CAPE TOWN ~ An overweight woman got stuck in a well-known South African cave for nearly 12 hours on New Year’s Day, trapping 23 others in the process, an official said.

The woman was stuck inside the Tunnel of Love shortly after noon and was freed with the help of liquid paraffin and a pulley around 11:30pm, said Hein Gerstner, manager of the Cango Caves in the Western Cape.

“She was really quite a large woman,” he said. “She was forewarned at the ticket office and by the guide that she might have difficulty on the tour, but she insisted on going along.”