Three men rescued after spending a night in a flooding NSW cave say they're happy and relieved to be back above ground.
"(I'm) mega relieved. I thought I'd be still in there for, like, 48 hours," caver Andrew Perry told reporters who had gathered in the Bungonia National Park, in southern NSW, waiting for the men to appear.
Mr Perry and two of his friends, all experienced cavers, were trapped in the park overnight on Sunday, unable to make it back to the surface because rising flood waters were blocking their exit.
They dropped their equipment and found refuge in Coffin Chamber, one of the 200 "wild caves" in the area.
"It was just a waiting game," Mr Perry said.
They were eventually able to speak to rescuers on Monday morning and after crawling 100 metres were back in the sunlight.
"Thank you for all the teams that came out and put a lot of work in to find us," Daryl McDowell
After being rescued, Mr Perry said he wouldn't return to the cave "unless it's a drought."
An ambulance spokesman described the men as cold and wet but said they had not sustained any injuries.
"Conditions had deteriorated in the time the men were below ground and they eventually became trapped by rising water," Goulburn Local Area Commander, Superintendent Zoran Dzevlan said.
