You have to be in the mood for caving, on Friday evening I was not in the right mindset and quite tired. However on Saturday morning I forced myself out of bed, shoved my caving gear into a bag and headed to the Dales.
Lost Johns was on the calendar - the permit was printed off ready, the weather was looking reasonable, despite the previous days of rain and I felt that I needed to get some good SRT trips in.
A crack team assembled at the hut and drank tea whilst ropes were packed, we headed up to Leck Fell in 2 vehicles and were struggling to park due to the hoards heading to Notts2.
What a lovely change too, the sun was out and the views expansive, it's then one of the shortest walks to such an amazing cave.
Along the streamway we charged then onward to the far end of the roof traverse, Keith was now off rigging as fast as we could feed him rope, only slowed a little by the Battle axe traverse. Jane and Sue decided to head out to a warm car full of food while we went off to explore some bits of this cave which I had not ventured into.
Various inlets upstream were looked into and we went up to look at the pretty bits in Lyle caverns.
Next was a blast down the fantastic streamway with Mike out front testing the water depth, we had a very short foray into a muddy inlet off left, before continuing downriver until Mike started blowing bubbles at the start of the lakes. With the water seriously chilling the nads, a brew was beckoning so a hasty exit saw us back on the surface while it was still daylight. Following another very pleasant change and a quick pick of the litter around the parking area we we're soon drinking tea back in the school (thanks Alex) as it began to rain steadily.
What a great cave, it has a bit of everything, nice sized fluted pitches, traverses with a little exposure, crashing waterfalls, stomping streamway, lovely formations. It's only missing a major hike in!
Thanks to the team, Keith, Mike, Jane and Sue too.
Trip time around 6 hours, a 2 mars bar trip! I should have breakfasted better.
My turn to get cramps in my calves in the pub, should have put more salt of my chips, the16oz steak was ace, followed with a bit of liquid carb loading. What a great day, thanks guys - so glad I didn't hit the snooze button.
We have a return visit planned for later in the year, keep an eye on the calendar, I hope I am feeling fitter by then.....
