After yesterday's trip to Simpson Pot I wondered if Sophie might ache a bit today but if she did, she didn't mention it once. We had enjoyed the walk up the hill so much yesterday, that we decided we should do it all again, this time from just a bit further along the road. Unfortunately, on pulling up in the layby, I realised I'd left the tackle bag back at The School and promptly set off back to get it. The journey to Kingsdale is much further when you have to do it twice!
After adjusting our call-out time to reflect our extra hour on the road, we set off up the same hill as yesterday, but this time in the rain. (I'm not sure what has happened to our summer this year, but it was feeling distinctly autumnal today.)
The plan was to avoid the dodgy tree by using the rift and traverse. As always these days, though, I found myself quietly hoping it is as I remember and I'm not about to take Sophie somewhere really awkward. I can report that it is not easy, but was exactly the SRT practice I was looking for and fortunately Sophie was up to the task. She did her first 'abseil onto a knot and pull yourself in' and we were soon looking at the awkward pitch head about half-way down the Lateral Cleft. "This is best done feet first on the way back off" I announced, and followed up with a hopefully reassuring "On the way out I'll make sure I come up this first so I can help you off". I don't know what Sophie thought about this, but I was quietly expecting a struggle!
The final pitch in the main shaft was probably Sophie's longest so far. At the bottom there was the usual odour of rotting fauna - this time a huge frog / toad and, for once, Sophie was pleased she had lost her sense of smell thanks to COVID 18 months before. This morning's fry-up was so big that Sophie refused my offer of chocolate, and she eagerly set off up the final pitch. I leap-frogged her before the awkward one, and was quite relieved when Sophie got herself off the top with a bit of help from my footloop but not a lot else.
A few words of advice on the swing out into the shaft and the traverse that followed, and Sophie was soon back on the surface.
Back at The School I dug out Underground Adventure and Heap's `Beneath the Northern Pennines' and we read the relevant chapters on Simpson (or Simpson's in Heap) Pot. As with everything else to do with caving, it has been a while and despite knowing I used to rave about these two books, I had forgotten quite how good they are. Hopefully Sophie will now be inspired to read them both from cover to cover (and if you're reading this and haven't done so yourself, you really should too!)
(For the record, I might possibly have used the evil club krabs again today, but don't tell anyone, please!)
Party: Sophie and Damian
Time: 3 hrs
