Topic

Ross & Polina had contacted us about trying caving with the club.
They arrived on Saturday afternoon and spent a couple of hours in the SRT wall learning the ropes.in preparation for a trip down Dolly Tubs the following day.
The weather on Sunday morning was pleasant, though it had rained heavily during the night adding to the already saturated ground.
We arrived in the lane at about 10:00 having paid our dues at the farm. We changed and headed up the hill, admiring the streams gushing down the hill side.
We went in the Diccan entrance, which had slightly more water than normal, but was not dangerous.
We crossed the blind passage, which had water issuing from it and headed towards Dolly Tubs, rigging a rope on the awkward climb down.
We took our time descending to the window and then down the Greasy Slab alternative and along the traverse to the bridge.
Paul, Fran & I left Ross, Polina & Ros at the bridge and headed down to the bottom of the pot.
We had not taken rope for the final pitch and would not have used it if we had due to the water pounding down the pitch. So we had a quick turn-around and headed back to join the other who were starting to head back up to the window.
Having completed the SRT side of the trip with the ascent of Dolly Tubs, we headed out up the streamway to Upper Lower Long Churn, which was a little sporting.
The newbies did well on the first trip & Fran thoroughly enjoyed the pitch from the bridge (especially on the way back up)!

Trip time: 4h