Topic

With the hot weather, there was a rebellion about the meets list trip (Sell Gill) with a long walk to a frequently visited cave.
Lukas & Phil had already left for Brown Hill & Mr President was demanding that everyone be back for the barbecue at 15:00.
A lengthy discussion ensued with several caves thrown into the hat. Lukasz took Lynn off for a trip in Notts 2, leaving ten of us still debating the trip.
We eventually settled on a Meregill trip with a rigging & derigging crew. The rigging crew took their time getting organised, during which time most of the derigging crew defected for a walk. This resulted in a single group of six heading over to Meregill.
When we arrived at the parking, there was a couple who were surveying the cave. They were happy for us to parallel rig, so we set off after them.
There mere entrance was open (fortunately as I don't fit the other way), so I set off rigging the first two ropes. There was a problem on the second rope in that I ended up treble rigging the last section and it was difficult getting so many karabinas in an anchor.
Once I had completed my bag of rope, I had to wait for the others to catch up. Eventually Dave arrived with bag 3, a bit later James arrived without a bag and then Ade with bag 2.
James headed off to rig with bag 2, this includes the painful roof traverse (designed for people about 12 inches tall) and some nice pitches.
I took bag 3 and chased James along the traverse and down the pitches. When he ran out of rope, he returned rigging duties to me for the final bag.
When I rigged the final pitch, the rope did not quite reach the floor (possibly a packing error or an overly generous rebelay). A nice man (from the surveying team) who was in the process of overtaking us, said we could use their rope for the final pitch.
Having got to the end of the ropes, I headed for the sump closely followed by James and Dave with no sign of the others.
We eventually caught up the surveying man. He was looking at an unpleasant, flat out crawl in water. At this point we decided that we had gone far enough and turned round.
We soon passed Frances, Ade and Neil coming down the steamway. We started up the ropes and waited at the end of the roof traverse far a bag.
A fair while later Frances arrived (without a bag) but there was no sign of Ade and Neil. I headed out to wait on the surface, leaving James, Dave & Frances to deal with the bags.
I was on the surface for the best part of an hour before Dave appeared followed by James. It was now getting near the call out, so I headed down the hill to postpone it.
Having walked back to the cars, driven to get signal and postponed the call out, I went back to the parking area and waited for the rest of the team.
Some time later they all appeared, they had got out of the cave at about 18:00. Once they had changed, we headed back to the hut to find we had been put in the naughty book!
Given my grim photo collection, I ought to mention the fresh flood debris in the roof of the lower streamway and the excellent swirl hole.

Team: Ade, Neil, Frances, James, Dave & Dave.
Time: Up to 7 hours.