This is just a copy of a post I made on the Cave Clan forums, in case it's deleted (LOL CENSORSHIP).

It's a tale of how I was abandoned on a mountain in Cairns for no reason other than pure stupidity and irresponsibility.

As you already know, we were in northern Queensland to check out the abandoned hydroelectric plant at Barron Falls. Everything was going just fine, we'd spent an entire day hiking and looking for the entrance to the thing, all of us had sore muscles, multiple scratches from the various plantlife, natural hazards, etc. and were all pretty much ready to call it a day. We were on private property, the owner of which would be walking through our only exit soon, so we sat down to rest for a bit and wait for him/her to get out of our way so we could get out of there and head back to the hotel to get some rest for the return the next day.

Everyone was sitting around, seemingly getting restless waiting for the owner to make their move. Some people were starting to stir, making noise and such. I thought to myself "These people are going to get me arrested, I'm going to go sit a few meters away behind that bush.", grabbed my things and walked over to my little hiding spot as a few people watched me leave. I was sitting maybe 5M away from the rest of the group, just chilling in case the idiots who wouldn't shut up ended up rousing the owner into coming over or calling the cops. I put my head down and decided I might try to catch some sleep (I got maybe 4 hours of sleep the night before and after a full day of hiking, I was pretty pooped). Looked at my watch and it said 5:20.

I must have fallen asleep, because I had that distinct "waking up" feeling when I looked up. That was overshadowed however by the fact that I was completely alone. I looked around to try to find the rest of the group but they were weren't anywhere in sight. I immediately thought that maybe the owner had indeed called the police and they'd been taken in, I was -extremely- worried at this point. I got up and started to look around. I glanced at my watch again, it read 5:30; It had only been 10 minutes since I'd last seen my companions. I decided I'd just grit my teeth and try to walk out, as obviously if they'd been taken in and not said anything about my whereabouts they wanted me to get out of there without getting owned as well. I started walking back to where the cars were.

A few KM, 45 minutes and a roundabout loop of "I hope they're OK" and "Those dicks, they left me here" thoughts later I was at the cars, still no sign of anyone else. "OK, time to give someone a call" I thought. I took my phone out of my bag and went to turn it on, only to find that the battery was dead. I sat down next to the car and looked in my bag for something to eat, luckily I still had a bag of snakes so I ate some and thought about what could be happening. I decided the best course of action would be to stick with the cars for now, as if something had happened someone was going to have to come get the cars because they were rentals, at which point I would find out more. After sitting with nothing to do for an hour or so, I went to sleep.

I'm not sure how long I slept for, but it probably wasn't long. I woke up shivering, probably due to the cold. After reassessing the situation I decided if I didn't move around I'd catch a cold. I saw a light on across the road and figured I'd try to contact someone. After apologising to the owner of the house for disturbing them and getting permission to use their phone for a minute, I called meekrat, but recieved no answer. I later learned that he had not had his phone on him at the time. I walked back to the cars to gather my thoughts a bit. By the time I'd decided what to do in between being physically sick and wanting to sleep, it was about 8PM and I was losing my concentration pretty quickly. I looked at the highway the cars were parked beside and decided to start walking. I needed to get back to town somehow if I was to avoid catching something from being out in the cold. I left the fluro at the cars so everyone would know I'd gotten out of the area unharmed if/when they came back.

I walked for a couple of hours with only my torch to find my footing and alert oncoming traffic of my presence. After this time, I started trying to flag down cars to get a ride to the bottom of the mountain as I realised I still had quite a way to go and my legs were not going to thank me if I completed the trip on foot. Eventually some guys in a van pulled over and gave me a lift, letting me know I was about halfway down the mountain (lucky I didn't just try to tough it out hey?). They gave me directions to the bus station and I thanked them. I stopped in at McDonalds to get something to drink, then resumed what was seemingly my favoured activity of the night: walking.

I got to the bus station and waited for a bus to come that would take me nearer to our hotel. On the ride I couldn't stop thinking about what could have happened to everyone. I felt really bad for being angry at the start and thinking they'd gone on without me, as I knew logically that they wouldn't do that; it would be far too irresponsible for someone not to speak up at some point and say "You know, maybe we should find that guy that went missing". After all, there were 9 of them.

I got off at a stop just down the road from our hotel and walked back, expecting to find it locked. Suprisingly, the lights were on. This piqued my interest, but worried me at the same time. I walked into the hotel room and everyone there looked at me. I think someone said "hello" to me in a far more matter-of-fact tone than was appropriate. The only thing I could ask was "What the fuck happened?!". The reply from our seasoned veteran bongarse? "We explored the power station". I couldn't quite get my head around this. I just said "...what? What about me?" and someone gave me some fairy tale about how they looked for me.

The rest of the story isn't really that important. One might think that I'm angry or something, but that's not the case. I'm genuinely worried about anyone that explores with this group of people or any subset thereof. The fact is that someone disappeared, whom even after a cursory glance around, they could not locate and their decision was to continue the expedition. Suffice to say, I don't plan on ever exploring with anyone that was on the trip ever again. Feel free to draw your own conclusions from this, call me a liar, a shit stirrer, whatever. I don't really care. This isn't a case of sour grapes, as I would have really liked to explore that power station. I really don't think that given the circumstances however, it would have been a good idea to put my trust in the same group of people that left me (for all they knew) stranded on a mountain in north Queensland.

I'd like to think that Hanlon's Razor applies here: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity". I'll never really be sure though and in either case this is not a group of people I want to have responsible for my wellbeing in any capacity whatsoever.