Rumbling Hole – Where was the Rumble?

Dave, Ami, Ray, Scott, Jasmine, James, Jim, Jess

After missing out on this trip on the previous meets list, an intrepid team met at the layby on Leck Fell, then the farm, then the layby again, for as a quick a change as possible due to the Leck Fell being true to it’s reputation. 

Dave, Jim, Jess & Ami headed off the find the cave and make a start on the rigging as surface conditions weren’t ideal for loitering, not sure where the photogenic views from the top were. Dave quickly got tied off to one of the remaining fence posts, and the tree hadn’t succumbed to die back, so off he went. Until the second rebelay where there was some confusion and head scratching. Finally getting untangled and dropping down into the shaft, this was also the last time the whole team was together until we got back to the cars! The deviation was troublesome for anyone not doing the rigging so Jess kindly re-rigged it to the rebelay under the rock ledge and that seemed to make the procession of descending cavers move a bit quicker. 

Conditions down here were much more hospitable, not much water down there at all, Dave quickly got the traverse and end of the first pitch rigged, then followed by Ami headed off down the rift for the 2nd pitch, as we’d been assured we couldn’t get lost. So we went down the cascades, which were very dry, and got to the sporting crawl over the drop to the 2nd pitch, with some fun rigging Dave got down to the bottom of the 2nd pitch. A phrase that fittingly covers this whole trip is, “THAT F’ING BAG”, as anyone carrying one seemed to find the same bag shaped capture devices that nature had woven into as many places as possible. 

The 3rd pitch was an interested drop down a narrow slot, the team made light work of this and made light work of the next drop, only to find the last anchor for the 3m drop to the flow stone was wobbly, so Dave made the call to turn back here. Only he’d somehow managed to drop the bag and Ray’s rope down the 3m pitch! The team quickly devised a cunning plan to rig off naturals and get Dave down to retrieve the rigging, which was great, but climbing back out was not so graceful and a good breather was had whilst the rest of the team headed off back up the pitches. 

Jim made light work of de-rigging and we got back to the surface to find a howling gale driving rain that felt like buckshot, pointing in your face all the way back, luckily the walk in/out isn’t too far, and Ami marched on like a trooper, with absolutely no rumblings about two bags. 

All in all, Rumbling is a fantastic cave, although oddly dry based off the route description, with testing rigging and some lovely formations and fossils, and i can only assume Scott, Ray and Jasmine has as much fun as the front half of the squad.