As Hardy said to Laurel, "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into".
Apologies for a long teip report, short version, I went to OBJ hole.
I was hoping to tag onto a Bar Pot trip for the day, armed with enough rope to rig OBJ Holes 2 pitches and the climb and 15m pitch in Flood Entrance to have another bash at Horrocks-Stearn crawl. I was going to head in OBJ, then head round and nip in Bar and give it a go from Bar to Flood which is possible easier and certainly a little safer.
No one was heading to Bar though and my shoulders were still a bit sore from the day before so I decided to walk up with the Hurnell Moss team, though not really as they set a terrific pace leaving us toiling in their wake. I packed half my rope away and Nigel kindly ferried it home for me and so I didn't have to get back to the school house I only took what I could carry, Clapham station being a little way out of the village. Luckily though Barry arrived in his van and drove me to Clapham. He must have liked the cut of my jib and offered to head up the hill with me and on the way up we arranged a time to meet me and drive me to Skipton station! Most appreciative ofsuch an offer, I gladly accepted and we arranged 4:30.
I met Mr John Cordingley for the first time on the way up, he was chatting with Alan and Mavis Speight at Ingleborough Cave. Very nice to meet the man too, a regular source of advice for enquiring cavers such as myself and always tactful when telling me Ive got something the wrong way round ha! With a fine Lancastrian accent I'm sure he'd make a wonderful after dinner speaker.
We caught up with the HMP team at the Bar Pot stile and I set off to OBJ hole to kit up, saying cheerio for now to Barry and watching everyone else heading away it made heading underground on my own more lonesome than usual, but crack on and get down. Being close to the GG path brings a certain throwaway attitude, lots of drinks bottles down there, but with the rigging fresh in the memory I found the spits quick enough apart from the rebelay on the first pitch, meant to be a y-hang to avoid rope rub, I couldn't spot the second bolt, but the rock was smooth and with just me and 8m to go I didn't worry too much and got off at the bottom and moved into the crawl.
It actually looks quite wide but for an awkward bulge which is no bother if you shift everything off your harness to begin with, or out the way, my handjammer got me a little wedged so after freeing that and putting the last two bolts I was at the floor streamway and headed upstream through th zigzags and curtain flake to Wades entrance and on to Flood which is hard to see where the pitch comes in so hard to tell how tight it is. So nothing else but to head back out. I struggled with tackle bag strife on the way out, too heavy and narrow to push in front, too snaggy to pull behind, getting out took a while but once on the surface another GG entrance is ticked off and I'm happy with that.
Drinking a cup of super strong black coffee I decided as it was still early I'd head over to Hurnell Moss to see how the others were doing. The sun warming me up and no wind tricked me, I set off and somewhere between OBJ amd Stream the beautiful day gave up and heavy fog fell and foolishly watching my feet I didn't notice till it was too late, I could see maybe 15m and could not see th shakehole I was heading for, because Im clever I though Id juat turn round pick up the GG path and leave the Hurnell Mossers to their own fun, but that didn't work out as I'd lost all bearings. I didn't like to admit it but I was lost.
I set off downhil, knowing thay I'd either hit the nature trail, the TrowGill path, or the Clapham-Newby Coates road, but after half an hour I began to doubt that logic and as I began thinking about gettig a whistle out I started walking over seemingly fresh hay, a haha! There's a farmer round here somewhere I thought and I heard the sound of an engine, I won't say I ran, but I certainly broke into a trot catching up just as he was turning round on his quad! He didn't laugh too much that I was lost and offered a lift on his quad if I helped with his hay. Dropping me at a barn and with good directions I was soon on the Clapdale Road hoping Barry hadn't given up on me and as I came into the village he drove past, I hopped in the back and he drove me to the school house to get changed in the warm before heading out to Skipton rail station where I walked straight onto a Leeds train and straight onto a York first stop delayed Newcastle train at Leeds.
I think I used up all my 2015 good luck there!
