Lost Johns – Centipede

Dave T, Josh, Tom

On the meets list was an explore of the newly-opened AKA, but given that there’d been a fair bit of rain and with the description mentioning it filling to the roof, we erred on the side of caution with this new ‘un and rescheduled to a nice little Lost Johns trip. This was Josh’s third trip with the club, and new (but experienced) club recruit Dave’s first KCC trip. 

LJs was bone dry at the entrance so we needn’t have worried about water levels in AKA, but we were here now and the classic roadside trip beckoned. A few dribbles of water appeared on the way down the entrance series, but still by the time we reached the roof traverse, it was eerily quiet. We made our way over No.s 1, 2, and 3 holes and quickly got to Hammer pitch. We zipped down these first two pitches and onto the main Centipede pitch. While Josh had done pitches this size before, he seemed to enjoy this one. With the fog of burning rope smell hanging in the air from our descenders, we headed on for a quick scout down to Dome Junction, and onwards to the top of Candle and Shistol.

Sadly we hadn’t brought any more rope and it was time to head back up. Dave regaled us with tales of caving in Borneo and original exploration, and we made our way up Centipede, always a muscle-pumping flatterer. Dave de-rigged us handsomely out and we made it back to surface with light still in the sky, maybe the first daylight Wednesday trip of the year?