Clive G
Member
This must be the most highly read thread by . . . car thieves!
I couldn't believe the title - so popped along for a look.
A word of warning for those who might take their car keys underground . . .
Years ago, we had someone we nicknamed 'Pavarotti' after he valiantly entered the Corkscrew Squeeze, a short distance inside the entrance to Ogof Pen Eryr at Llangattock. Of course, knowing the cave, and without being at all 'politically' unfair, you only needed to take one look at his girth to realise that he had absolutely no chance of getting through the thin upwards squeeze, which is probably why his university caving club chums went in first, ahead of him . . .
However, 'Pavarotti' was not to be deterred. When he found the squeeze difficult, he bravely tried even harder to get up and I'm sure his chums were encouraging him, too. They would soon be regretting this. Eventually, the chap, although no doubt a keen and capable caver, had to admit defeat and accept that he just wasn't going to get through. In fact, he'd tried so hard to get up that he now found he couldn't get back down out again, either.
Once the callout was initiated by a student who had a little more foresight and either went in last or not all, it took something like 2-3 hours to rescue 'Pavarotti'. The rescue had already been going for about an hour by the time I coincidentally arrived at White Walls and found out, quite by accident, what was going on. Now, during their enforced wait in the chamber above, the university cavers, for some reason, put their hired minibus keys down on a calcited rock for 'safekeeping'. The keys may have been in 'Pavarotti's' pocket, I'm not sure, but, anyway, the calcited rock was all slippery and the keys started sliding and, before anyone could catch them, they launched themselves down into a narrow rift . . .
Well, although we ultimately managed to get 'Pavarotti' out, with the aid of some washing-up liquid and goodness knows what else, the university cavers admitted that they had no others keys to their minibus. A minibus in which their dry clothes were now locked away, plus the vehicle was also their means of getting back home again. And even though I tried with a reasonable stretch to get my arm down the rift, there was absolutely no way of reaching the keys at the bottom . . .
After everyone had departed for White Walls and a cup of tea, one of the other rescue team members came back with some nylon cord and a hook that I'd asked for. By 'fishing' with the hook tied on to the end of the line, I was eventually just able to catch the keys and, very carefully, extract them from the rift.
The moral of this tale is, I feel, to try and avoid taking your car keys underground! This is especially the case if there is no undulation on the keys whereby they could easily be 'fished' back out again of a narrow cleft.
I once parked close to a friend's car in an old abandoned quarry, just off the old tramroad at Llangattock, a short distance from the nearest residence. Well, when we returned a couple of hours later or so, my car was okay, but there was a pile of glass next to my friend's and his holdall bag with all his non-caving clothes in, that had been sitting on the back seat, had gone. I think the bag may have subsequently been found, empty of any valuables, discarded further along the tramroad towards Brynmawr. However, I had made sure that there was nothing sitting inside my car on view to attract any attention and that was the only real difference between the two vehicles, parked almost adjacent to each other . . .
In the Jura region in France, whilst I was caving, having been driven to a remote forest clearing by another caver, where we parked along with several other vehicles, some 'Herbert(s)' came along and burgled a number of our vehicles by the lob-a-stone and removing-the-rear-quarterlight techniques. Well, my house keys that had been in my trouser pocket were found thrown away in another car in the footwell! But I don't recommend this technique for 'hiding' and 'recovering' car keys, even if you are caving abroad.
Oh, and never use a dry stone wall for hiding your keys because they are built with two sets of stones on the outside faces, except for the capping stones on top, plus a handy hole in the middle, where you can guarantee your keys will eventually project themselves and hide permanently from sight, as in 'Pavarotti's' story.
Now, the real secret for hiding your car keys from car thieves is . . .
* Names have been changed to avoid embarrassment!
I couldn't believe the title - so popped along for a look.
A word of warning for those who might take their car keys underground . . .
Years ago, we had someone we nicknamed 'Pavarotti' after he valiantly entered the Corkscrew Squeeze, a short distance inside the entrance to Ogof Pen Eryr at Llangattock. Of course, knowing the cave, and without being at all 'politically' unfair, you only needed to take one look at his girth to realise that he had absolutely no chance of getting through the thin upwards squeeze, which is probably why his university caving club chums went in first, ahead of him . . .
However, 'Pavarotti' was not to be deterred. When he found the squeeze difficult, he bravely tried even harder to get up and I'm sure his chums were encouraging him, too. They would soon be regretting this. Eventually, the chap, although no doubt a keen and capable caver, had to admit defeat and accept that he just wasn't going to get through. In fact, he'd tried so hard to get up that he now found he couldn't get back down out again, either.
Once the callout was initiated by a student who had a little more foresight and either went in last or not all, it took something like 2-3 hours to rescue 'Pavarotti'. The rescue had already been going for about an hour by the time I coincidentally arrived at White Walls and found out, quite by accident, what was going on. Now, during their enforced wait in the chamber above, the university cavers, for some reason, put their hired minibus keys down on a calcited rock for 'safekeeping'. The keys may have been in 'Pavarotti's' pocket, I'm not sure, but, anyway, the calcited rock was all slippery and the keys started sliding and, before anyone could catch them, they launched themselves down into a narrow rift . . .
Well, although we ultimately managed to get 'Pavarotti' out, with the aid of some washing-up liquid and goodness knows what else, the university cavers admitted that they had no others keys to their minibus. A minibus in which their dry clothes were now locked away, plus the vehicle was also their means of getting back home again. And even though I tried with a reasonable stretch to get my arm down the rift, there was absolutely no way of reaching the keys at the bottom . . .
After everyone had departed for White Walls and a cup of tea, one of the other rescue team members came back with some nylon cord and a hook that I'd asked for. By 'fishing' with the hook tied on to the end of the line, I was eventually just able to catch the keys and, very carefully, extract them from the rift.
The moral of this tale is, I feel, to try and avoid taking your car keys underground! This is especially the case if there is no undulation on the keys whereby they could easily be 'fished' back out again of a narrow cleft.
I once parked close to a friend's car in an old abandoned quarry, just off the old tramroad at Llangattock, a short distance from the nearest residence. Well, when we returned a couple of hours later or so, my car was okay, but there was a pile of glass next to my friend's and his holdall bag with all his non-caving clothes in, that had been sitting on the back seat, had gone. I think the bag may have subsequently been found, empty of any valuables, discarded further along the tramroad towards Brynmawr. However, I had made sure that there was nothing sitting inside my car on view to attract any attention and that was the only real difference between the two vehicles, parked almost adjacent to each other . . .
In the Jura region in France, whilst I was caving, having been driven to a remote forest clearing by another caver, where we parked along with several other vehicles, some 'Herbert(s)' came along and burgled a number of our vehicles by the lob-a-stone and removing-the-rear-quarterlight techniques. Well, my house keys that had been in my trouser pocket were found thrown away in another car in the footwell! But I don't recommend this technique for 'hiding' and 'recovering' car keys, even if you are caving abroad.
Oh, and never use a dry stone wall for hiding your keys because they are built with two sets of stones on the outside faces, except for the capping stones on top, plus a handy hole in the middle, where you can guarantee your keys will eventually project themselves and hide permanently from sight, as in 'Pavarotti's' story.
Now, the real secret for hiding your car keys from car thieves is . . .
* Names have been changed to avoid embarrassment!
