Author: Ray McGarry

By Ray McGarry In Uncategorised

Genghis Khan Cave, Tasmania

Vikki & Ray with Northern Caverneers Cathie, David, Karen & Bob

Day 2 of our Tasmanian caving adventure again started with meeting at the Mole Creek Hotel, this time at 08:45 as we had 2 caves to fit in – Genghis Khan Cave before lunch and then Croesus Cave after. See separate report for Croesus.

When we arrived at the hotel, Cathie & David were already there, as were new faces (to us) Karen & Bob. A few introductions later and we were on our way in convoy to the parking for Genghis. The last part of the journey was off-road and our car wasn’t deemed fit for the track, so we jumped in with Bob. No debate about clothing this time as Genghis is totally dry.

It was a relatively short, but uphill walk to the entrance, made much easier by recent clearance of the track. I believe Bob & David were involved in that. Thanks guys! As we stood to catch our breath, a very hungry leech made a beeline straight for us. No snakes this time though.

Once at the entrance, David produced a rope. Hmmm. Should we have brought SRT kit? Thankfully it was just for use as a handline on the initial climb down on the other side of the entrance gate, which was again locked. The handline wasn’t strictly necessary as the climb was easy enough, but thanks for bringing it David. There was talk of a cave spider partway down the climb, which I kept my eyes peeled for when it was my turn to climb down. Sure enough, there he was, all big and spidery, deep in an alcove. We had a brief discussion and agreed to keep out of each other’s way. The spider seemed to take this quite seriously as he hadn’t moved by the time we came past again on our way out.

The cave continued down steeply. At one point, Cathie, who was now at the front, wasn’t sure of the way on. David took the lead and popped through a slot directly onto another climb down. This looked quite daunting from above, but there were plenty of ledges to move your feet down, so wasn’t too bad in the end. At the bottom of this climb it all got much bigger. There was a trough for washing feet, which I took as a very good sign as it must mean there were pretties ahead.

We worked our way down into the large chamber/passage, then doubled back to the left. Bob, who was behind me, questioned the left turn, suggesting instead that we should carry straight on down. Still, we carried on and soon found another foot bath. Beyond this, the formations really started to kick in. First there was a forest of straws, then the walls and ceiling were covered in formations that I can only describe as being porcupine-like. I’d never seen the like before.

We arrived at the top of a fallen slab, sloping down at an angle of 20 degrees or so. At this point, there seemed to be general agreement that we should have taken Bob’s route earlier. This whole section is actually a loop, so you could go either way round in theory, but Bob’s way was more optimal from the perspective of keeping boots clean at the relevant times. So we retraced our steps the short distance and carried on down the slope.

Like Lynds Cave, the formations were spectacular and virtually continuous, although of a very different character. Eventually we reached a climb up into a grotto which was simply amazing. There were some very unusual formations, almost like upside down trees hanging from the ceiling. Again, I’d never seen anything like it before.

It took a while, but we eventually tore ourselves away from the grotto, which was a dead-end. We climbed back down and then found the bottom of the ramp we had been at the top of earlier. It was easy enough to crawl up, but wasn’t something you would want to rush. The ceiling, which is only 2 or 3 feet above the floor is festooned with the porcupine-like formations, with the odd straw and helictite thrown in for good measure.

At the top of the slab, we simply had to retrace our steps and we were soon back at the various climbs to daylight, which didn’t pose too much of a problem for anyone. This was quite a short trip – we were probably only underground for 1.5 hours or so – but it really packs a punch. Very different from Lynds, but no less impressive.

Once changed, we all decamped to one of the show caves (I think it was King Solomon’s), where there was a very nice shelter for a spot of lunch. After lunch, Karen sadly had to leave us. Cathie, David and Bob stayed for the afternoon cave – see separate report.

Photos by Ray.

By Ray McGarry In Uncategorised

Lynds Cave, Tasmania

Vikki, Ray and Northern Caverneers Cathie, David & Peter

While travelling around Tasmania, Vikki & I thought it would be nice to have a look in some of the local caves. So, before leaving the UK, Vikki had made contact with Cathie P from the Northern Caverneers, who had promised to show us some caves around the Mole Creek area over a 2 day period. We were not to be disappointed!

So there we were outside the Mole Creek Hotel, bright and early on Sunday morning, not really sure what to expect, but very excited. Peter was first to arrive and say hello, soon followed by Cathie & David. After some introductions, we jumped in with Peter for the short drive up to the usual parking spot. There was some discussion about the best clothing to wear for Lynds. Vikki had come prepared for anything, with both dry caving suit and wetsuit. I had come only with my usual fleece undersuit and oversuit, but Cathie had very kindly brought several wetsuits for me to try on. The issue with this particular cave it seemed is that, while it is dry enough once underground, the Mersey River has to be crossed to get to the entrance. Sometimes this is a full on swim (my eyes widened considerably at this news!), but recent dry conditions meant it was more likely just to be a wade through deep water on this occasion (phew!). On balance, we all decided to dispense with wetsuits for this trip.

We set off on a rather vague path and soon reached the point at which the river had to be crossed, directly opposite the entrance. Cathie set off first, followed by Vikki, while I watched rather nervously from the bank. It didn’t seem too bad at all at first, but gradually more and more of Cathie & Vikki disappeared below water, until only their arms, shoulders and heads were visible. Thankfully, at that point they started to slowly reappear as they passed the worst and began to re-emerge on the far side. At this point I could no longer put it off, so began my own crossing. It all would have gone ok, apart from the coldness of the water, but in the deeper section the river bottom is very uneven, with lots of trip hazards – not ideal for an aquaphobe. Vikki noticed that I had almost ground to a halt in the middle so, wanting to actually get into the cave, plunged back in to hold my hand and gee me along. David and Peter must have been wondering what on earth was going on as they waited until I was across before entering the water themselves.

Once across the river, the bank has to be followed for a very short distance to the cave entrance, again through deep water, but with things to hold on to this time. The entrance itself is hidden behind a large block and, like the other caves we subsequently visited, is gated and locked. It starts as a nice walking-sized passage, but very quickly there is a deep pool to traverse around with a small (1.5m) waterfall to climb at the far side. Opinions seemed to differ on the best route to take around the pool. Either way, it involves climbing around the edge on small holds. Cathie preferred the long way round (to the right), which she thought was easier, while David recommended the more traditional and shorter route to the left. Vikki and Peter followed Cathie. I took David’s recommendation and set off to the left. To be honest, it was pretty easy, with lots of handholds, although considerably less for the feet. The waterfall was very easy indeed to climb, so no problems there.

The waterfall climb is almost like the true entrance to the cave. Above this, the passage is just festooned with stunning formations, almost wherever you look. Like us, Peter had never been into Lynds before, so he and I were stopping at almost every step to photograph some new formation, or even an old one from a different perspective. I hope his camera was better than mine as my cheap phone simply couldn’t do justice to the place.

As promised, water levels weren’t particularly high. There was also no mud, no crawling, no squeezing, no pitches… in fact, progress was very easy, with just the odd easy boulder obstacle to overcome. I can fully understand why a locked gate is necessary, given the delicate nature of the jewels behind it.

I believe we managed to get as far as the Ballroom, which isn’t very far at all. But we took a very long time to get there due to the photography and general looking around to attempt to take it all in. Along the way, we saw the full range of cave formations, including stals, very long straws, columns, curtains, stunning flowstone cascades, gour pools… you name it, we saw it… and all at a very high standard indeed. At one point we found ourselves climbing up the most stunning golden coloured flowstone cascade alongside a fabulous stepped calcite pillar. In several places, the calcite flows had been cracked in an earthquake in the 1990s (I believe?). This in itself was well worth seeing, to get a glimpse at the layering inside the cracks.

Alas, we had to turn around eventually. The pathetic distance we had covered became obvious as we reached the waterfall climb in no time at all and soon we were out in the heat of the Tasmanian afternoon. Vikki didn’t even bother to ask if I needed assistance to get back across the river – she more or less dragged me across. On the walk back, we came across a snake at the side of the path. Concensus among the experts was that it was a tiger snake, although there were some suggestions that it could also have been a copperhead. From a personal survival perspective, it made very little difference to me as they are both equally venomous.

After getting changed, we sat at a very conveniently-placed picnic table for a spot of afternoon snackage. All very civilised. Can’t imagine that on Leck Fell, at any time of year. We then bade goodbye to Cathie & David for the day and were promised a double trip the next day – see separate reports.

Peter drove us back to our car at the Mole Creel Hotel, where we obviously had to pop in for a beer. Despite my insistence that we should buy Peter a beer, he amply demonstrated Aussie hospitality by insisting even more that he should buy ours. We gave in gracefully. Cheers Peter.

We went to bed that night both stunned by what we had seen and excited about what tomorrow would bring.

Photos by Ray – apologies for the poor quality.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Twixmas Fun in Alum Pot

Tom, Maz, Gareth, Billy, Sophie H, Ray

No to be outdone by Will’s Little Hull trip, a group of 6 of us met on the Alum Pot lane on the same chilly, but glorious morning. Tom had brought tackle for Dolly Tubs down to the bridge. I was equipped for SE route down to the sump.

After Christmas greetings, the 1st order of the day was to decide who was doing which route. Sophie and Billy were keen to do SE for the full Alum experience. Maz was keen not to. So that was easy. Tom and Maz would go in via Lower Long Churn and rig down to the bridge, where they could join our ropes and continue to the bottom if they felt so inclined. Gareth, Billy, Sophie and I would drop SE and rig down to the bottom.

The 2nd order of the day for me was to work out how to use my brand new Petzl Superavanti harness, complete with plastic inserts to stop the leg loops working themselves undone. I’m sure I’m not the first to suggest that Petzl should get their finger out and actually fix the problem!

After a pleasant walk up, Tom & Maz headed for Long Churn, while I set to rigging SE route. A small clump of young (and, hence hopefully undiseased) trees seemed like a good place to start, then off the big tree directly over the shaft – does this tree lean slightly more than it used to? It’s quite a while since I last rigged this route, but the anchors for the y-hang rebelay were easily located, although they are a bit off to the side in a corner. The rebelay is a bit awkward, being almost free hanging. I think I left the right length of rope in the loop for people to stand in. The rope was very twisted on the way down, so it was slow progress trying to untwist it as I went.

Next down was Billy. He made very short work of the rebelay, using his foot loop to aid, rather than standing in the loop of rope. He was down in no time, suitably impressed by the experience. Next was Sophie. Again, she passed the rebelay without an issue, this time standing in the loop of rope – nice! She claimed to be a bit nervous on the way down – funny how the daylight shaft is so much more exposed – but it didn’t show. Obviously Gareth was also down in no time.

By this time, Tom and Maz had appeared at the window at the bottom of Dolly Tubs pitch, having clearly sprinted through Long Churn. Good effort. They were busy rigging the Greasy Slab as I set off down the next big pitch. Luckily the deviation was easy to find, although it was higher than I remember. One of my slings around the old bit of in situ tat did the job nicely. Again the rope was slightly twisted on the way down, but not quite as bad this time. I wonder if washing them in the washing machine leads to twisting. Either way, I’m going to put more effort into untwisting them next time.

Again, Billy was down beside me in no time. Sophie claims to struggle with deviations, but there was absolutely no evidence of that. She coped admirably, despite it being quite an acute angle.

The last short pitch posed no problems and we were all soon down in the impressive passage on our way to the sump. Gareth pointed out the bypass to the final climb and Billy & Sophie were off, keen to see what lay beyond. Sadly, not much lies beyond and we were at the sump in no time. The waterfall coming in from Diccan was it’s usual noisy self. Sophie declared a complete lack of interest in ever coming down that way.  Billy was clearly tempted. No matter – I’m confident they’ll both be doing it before long.

We took some time at the bottom for Gareth to get some photos and then started to head out, unsure whether Tom and/or Maz were planning to come on down. By the time we got to the last pitch it seemed like they had stopped at the bottom of the bridge, so I derigged. Sophie and Gareth joined Tom & Maz to head out via Dolly Tubs, so I carried on derigging SE with Billy ahead of me.

Billy may have regretted his decision to go out SE when he was handed a full tackle sack to prussik up the top pitch with. Not that it seemed to slow him down any. The others seemed to be having a whale of a time on the traverse and Greasy Slab. Sophie managed to get some nice shots from the window of Billy on the top pitch of SE. I have to admit to finding the y-hang rebelay near the top a bit awkward due to the large offset between upper and lower ropes. Billy didn’t complain, so maybe he found it easy.

As for my new harness – I have to say I was quite pleased with it overall. It’s simpler and less bulky than my old Singing Rock. The only slight issue for me is that the central maillon seems to sit a little lower, which presumably leads to me leaning back and hence using my arms a bit more. Perhaps I just need to adjust it a bit better. I’ll experiment over the next few trips.

Billy and I strolled slowly back down to the cars, where I got changed and he waited for Tom so that he could access his dry clothes. Bad planning that! Thankfully it didn’t take too long for the others to reappear.

A stop off at the Station was called for to round off an excellent day. Not a bad way to kill some time between Christmas and the New Year.

Photos by Sophie.

 

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Jingling Pot

James, Ami, Jasmine, Tom, Ray

As is so often the way at this time of year, the planned trip couldn’t go ahead due to high water levels. The “Crawling Crew” (James, Jasmine & Ami) were most disappointed about this as the planned trip was Bucket On The Head. Tom and I were considerably less disappointed.

Where to go on a wet Wednesday evening? Well, obviously Rowten! But, as Tom already had the ropes packed for Lateral Cleft, Jingling was the even more obvious choice on this occasion.

Ami & Jasmine set a cracking pace up the hill, obviously excited to get dangling. I showed my greater experience by treating the evening as a marathon rather than a sprint.

Jingling was the site for some of Ami’s initial steps into rigging, so she was keen to rig Lateral Cleft to show how much she had advanced. I don’t think she had rigged the traverse from Little Gully over to the Cleft before, but made short work of it. On seeing how much fun Ami was having on the traverse, Jasmine immediately declared that she wanted to derig. She loves a challenge apparently – worth remembering!

While Ami carried on into the Cleft, followed by the others, I rigged the direct route from the start of the traverse. Last time I’d attempted this, I was thwarted by Tim K, who had given me an “experimental” rope to use. The experiment failed when the rope proved to be too fast to stop in order to rig the rebelay, even with full lock on my descender. No such issues this time as I brought my own tried and tested rope.

While waiting for the others, I rigged the final pitch. Apparently the youngsters just free-climb this these days. It looked easy enough to climb down, but I’m not so sure about getting back up. As I had some rope left over, I carried it on down into the dig, rigging it off an old piece of wood that was just lying around. It reached down the first short drop, then the first big drop and another short drop. That was as far as I went as the next drop was another big one. It certainly looked climbable though. To me, this dig feels much deeper than the One-Armed Bandit series in Aquamole, which I’d always assumed it was hoped to connect with. What do I know though.

I got back up to the bottom of the main shaft just in time to see Ami dropping in, soon followed by the others, minus Tom who had turned back a bit earlier. Fair enough. It’s impressive that he gets out at all at the moment with his new mini-caver-to-be.

Ami & Jasmine carried on down. I forgot to look at whether they used the rope or free-climbed. James and I had a chat at the bottom of the main shaft. Eventually Ami reappeared, but not Jasmine. Apparently the next long drop in the dig was indeed climbable, so of course Jasmine couldn’t resist. I think she went to the very bottom of the dig. Good effort.

Ami and James exited via the direct route, Jasmine and I took the Lateral Cleft, with Jasmine getting her wish of derigging. She made quick work of it too. James had only finished derigging the direct route when Jasmine appeared at the start of the traverse – see attached non-artist’s impression as no-one had a camera. I love watching (and listening to) Jasmine developing as a caver. The running commentary captures each precise moment when some new idea clicks into place. In this case it was how to derig an awkward traverse.

Nice job all. Thanks James for making it happen… and for not doing Bucket On The Head.

 

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Old Rift Pot

Long Dave, John & Ray

We had hoped to do an exchange with Long Kin East, but couldn’t quite muster the numbers. With recent rainfall, it seemed like LKE may be a bit moist anyway. As it turned out, though, it wasn’t that wet underground, so LKE probably would have been ok.

The day all went very smoothly. We found the cave easily enough and Dave did a great job of rigging the whole thing. We opted for the Bob Hole route to avoid any hanging death on the Ramblers route. The suggested 10m rope for the 3rd pitch could really do with being 12m and the suggested deviation is really a rebelay. Apart from that, and my short cowstail being a bit too long, we reached the bottom in quick order. Dave and I had a bit of a poke around in the very nicely sculpted passages at the bottom while John began the ascent. We were in the Gamecock in Austwick reasonably early for a well-earned pint.

Let’s try to get enough people for an exchange next time!

Photos by Dave & Ray

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

A Flushing through Short Drop

Tom, Maz, Chris G, Sophie P, Sophie H, Billy, Vikki, Ray

With incredible foresight, Paddy declared himself unable to lead this one weeks in advance, so I took the reins for what should have been a nice relaxed wander through Short Drop and, hopefully, an extension to see the pretties of Glasfurd’s Chamber in Gavel Pot. Tom even volunteered to rig the Gavel entrance and the 2 pitches down to Glasfurd’s.

All such hopes were in doubt as the heavens opened while we were getting changed, soaking everyone before we even set foot underground. For a while it was really pleasant to be in the cave. Until we started the crawl that is. Water levels in this were unpleasantly high and were a definite sign of things to come. Water was thundering through the narrow rift passage after the crawl, which was quite fun, but every short downclimb seemed to end in a deep pool. Some of these pools seemed almost bottomless. Poor Sophie P managed an almost complete submerging in one.

As the passage got bigger, so it became more pleasant. But how wet was the pitch going to be? As it neared, the sound seemed to suggest it would be very wet indeed. Last time I was in SD, there was a fixed rope, but no such convenience this evening. The pitch was quickly rigged and Sophie P offered as a sacrificial rope dummy. Would she disappear into the waterfall never to be seen again? Thankfully no. The rope hung largely free of the falling water. However, there was little avoiding the deep pool below. Most people got a bit of a dunking here until they were able to scrabble back onto dry land.

After everyone else had descended, I thought about leaving the pitch hard rigged and just coming back for the rope on a drier day, but opted for a quick rerig as a pull-through. Thankfully the rope pulled down easily enough and we were on our way again. Most people were really starting to feel the cold by now after waiting at either the top or the bottom of the pitch for quite a while. The prospect of visiting Glasfurd’s was definitely starting to lose its appeal.

A short distance downstream we saw Tom’s light at the end of the traverse from Gavel. A very welcome sight indeed. So began the long process of getting everyone up the initial climb, across the traverse and up the Gavel entrance pitch. While awaiting my own turn, I took the chance to derig the pitches down to Glasfurd’s. I was glad to see that Tom had only rigged the first of these, so that I didn’t have to go far down.

Thankfully the weather was much more pleasant on the walk back from Gavel, although there were grumblings in the ranks about it being quite uphill… and a long way. Clearly we had descended quite a long way through Short Drop. It felt quite late and I wondered if we may be in danger of missing our callout time, but it was only 10pm as we stragglers got back to the cars.

I’d never been to Short Drop in such wet conditions before, but looking back at it now from a nice warm house, it was sort of fun. I’m hoping the trip has whetted the appetites of some of our newer members to go back and have an explore up some of the numerous inlets.

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Sell Gill Holes

Paddy, Jasmine, Tom, Sophie P, Sophie H, Ray

The rather hopeful plan had originally been for an exchange between the dry and wet entrances. As the day grew close, it was obvious this wasn’t going to happen due to the persistent and occasionally very heavy rain. As luck would have it though, Sophies H & P, both relatively new to SRT signed up, so the evening morphed seamlessly into a training trip. As even more luck would have it, on the drive over, Jasmine was spotted practicing knot tying on the back seat. Whether she was willing or not (I think she was), we also now had a trainee rigger!

A quick look at the wet entrance confirmed that it wasn’t an option. So Jasmine was attached to a tackle bag and prodded towards the dry entrance. To be fair, she barely flinched and set to rigging the surface pitch like a pro. The rigging couldn’t have been better, even the rebelay before the final drop was dispatched effortlessly and with the perfect rope length in the loop. Nice!

Pitched rigged, the 2 Sophies stepped up and both passed the rebelay with ease. Only at the bottom of the pitch did Sophie H announce that she had never done a rebelay before, although she had watched a few YouTube videos. Reminiscent of Dougle Dave – very impressive.

There had been a half plan to look up Calcite Way. However, as training trips tend to take a bit longer, we decided to leave this and see how we felt on the way out.

Jasmine could justifiably have stepped back and let someone else take over rigging for the 2nd pitch, but she was far from finished yet. A hop, skip & jump along the ledge and she had a beautiful traverse line rigged with a perfectly balanced y-hang. Meanwhile, Paddy had done a great job of rigging the alternative hang along the right hand wall. He did particularly well to reach the higher anchor for the far branch of his y-hang as he was forbidden to use the much more convenient lower one due to it being required for Jasmine to rig a deviation. I don’t actually know who derigged the RH wall. I can only presume it was Paddy as I don’t think anyone else could have reached the awkward anchor.

Paddy reached the bottom of the 2nd pitch first and used Tom’s mega-torch to illuminate the others descending. I think Tom got some great shots. Both Sophies used Jasmine’s LH route and both managed the traverse and deviation with no trouble at all.

Having got us this far, Jasmine carried on rigging the final pitch. She was unhappy with the length of her y-hang above the final drop. It seemed ok to me, but it’s a sign of her attention to detail. Mathematicians!!

From the top of the final pitch, it was clear that the waterfall pouring down Goblin Shaft was pretty spicy. This certainly turned out to be the case when we reached the bottom. The noise was almost deafening and the wind was so strong that it was almost impossible to look up the shaft. I think we made the right decision not to try an exchange!

We had a brief look around the main chamber before making our way out. Tom & Paddy had a look at the outlet crawl from the main chamber. Apparently it wasn’t as wet as they had expected. I still wouldn’t have wanted to push it.

The journey out seemed to go smoothly enough. Sophie P even decided to take the harder RH route back up the 2nd pitch. She smashed the technical dismount from the pitch head, but there was a bit of a comedy sketch at the end of the traverse line, which was much too high for her.

We didn’t bother with Calcite Way as time was getting on. Lots to go back for on the next trip.

Jasmine certainly has a great future as a rigger. Hopefully both Sophies will have long SRT careers. I look forward to seeing them progress and doing some great trips with them. What a great evening. Thanks all!

Photos by Paddy, Tom & Ray

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Devis Hole Mine Caves

Damian, Maz, Nick, John, Miranda, Vikki, Ray

After a long drive, we all met up at a lovely spot just above Grinton. The first order of the day was to decide who was our leader – Maz suggested it was Damian; Damian nominated Maz. Maz must have lost this particular battle as he led us up the short walk to the entrance. And what an entrance it is: a concrete pipe, less than a metre in diameter sticking out of the ground at a shallow angle. Given the length of said pipe (maybe around 10m), we were glad to see a pre-installed handline. We surmised that exiting the place may be difficult without it.

Maz, now confirmed as our leader, set off into the jaws of hell first. As he seemed to still be alive, we thought it safe to follow him. At the bottom of the pipe, a short low section led to easy walking passage. While this had clearly been mined, there were various bits of natural cave passage leading off, mostly not large enough to enter. Eventually we reached various side passages into the Central Maze area of natural cave passage. On the survey, this looks like a bewildering maze of criss-crossing passages. We didn’t enter this area as we wanted to get to the further reaches.

Soon we reached the junction with Wellington Vein. First we headed right (west) towards the Occidental series, which we didn’t manage to find. No problem, this was never really our goal anyway. Back at the junction, we headed the other direction (east) in search of Robinson’s Level, which we found after passing the entrance to Cranehow Bottom Level.

Robinson’s level started easily enough, but mutterings from the front eventually indicated that we had reached the 2002 breakthrough dig. A bit of a climb up led to a descent into a miserable wet crawl. Hmm… was it really worth it? Maz was cajoled to “just do it”. He wasn’t sure, but just before an actual boot was inserted up his backside, he just did it. The rest of us waited with baited breath. Was that the last we would ever see of him? Of course not. In no time at all he was through and beckoning us to join him with tales of wonders beyond.

On the other side of the breakthrough dig, the most noticeable thing for me was that rails were now in place, where there had been none up to this point. This led the Moldywarps explorers (who had first reopened this section of the mine back in 2002) to surmise that the collapse was pre-war. It also promised that there were likely to be various artefacts still in place beyond here.

We hurried along the continuation of Robinson’s Level, knowing that there was a sump (in the mining sense) beyond which would take us down into the really interesting stuff. Not knowing what the rigging of this sump would be like, we had come prepared for anything, including spits. We needn’t have worried. Approaching the sump, we could see 3 very shiny and hefty ring bolts sticking out of the wall, 1 for a traverse and 2 for a y-hang. Lovely. There was even an old sling in place for a deviation.

In no time at all we had this rigged and sacrificially offered John as a rope dummy. To his dismay, there was just 1 problem: the rope didn’t reach the bottom! I had read somewhere that we didn’t actually need to go to the bottom. Was there an old rail sticking out about 4m from the bottom, and did our rope reach it? Yes and yes! We were back in business. John was able to land on the rail and balance into the passage. There was even (just about) enough rope to tie it off at the bottom. For future reference, we used a 25m rope, which was just about long enough. You wouldn’t want anything shorter.

One by one, we joined John at the bottom, apart from Nick who gave it a good shot, but wasn’t feeling it on this occasion. Fair enough – he was just getting back into caving after a long lay-off. We promised we wouldn’t be long and Nick said he would wait for us.

Below the pitch is Horn’s Workings. A cursory look at the survey suggested that this was basically a loop with a central area (possibly of natural passage?). So we planned to do a tour of the loop and then join Nick again. We set off to the south in an awkward stooping height passage. There were quite a few artefacts on this level – old carts, tools, a boot, even a nicely arranged display of old shovel heads. We passed the entrance to the South Cave System, which we would unfortunately have to leave for another day… or would we?

While we stopped to look at some artefacts, I took the chance to have a closer look at the survey. Ahh! Horn’s Workings don’t actually form a loop. Sadly, one leg of this supposed loop was at a much higher level (Cranehow Bottom Level in fact). Still, we plodded on, eventually reaching the inevitable up pitch – complete with fixed rope. This rope looked to be in good condition, leaving the possibility of a nice round trip – in via Robinson’s Level and out via Cranehow Bottom Level. One day!

So we had to retrace our steps round Horn’s Workings. At the junction where the South Cave System leads off, John & Miranda headed back to find Nick, while the rest of us took some time to recce the South system. Almost immediately, the stooping height mined passage ends and we were into much easier and prettier natural passage. The walls were exceptionally well sculpted. We explored this area for a bit, but barely scratched the surface. We turned back with plans to return before too long to push further into the South system and beyond into Wyvill’s Level and the East Cave System. Now that would be quite a trip!

 On the way back out Maz, Damian, Vikki and I did poke into the Central Maze area. Wow. What a confusing place. I think I would definitely want a compass to explore much more of this area.

This was my first KCC Seniors trip. I suspect it won’t be my last. Thanks for having me!

Photos by Ray, Maz and Miranda

By Ray McGarry In Day Trips

Meregill Hole… or Whose Rope is it Anyway?

Darren, Original Sophie, Jasmine, Connor, Ray

The official club trip was supposed to be Vesper, but I decided to move it to Meregill for 2 reasons: (i) I’d done Vesper a few weeks ago, and (ii) it was dry enough for Meregill to be pleasant. Both caves were already rigged (by CPC) for a 3 Peaks, 3 Pots challenge – seems they managed it in 13 hours, the 3 pots being Vesper, Meregill and Little Hull. Very impressive. The deal was that we could use the CPC ropes in whichever cave we chose as long as we derigged. Sounded like too good a deal to miss.

The walk-in was unusually pleasant, in the sunshine and with no tackle to carry. Both the mere and Aven Entrance were rigged, so we all entered via the mere. I set off first, followed by Connor, Jasmine, Darren, then Sophie. The descent went pretty smoothly on reasonable rigging, the biggest issue being that there was more than 1 set of rigging on various sections. How were we supposed to know which gear to derig?

CPC had taken the highest level option for all traverses, which added to the fun a bit. I don’t think I’d reached the 3rd pitch at such a high level before. The only other thing of note on the descent was an orange tackle bag and some krabs at the bottom of the pool on the halfway ledge on the final pitch. Connor decided he could reach it, but the pool was deceptively deep. We decided to leave it for the way out.

Having reached the bottom in good time, we set off to explore the extensive passage. The biggest hurdle here is crossing the very deep pool directly at the bottom of the last pitch. Various traversing techniques were employed. I decided on the low route, which essentially meant I was chest deep in the pool. Even then, I was teetering on a submerged ledge. God only knows how deep the pool actually is.

The young tigers, Connor and Jasmine, led the way along the streamway. The going was mostly easy walking or stooping with the occasional crawling section or cascade. Connor found cave fish at 2 locations and also pointed out a few interesting fossils along the way. He was clearly in his element. Before we knew it, we were at the terminal static sump, which seemed like a good point to turn around. Darren found a worm here, which he seemed determined to rescue, presumably not wanting to be outdone by the team involved in the rescue of Beryl the sheep a few weeks ago. I’m not sure he’ll get the same publicity – if only he’d given the worm a name!

A quick group selfie and we were on our way out. Surprisingly, the more “experienced” members of the group left the young tigers behind, despite having struggled to keep up on the way in. I can only put this down to us being more desperate to get out. Unfortunately, this meant that I for one was absolutely knackered before even starting to prussic.

I derigged the bottom 2 pitches. By the time I got to the halfway ledge on the bottom pitch, Connor had indeed retrieved the sunken sack and krabs. His suit even got a good cleaning in the process. Thankfully there was only 1 set of rigging on the bottom 2 pitches, so no dilemmas about what to derig and what to leave. Connor derigged the big 3rd pitch, where there was a dilemma. I don’t know if he simply derigged everything or decided to leave one set of ropes.

At the top of the 3rd pitch, I met Jasmine and Sophie. Sophie decided to wait for the others, while Jasmine and I set off out. At the bottom of the 2nd pitch, we could see lights from another party at the top. Jasmine went up first and caught the other group, who informed her that it wasn’t just CPC who had the cave rigged. Todd from Inglesport also had an ongoing project, so left various bits rigged… or so he thought!

There were 2 ropes hanging down from Aven Entrance, so we at least now knew which was the CPC one. Jasmine waited for the others to tell them which one to derig, while I set off out via the mere with my full tackle bag.

Sophie emerged next and we waited for the others… and waited. When nobody appeared, I took the decision to derig the (hopefully) CPC rope from the entrance shaft, assuming the others would all come out Aven Entrance. Sophie wasn’t convinced. Thankfully they did indeed all appear from AE. Phew!  Let’s be honest, though – they had no other choice. Apparently it was “a bit wriggly”.

We seemed to have rather a lot of kit to carry back down the hill – most of us had 2 bags. Given that there were 5 of us, this seems like a lot of rope, even for Meregill, so I can only suppose that we did indeed derig some of Todd’s ropes. Sorry! We’ll let CPC take what’s theirs and get the rest back to Todd. I’m sure he’ll relish the opportunity to rig it all again.

Photos by Darren and Connor.