Topic

This included lots of different trips and seems to have been a success.

On Saturday Emma, Sam and I had five \"novices\" to entertain. We started in Great Douk, where they all proved quite committed by completing the through trip. Sunset Hole was the second trip - two of the novices went as far as the pitch (with Sam and Emma) while the rest of us turned round at the first climb.

Following far too much rain on Saturday night Sunday's caving was more restricted. Andy, Jessica and I took Alice and Connor to Thistle, which, with its series of oxbow crawls, proved very popular. I thought it was great as we were back at the hut in time to eat, clear up and have a chat before leaving.

Yep, an excellent weekend.

Saturday, 8th November
Rich Rae and I took 5 Try Cavers (from Lincoln) to Great Douk and Sunset. They proved very competent in Great Douk, all completing the through trip with the minimum of moans! Given the cold wind, we then all walked pretty quickly over to Sunset and dived underground, regrouping a few metres inside. Krabs were dished out for assisted handlines lower down and we set off, leaving our ropes on the climbs as we went for Fiona's group to use a few minutes later. An about turn at the head of the 15m pitch and a few assisted handlines later, and we were back at the surface, tired but happy. Perhaps the only thing missing was some more sun!

Sunday, 9th November
On Sunday a wet and cold morning saw an unhappy group of cavers sitting in their cars wondering how to avoid having to get out to change. After a few minutes, I decided there was a slight lull in the sleet and jumped out and into my furry. Fortunately the others followed suit.

We had one Try Caver and two children with us so, with pretty wet conditions, Thistle and Runscar Caves had seemed the obvious choice. It now emerged that only Fiona and I had visited them before, so making them an even better choice.

A wander across to Thistle Cave saw us wishing we'd stayed in bed. Fortunately it was dry and warm(ish) underground and we split into two parties, one with Fiona and the youngsters and the other (Team Hades) with me.

Water levels were slightly lower than expected, so we were able to go into the lower ends of both Thistle and Runscar and explored everything. Our Try Caver then seemed suitably worn out, so we called it a day. A jog back to the car and a quick change saw us back at the hut for leftover Jam Roly Poly, Parkin with toffee sauce and chicken curry / veggie chilli .. perfect!

Party: Andy & Jess Mason plus Alice and Connor, Damian & Fiona Weare, Emma Beecroft, Rich Rae, Sam Clifford & 1 Try Caver (Phil).

On Saturday Stu W and I took a group of five, in to long churn.

Lewis, Phil, Matt, Nigel and Jon.


We started by going in the middle entrance and making our way upstream to Dr banisters hand basin, a quick climb up the waterfall by Stu had the rope installed for the others to climb up. We were met by a group of scouts so decided to head out and back to the middle entrance.

We then proceeded down stream towards the cheese press, everyone took a look. After the short climb down we went over to see some daylight at the top of the dolly tubs.

About turn and head out, Nigel and Jon tried the cheese press, one to fail the other to make it closely followed by Stu. The others made their way up the climb and then we headed back to the surface.

A few still had some energy to use so we climbed up the side of the waterfall, and split in two – 3 went back to the cars and the rest went back up stream and foolwoed up down to the cars about 20 minutes later.