining straight up. So it was pretty near the surface. And so some's thinking to himself, okay, that's bad.

7:37I can't lose my flashlight. I have to be able to see to get the bat poop and to get out of here. But let me just turn around and I'll reach into that horrible crack and I'll get my flashlight and everything will be okay. And so some carefully backed back down across the crack. And when he was looking straight down into the crack, he could see the flashlight and it was wedged pointing straight up, maybe a foot and a half or two feet down. Now, Summ did not want to reach his arm into this crack for all the reasons he was scared of the crack. Like, he doesn't know what's down there, but he really needs his flashlight.

8:09And so Summ kind of backed himself up and mentally prepared himself and then reached into the crack and began blindly reaching down, hoping to grab this flashlight and yank it out as fast as he could. But as he reached, he couldn't quite get to the flashlight. And so he began turning and twisting his body and forcing his shoulder deeper and deeper until finally he could touch the flashlight. And then finally, right as he grabbed the flashlight, something happened.

8:41That night, Sum did not return to his farm. Now, his family was not actually that worried about it because it was not uncommon for Sum to go out on these guano foraging adventures and be gone for, you know, a couple days at a time. However, after another two days went by and still Sum had not returned, his family started to get worried. And so ultimately, Sum's brother decided to go out and look for him. Sum's brother had often collected guano with Sum in the past, and so he knew roughly where Sum liked to go, including Sum's favorite spot, that cave up in the mountain. And so when the brother went out looking for him, pretty quickly, he found himself in that favorite spot.

9:19Now, Sum's brother was about the same size as Sum, and so he too could navigate this very tight tunnel. And so that's what he did. He got down on his stomach, he had his flashlight out, and he yelled into the cave for Sum, but there was no answer. And so he eventually made his way to that first cavern. He didn't find Sum, he kept going, and right as he was about to hit that second cavern, as he shined his light ahead, he saw there was a bag on the ground, and it was his brother's guano bag. And so he knew his brother had to have come here, and he began yelling out for his brother, but there was no answer.

9:51And then right as the brother paused for a second just to listen, he heard a faint cry, a human cry. And he called out, like, is that you, Sum? And again, he heard another cry. But he's looking around, and he can't see Sum anywhere. And so the brother just continues shimmying his way towards that second cavern. And right as he begins to cross over that crack, he hears the cry again, and it's coming from right below him. It's coming from the crack. And the brother takes his flashlight and shines it straight down into that crack. And there, in the crack, was Sum. He was wedged all the way inside of the crack.

10:29It would turn out, a few days earlier, when Sum was in this cave reaching for his flashlight, he couldn't quite get his fingers around the flashlight. And so he kept turning his body more and more until his body was parallel with the crack itself. And then finally, right as he's leaning down and he gets his hands in the flashlight, he rolled and fell into the crack. His whole body basically perfectly fit into the crack. And down he went several feet where he wedged into the crack. And then once he was wedged down there, there was nowhere to go. He was absolutely trapped. And so Sum laid in this crack for days, having no expectation he was going to get out.

11:12He was totally wedged, no food, no water. He was going to die, and he knew it. In fact, he actively wished he had a knife on hand so he could take his own life. But luckily for Sum, his brother would find him, his brother would go and get help. And on the fourth day of Sum being trapped inside of this crack, back. Rescuers were able to pull him out and he would make a full recovery.

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14:51The next and final story is called Last Wish.

15:06A little after 3 p.m. on March 22, 1959, a 20-year-old British college student named Neil Moss stood in a cavern about 1 ,000 feet underground in northern England. And as he stood there, he was staring with excitement into this dark hole right in front of him. The cavern that Neil was standing inside of was known as Peak Cavern, and it was one of the biggest and most twisting cave systems in the entire country. In fact, it was so big that at one point an entire village of 30 rope makers lived inside of this cave. And then also after those rope makers, the cave system became a hideout for criminals and thieves because there were so many secret passageways and basically places to hide inside of the system.

15:48So basically, Peak Cavern was a pretty famous place, and as a result, basically all of it had been mapped out or at least explored by scientists and spelunkers. Except for this hole right in front of Neil. It was an entrance to a tunnel that nobody even knew about. Neil and the amateur exploration group that he was a part of had discovered this entryway about two weeks earlier. Now, neither Neil nor anybody else in this group had actually gone into this hole yet, And the reason for that was it was pretty dangerous. I mean, the opening to this tunnel was pretty small. It was one and a half feet by two feet wide at the opening.

16:25And just looking down into it, I mean, it's a dark hole that you really can't tell how tight or how far it even goes. And so once you went inside of it, you know, the deeper you got, the higher the risk of entrapment. And so whoever actually went into this hole really needed to be prepared. But Neil and the rest of his amateur exploration group really felt like it would be worth it to try to go down this tunnel. Not just because nobody had done it before, but specifically, they thought there was a chance that beyond this tunnel, basically deep underground, if you followed it long enough, it could lead to another big open chamber that nobody had found before.

17:00And those types of big open chambers, whoever finds them gets it named after them. And so Neil and his group were thinking, you know, hey, if we find this big chamber, you know, it'll be named after us. We'll be famous, at least in, you know, spelunking circles. But they also understood that there might be nothing at the other end of this tunnel. It could just be a dead end. But the only way to know for sure would be if one of the members of this group went into the hole. Now, in addition to a fear of being trapped in the hole, there were other big issues with blindly crawling into a tunnel no one's been in before.

17:32Like, for example, there could be a sudden drop-off, or running water, or some other hazard that whoever went into the hole wouldn't know about until they were facing it. And so naturally, everybody in this group was excited about the hole, but also a little apprehensive about being the guinea pig to actually go into the hole. And so after the group had kind of stood around the hole for a minute, kind of talking through who was going to do it, Neil had finally courageously volunteered to be the guinea pig. He would go down. And in many ways, Neil was kind of like the perfect candidate for this job.

18:04He was smart, he was strong, and most importantly, he was thin, which meant he could navigate a really tight space. The only drawback to Neil was he was pretty tall. He was over six feet. And generally speaking, the best cavers in the world are very short and thin because it allows them to get into the smallest, tightest spaces underground. And so Neil, who was standing over the hole, began to mentally prepare himself for what he was about to do. He pulled out his flashlight, and he shined it straight down into this hole, which again is a pretty narrow hole, and it basically went straight down.

18:36And as he was shining it, he saw about 12 feet down, the hole kind of turned and you couldn't see what was beyond it. And so Neil knew the only part of this trip he would know about is that first 12 feet. Once he made that turn, I mean, everything beyond that was totally unknown. Literally no one in the world knew what was beyond it. But Neil was about to find out. The cave explorers anchored this 75-foot-long wire ladder that was all rolled up to this rock that was inside the cavern right near the opening to this hole. And once that was in place, they spooled out the ladder, and kind of dumped it down into the hole.

19:11And so it fell 12 feet down and landed right where this tunnel turned and sort of went into oblivion where nobody knows what happened after that. And so Neil, his job was going to be to go into this hole feet first, go down 12 feet, and then with his feet, as he kind of blindly crawled backwards feet first into the tunnel, he'd be kicking with his feet this ladder, extending it farther and farther into this tunnel. The idea was this ladder was his way back out again. So he's basically on top of the ladder making his way, and at any point he can just grab the ladder and climb back out again. And so once the ladder was in place and all the cave explorers were kind of waiting for Neil, Neil walked up to the edge of the hole, he took a deep breath, and then he swung one leg into the hole, placed it on one of the rungs of the ladder, put his other leg on the ladder as well, and kind of tested it to make sure the rock that was anchoring the ladder could hold his weight.

20:00Once he was sure it could, he said goodbye to the explorers and then began his descent, feet first, down into the hole. As Neil slowly and carefully climbed down this ladder during this first 12-foot section, he felt the walls of this hole closing in on him. When he was close to the bottom of this first section, the walls were literally flush with his shoulders and back. I mean, this was a really tight space. And so finally, he got to the very bottom of this 12-foot section, and he was about to step onto what he thought was another rung because he can't actually see where he's going. He's just using his feet to feel.

20:33And he stepped down and he felt something hard. It was the ground. So he had reached the bottom of the 12-foot section. He kind of tested the ground with his foot, you know, seeing if it would support his weight. And after feeling confident, he stepped off the ladder and just stood at the bottom of the hole. At this point, Neil used his feet to kick the ladder that was still coiled up at the bottom of the hole into the next turn, into the next section of the tunnel that he'd be going down. And as soon as he kicked it, he heard it kind of spool out as it tumbled down this next section. However, it was not a straight drop like this first section was.

21:06This next section he'd be going into was more of a gradual decline, just based on the sound this ladder was making as it tumbled down. And so after the ladder had stopped making noise and he knew it had stopped, Neil gave one final look up at his friends above, gave them a little wave, even though he could barely move his hands because it's so tight around him, and then he got down on his stomach and feet first began shimmying himself down into this next section. Now, during the first 12 feet and during the initial turn into this new section, Neil had been able to turn his head and basically look down and see where his feet were going, but after only a few feet of going into this new section, the walls had become so tight on his body that he couldn't even move his head.

21:49He really was blind and had no idea where he was going. Now, for a lot of people, this would have been a claustrophobic nightmare. Neil is in this unbelievably tight space. He has no idea what's going to happen next. He doesn't know if it's going to get so tight he'll get wedged in there. It's cold. It's damp. I mean, it's pitch black in there. He does have a headlamp, but his head is kind of pressed to the ground, and he can't really move it, so he's not really able to look around him. and periodically, as he was shimmying his way down deeper into this tunnel, he would dislodge rocks from the wall and he would hear them strike the wall as they tumbled down into oblivion.

22:26He had no idea if these rocks were tumbling into a dead end or if they were tumbling off a ledge somewhere, a ledge that he wouldn't be aware of until he got to it. But for Neil, this environment was something he thrived in. It was why he was so drawn to cave exploration. As much as cave exploring was a physical exercise and a physical test, it was much more a mental test. I mean, can you handle being in these tight spaces and persevering and continuing on when you're all by yourself and it's like dangers all around you? And also, Neil just loved being alone and in the dark. So cave exploration was like perfect for him.