Lost Johns – 22nd July 2012
Lost John’s (or Johns? Or Johns’ ?) cave. John F, Andy G, Tim D, Ken W, Jason
The advertised trip (Boxhead to Death’s Head exchange) had mysteriously failed to generate a quorum, so the decision was taken to do something less demanding. Tim and Ken apparently had more important things to do in the afternoon, so Tim shot off to rig down to Centipede, the rest of us following in a more leisurely fashion. Having got to the bottom of Centipede, he and Ken did a smart turn-round leaving the rest of us to proceed to the streamway.
This went straightforwardly enough, water levels being surprisingly low given the recent ‘Summer’, although Battleaxe traverse seemed to have even fewer footholds than usual.
Time was not pressing, so we had a look upstream (until it got too small) and downstream (until it got too wet). John announced he wasn’t going further downstream than welly-depth, but manfully continued until the canal section – he obviously had his big wellies on!
There were a variety of inlets, and muddy ropes hanging from the roof, all of which doubtless went somewhere interesting, but no-one was keen enough to take up the challenge.
The return trip was also uneventful, though slower due to reduced portering manpower. I tried to persuade Andy of the merits of pantins (I’m a recent convert), but after faffing for a few moments getting it off the rope at the head of Candle, I don’t think he was convinced. Anyway, we made fair time and were rewarded with the smell of warm grass about 4:30.