Topic

A full compliment of 10 turned out for this event. The entrance under the kitchen window was rigged by Mr P Geddes, and Mr S Weston kindly life lined the explorers into the beckoning darkness. I had a descent photo showing the exemplary knots used on the lifeline but unfortunately I have left my camera at the school .
Everyone convened in the chamber below the entrance and moved onto 1862 chamber and noted all the graffiti left by early explorers, as the name of the chamber suggests the earliest being 1862. We then entered the short stooping passage which soon turned into a most pleasant crawl through mud. this passage seemed a lot longer than I remember and it seemed quite sometime before we reached the duck. Water cold enough to waken the senses soon after we enter the marvellous Mcolls rift, similar to the large rift passage in Illusion. Formations, mudbanks, high ceilings, mud formations and some very interesting fungi, photo's gathered but left at the school . The short passage on the left leads to the stream passage, some dropped down the 10ft drop, the ladder was wisely installed for those of a shorter stature much appreciated by all but Rich Rae, on the way out. Stream passage is gorgeous, nice and wide, a lively stream dances through the passage giving this part of the cave vibrant life and as we move upstream passing some impressive formations, the water gains its depth and slows down as we enter the womb of the cave, the quiet air interrupted by the lapping of water on the side of the passage as the cavers pass. The entrance into the 'worm series' was pleasantly low and contained enough water to make things uncomfortable, nice sandy bottom though. Rich Rae suggested that this was a collectors item. The worms were out in force all looking lovely and content we moved (carefully) to the right and up the very tight mud filled aven. At the top a small amount of roof had been removed revealing a chamber with an incredible echo, the way on too tight so we returned to surface to find out that Stu Weston had left a little 'Present' in stream passage . A grand day out into a fascinating cave made all the better by the excellent company, thank you everyone. I will pen a longer report for the newsletter and add the photo's from the camera which I may have mentioned is MIA.

Time 3-4 hours
Players; Stu Weston, Paul Geddes, Michelle Geddes, Rich Rae and Emma Beecroft (his betrothed), Susan Blackburn, Ruthie Smith, Paul Horner, Ales and Nigel Steel

a fantastic trip with great company Michelle pushed her comfort zone halfway through the long duck and nearly turned back , thanks to some calm talk from Stuart she overcame the panic and carried on to the end , that duck was a lot longer than i remembered.

QUOTE OF THE DAY goes to Ales, at the surface i asked him if he liked the worms !! " yeh i didn't know they lived underground " he said.

nsteel wrote:

Rich Rae and Emma Beecroft (his betrothed)

Does this mean what it appears to mean? If so, bloody 'ell, I thought it was never going to happen! Well done, you two.

Steady on Damian, just a little push in the right direction by yours truly, it is about time after all. Anyway I better not refer to this subject again or I shall be getting into trouble

Thanks Nige, that'll help move things along no end...(!)

Yes, I agree this one is a bit of a collector's item. My knees are still swollen and bruised - there really was quite a bit of crawling. I can sympathise with Michelle, as I wasn't loving sections of it and was glad to make it down into the impressive stream passage.

It's a trip worth doing though - I was surprised by how extensive the cave was and it was good fun doing something a bit different with a big group. Thanks to Alex W (I think) for organising the permit and enabling some new visitors to enjoy the novelty.

QUOTE OF THE DAY goes rather to Paul G. who kindly applied: No Ales, they live in clouds

Nice report Nige, get your camera from the school asap! And thanks to Paul G for leading the trip!

Ales,
I am not sure if you understood the meaning behind Pauls answer and correct me if I am stating the obvious. he was using an expression called sarcasm, we Brits seem to be particularly good in using this technique, for a full explanation (with further examples click onto the link below) and I hope your right parahippocampal gyrus is functioning correctly

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm

That's what we call a double sarcasm! Anyway, HIS comment made people outside laughing

It was just missunderstanding, I was just expressing my surprise that I have never seen any worms that deep in a cave, very impressive.

No worries, my gyros works perfectly

oh dear ,
to change the subject i cant put on a public forum what Michelle said to me when she joined me half way through the duck

oh dear ,
to change the subject i cant put on a public forum what Michelle said to me when she joined me half way through the duck


OMG there is an echo