Darren, James, Tom
Just three for this fantastic evening trip to one of Darren’s favourites, It’s A Cracker. By the end of the evening it was one of Tom and James’ favourites too.
We headed in with some of Darren’s site lights for a bit of photography, especially enjoying Park Bench Pitch.
Andy, Nick
The Seniors headed up to Ribblehead for a Monday ramble around the various caves in the area. They made it to Katnot, Holme Hill and Thorns Ghyll caves. Great photos as usual.
Andy G, John, Nick
The Seniors team were back at it again today, this time for a trip into Skirwith Cave. Some cracking photos, chaps.
James, Maz, Pete, Rhod, Tom
Planned as an SRT trip up and over the bottom sump of Notts II to visit Notts III, we made our way down to find the streamway pretty powerful, which was surprising given there’d been no rain for a couple of days. Shows how much fell last week.
After a couple struggled down the water spout climb into the bottom chamber, we decided to sack it off given the job of getting the rest of the crew safely back up it on the way out, and instead had a long wander upstream to see the classic delights of Curry Inlet.
On the way out, James and Rhod were dispatched to the flood bypass route for some muddy squeezing while the rest of us met them at the other side, and made our way out to a nippy night.
Andy, Damian, John, Nick
The recently formed Seniors team had a day out at Dow Cave.
It was a good afternoon trip. Water had been very high recently – foam spotted everywhere.
Maz, Scott, Tom
What a damp evening. The initial plans for Aquamole were scrapped and we’d planned to visit Heron instead. However, on the walk up the rain set in really heavy and didn’t look like it was stopping so we decided to turn back and head to Yordas for a play instead. We headed in the middle entrance, Maz had a try of his new foot ascender on the short pitches then we headed to the traverse to rig and have a general SRT practise
Yolanda, Scott, John (our guide from Royal Forest of Dean Caving Club). Trip report by Yolanda.
Otter Hole is often described as ‘a collector’s piece’. A lot of KCC crew had already done it, and while they all said it was brilliant, nobody wanted to do this 9 hour caving trip again. On Friday, Scott and I went to the Forest of Dean to find out why.
We met John, our guide, at 8:30 on Saturday morning and made our way through the woods to the slightly ominous looking metal hatch that led to the cave. As usual, I had a look at the sky in case I never saw it again, before wriggling my way into the cave and into a series of rather small and very muddy tunnels. There then followed a long long hour of sliding through salty mud before we arrived at the tidal sump – quite full and rapidly rising. John had guesstimated that the sump would be about knee deep when we arrived, so it was a bit of a nasty shock to find that the water was already shoulder deep. The archway was almost impassable, and the eyelet above the arch was getting more and more tricky as the water rose. John explained to us that we either needed to climb above the water and go feet-first through the eyelet, or give up and go home. For me, giving up and going back to the youth hostel sounded fairly appealing, but a mixture of pride and also guilt at the prospect of ruining the trip for Scott propelled me to climb above the water, shove my feet through the eyelet, and wriggle my way through.
A terrifying traverse and another half hour of sliding through mud followed before we reached the ‘wash off point’ – some scrubbing brushes on a rock. We scraped the worst of the mud off ourselves and I treated myself to a cheese and mud sandwich before continuing on our journey. After a few boulder chokes we reached Otter Hole’s beautiful cave formations; huge stalagmites, stalactites, calcite blankets, and enormous calcite formations. In my years of slithering around in the dark, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful cave – chamber after chamber of wonder.
The journey back out of the cave was relatively smooth, apart from a bit of panic when I got stuck on my head about five minutes from the entrance. Luckily Scott and John managed to free me in the end and five days on, my neck is nearly back to normal. There was a layer of brown silt in the shower that evening and my hair bobbles were encrusted onto my plaits with dried mud, but it was well worth it to see one of the most beautiful caves in the world. Thanks John and Scott for an amazing trip!
Chris D, Jason, James, Maz, Ray, Scott, Tom
With Wretched Rabbit being newly reopened courtesy of the RRCPC, we were keen to get back into this little classic and decided on a round trip.
After negotiating the entrance climbs, we plunged down the dig into Spiral Staircase, made our way down the grotty bypass and onwards to Holbeck Junction. Quarter of an hour of scrambling down the main drain saw us at Stop Pot, veering into the flood bypass to Four Ways Chamber, before making our way back out via Wretched Rabbit Passage. Minimal drama, good exercise and a nice turnout!
Darren, Chris D, John, Miranda, James, Maz, Tom
Multi-route rigging, with the big hang, the pretty big hang and the Lateral Cleft all being rigged. The teams went their separate ways, and while Darren yo-yo’d up and down the big hang to practise for expedition, people made their way down and back up.
A bag was sent for a flying lesson down the hole in the floor of Lateral Cleft which may or may not still be down there…
Ray, Tim K, Tim D, Sophie, Tom
This one never gets old. The midges were out in full force tonight forcing us underground as quickly as possible. A smooth descent down the Diver’s Pitch dropped us into Witches II, a quick look at the House of the Rising Sump before heading through to Painters Alley for the eye candy.
