Topic

Just me and Nigel to go caving on Sunday and he suggested a cave (the first warning sign) I have never heard of (the second warning sign). However, ignoring all common sense, we packed up and left at, what for Nigel anyway, was a scarily early time of half eight. This was ruined somewhat when we realised that we left allthe gear behind but we were still underground before 10!

The cave starts low and soon got to the first pitch where you can stand properly. The cave isn't bolted so we decided to use ladders and we got down the first pitch without incident. Then the crawl started and it seemed to go on and on. The crawl is always wet although the water level did vary and after the first 50m or so the squelchy mud started disappearing that made it more pleasant. What was even more surprising is that Nigel carried the bag while I had nothing on the way in!

While low I managed to keep my chest out of the water all the way to the second pitch (Zoology Pot) but then things changed. There is a big rope tether to rig off there so I used it for the ladder and put the safety in separately. Unfortunately the ladder goes down right in the water if you do this and as I went down I got extremely wet. I almost decided to turn back half way down but just couldn't stop long enough to shout up to Nigel to take in... not to mention the fact that if I had looked up to try and shout at him I would probably have drowned. Anyway I got to the bottom but was absolutely freezing and quite worried about going back up - not a good situation.

Communication was difficult due to the noise of the waterfall and when Nigel tried to come down the belay started getting a big jammed but fortunately he had only just got on the ladder so he stepped back off. At this point I had to go for a quick run downstream to warm up and when I came back I told Nigel I was coming up. As I got ready to climb I tried not to think about the time that Nigel had tried to do an Italian hitch to ab down a rope and ended up with a clove hitch as that just made me more nervous

To stay out of the water I actually climbed the rock for the first five meters or so behind the waterfall (it was undercut) before swinging out on the ladder for the last 4 meters. I actually climbed the ladder with my eyes shut and got at least one mouthful of water - it was unpleasant and cold. When I got up I explained to Nigel that if he wanted I would belay him down from above but I wasn't going to risk a jammed belay with someone in the waterfall. I even offered to move the ladder onto a (very small) flake that would have kept it more out of the water but he decided against it. I think the fact that the first thing I said when I got off the ladder was "I now see how you can drown on a ladder" may have put him off.

Anyway we packed up and headed back. While I was at the bottom of the pitch I had found the entrance to the alternative route into the pot which is a lot lower (about 5 meters) and dry so on the way back we tried to spot it. Despite me pushing the obvious passage (which turned out to be an oxbow) we didn't see it so we just kept heading out.

We got through the crawl and up the first pitch without difficulty. I went a little way up a tributary that involve flat out crawling to another tight entrance which I didn't even bother trying to fit in. The passage kept going and might have led to another entrance but by that stage I had enough of crawling while dragging a large tackle sack so I headed back to the entrance we had used on the way in. Nigel was there to take the bag off me - which was much appreciated - and I popped out into lovely sunshine (when the patches of fog blew off).

Overall a classic Nigel cave - nobody else bothers to go there, it's quite short, it turns out to be a pain in the backside and we didn't even finish it so we have to go back! Why didn't I pick up on the warning signs.

Party: Brian, Nigel
Time: approx 2.5 to 3 hours (not sure)

Yes I admit it was a cheeky little rascal of a cave and definitely warrant's nailers on the return. I was absolutely frozen, my teeth were chattering away like an excited Morse code machine. Not keen on Brian's suggestion of using the thumb sized knob of rock to use as a rope belay, his other suggestion of putting a bolt in is more favourable but that would mean 2 further trips Look forward to the dry weather when we can look at the 6m water slide, although the slide may be dry
A grand Sunday trip or warm summer evening trip.