"Jesus. Nobody said it were gonna be that wet!", said Bernice. Sophie added "that's my shower for this week", as she peeled off her helmet, hood and balaclava. "And no gear to wash either", I added smugly.
So it was that five drowned rats walked the short journey back to the car on what was now a sunny Sunday afternoon.
After a day's cleaning, tidying and general graft at the hut the day before, we were all keen to (literally!) wash away the cobwebs, so an enthusiastic team of eleven headed - as per the Meets List - to Kingsdale.
Despite car sharing, parking was a challenge as another group of children and parents had also just arrived. Fortunately, yours truly had set off first so could pull up smugly in the space with the shortest walk and watch everyone else fight for the best bit of dodgy verge further on.
After the inevitable walk uphill - fortunately early enough in the year to avoid having the fight through the bracken - we soon made it to the entrance and the first of 8 (?) pull throughs.
It's always a sobering moment when you pull down the first of the ropes ... suddenly you're committed. However, in Swinsto thoughts quickly turn to the delights of the 'long crawl' which follows immediately. There's not a lot to beat a long crawl along a canal at any time, and so it was that five slightly chilly people arrived at the second pitch.
We soon got into a cycle of the spare rope bag moving forward while the previous pitch was derigged and in no time we found ourselves at the head of the big split pitch. Ian P has done some excellent work here recently moving the hang further out, but whatever you do, you're in for a thorough soaking. On this occasion, Lukasz was so excited about it, that he dropped his shunt down the pitch for it to never to be seen again. (Some may say this is the best thing that could have happened to a shunt, but Lukasz loves the extra faff on pitches and is now in deep mourning).
Following the big pitch is the best bit of the cave - a section of lovely descending streamway that reminds me a bit of Swildon's: deep pools, short free-climbs and pretty cascades all abound here.
In no tine, we were pulling down for the final time before beginning another wet crawl through to the Master Cave.
Every time I arrive here, I think of the excitement that the Brook brothers must have felt the first time they set foot here. It really is a fabulous place.
A quick prussik, a short section of stooping and a bit of walking saw us emerge, as this report started, to a lovely sunny Kingsdale afternoon.
Thanks team!
Party: Ian, Bernice, Lukasz, Sophie & Damian
Time: 3 hrs (?)
