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Charlie's the man who never seems to spend much time in the sun; Working as he does on the engineering crew on one of the British Navy's submarines (the Vengeance,) and being a caver at heart, means he goes from crawling around in dark tunnels and enclosed areas on board the submarine, where they can stay submerged for up to 15 weeks, to abseiling down pitches and squirming through tight passages in caves. "At least on the submarine you are warm and dry and well-fed," he says with a laugh.
However, choosing submarining as a job did not really come from a need to avoid contact with the real world. In fact, it was quite the opposite. "if you volunteer for submarine work, in reality you have several advantages, apart from the extra pay, of course. It offers a certain stability, especially if you have a family. You'll basically end up working from one port, which means that the family won't have to move around all the time." Charlie has three sons: Oliver, Alistair and Lawrence. He's been submarining for 21 years now, and living in Scotland.
So what's the attraction? "I've always liked camaraderie, doing something hard and difficult, and what I call 'corporate achievement.' The beauty of caving is that it is very low key compared to climbing. There are no cliques forming, and very little ego - you could call it the ultimate equalizer of sports. Another thing that equalizes is fear. With caving sometimes you have both," he says, reminding us of the potential dangers of the sport.
"Mexico is fascinating, although I haven't actually had time to look around much at the area, at least not above ground. Language is difficult, though," he says, mentioning conversations he's had with Totonacos who didn't even speak a word of Spanish. "We talked for a long time, although neither of us understood a single word of what the other said," he tells us.
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Charles
Milton
But
ask him about how he got to this expedition, and he'll tell you a story
that is anything but warm and dry. "The weather was so awful, force
9, that we couldn't go on a helicopter, but had to take the sub to calmer
waters to transfer to a small boat. As we were getting off the sub,
we had to crawl along the top of it, boat bobbing up and down like a
cork, water spraying everywhere. There was a VIP coming on board as
well, and he did not look very happy, nor comfortable. I quite enjoyed
it, though," he laughs.
As
for several of the other cavers on this expedition, Charlie's family
has links to exploring. His father was in the Bristol University's Explorers
Club, and as children he used to take them on trips. So when Charlie
was 16, he decided to become a caver, and his father supported him,
with the result that he was a member of lots of clubs in the late 70s.
Fate would have it that he went to sea for 10 years, which lead to very
little caving, except for a couple of trips every year. To his wife's
horror, however, he went on a military caving trip in 1988, which brought
back his desire to go caving, and he's been active ever since, squeezing
in trips wherever possible.
Charlie
is in charge of safety on this expedition, and he insists that prevention
is the most important. When a cave floods, there's nothing you can do
unless you have prepared for that event in advance. He points out the
phone- and diving line at Alpazat as prime examples of this. "And
if there isn't any problem, you can always use the phoneline to ask
the waiting team to put on the kettle on your way out," he muses.
On this expedition all the security measures have turned out to be very
useful, as Alpazat flooded during the first week, and is unavailable
again now.