Introduction to our Youth Outreach Program  

One of the club's concerns has long been that school groups and other youth groups visiting caves without appropriate leadership experience or qualification, and this typically results in unnecessary damage to caves, places the participants in dangerous situations and fail to take up valuable opportunities for learning about the caves, their fragility, processes and ecology.

The Mole Creek Caving Club teamed up with Wild Cave Tours to provide this service. Deb and Paul put a concentrated effort in to create this, and obtained sponsorship from Meander Valley Council, Tasmania's Office of Sport and Recreation to design and print a brochure to launch the program in April 2002.

What is it all about?

Caving - "Hanging by a thread: It's a whole different world beneath ours"

Caving is about going in... but also about coming out again, and leaving not so much as a footprint behind. Are you up to the challenge?  Could you spot the marks of five ice ages in one cave? How many places can you watch living fossils going about their daily business? Could you get wet, cold, bruised and tired and still come out smiling?

Caving is about keeping safe while looking after a fragile, irreplaceable environment.

Climbing and squeezing. Ropes. Discovery, exploration and survey. Search and rescue exercises. Advocacy and conservation work. Photography. Research and documentation.

The physical and emotional challenges of caving can be overcome by teamwork and the development of skills. Awareness of and minimal impact on, the fragile beauty encountered underground also develops with skills and experience. Cave softly!

Warning: Caving can be dangerous and requires specialist leadership and specialist equipment.
 

Where to from here?  

      Get in touch with us via the contact page. Please use your common sense, read our introduction to caving page, read our disclaimer, get quality guidance and cave safely. Read more at our conservation page, and also the ASF codes of practise.