Wham! We sat up and looked around, dazed from the fall. Everything around us was pitch black and I had to call out to find Hugo. “Where did everyone go?” I asked, after I got my senses back. Hugo and I were going on a mine tour in Coober Pedy when we separated from the group to have a closer look at a mine shaft, and before we knew it we had fallen down the shaft.

I felt around in the darkness for my head torch, but when I found it I realised it was broken. “I think my batteries have fallen out” said Hugo, but I wasn’t listening. I was already darting towards a faint glow at the end of the tunnel that I knew must be the exit. I could hear Hugo’s footsteps behind me as we ran towards the light, but suddenly we heard a loud flapping noise coming towards us. We turned to each other and both yelled “BATS!”. The only thing we could do was turn and run in the other direction, and fell straight down another mine shaft.

When I recovered from the fall, I heard Hugo’s voice. “I think I’ve found my batteries”. I looked over to him. There wasn’t much light down in the mine but there was still enough to see and sure enough, there he was, holding two cylindrical objects that looked a lot like his torch batteries. He put them in his torch and turned it on and instantly the whole place was flooded with bright light. We looked around and saw the shaft that we had fallen down but couldn’t see any way of escaping. Just when all seemed lost, I spotted some faint footholds pressed into the shaft walls. At first I thought I was seeing things so I called Hugo over to take a closer look. Sure enough, there were shallow footholds that led right to the top of the shaft. We started climbing up the shaft but just as we were nearing the top, I lost my footing and slipped. I gave a yelp, but Hugo reacted quickly and grabbed my arm, saving me.

We climbed the rest of the way up the shaft and ran out the exit, into broad daylight. We quickly ran to the entrance where the rest of the group were waiting for us. Everyone was delighted that we were safe, especially our parents. Now we know to always listen to and follow instructions.

Links to other pages

• Oli’s blog page
• Oli’s information sheet
• Oli’s comics