darren
Member
Trip report, a bit late.
7th Feb.
Known had double booked himself. He decided that an evening with root at ComptonMartinOchreMine was better than being with me and LesW at CuckooCleeves Cave.
When it came to the time to go caving, me and LesW decided that we missed known so much we should go and visit him at ComptonMartinOchreMine instead of freeclimbing CuckooCleeves . Went inside saw some bats, met up with root, known and madrab.
Went back outside and started walking down the very steep wooded valley side back to the car. This was made lots easier by the use of a couple of ropes left on the valley side to use as handhold's. I ran down the slope using the rope in one hand to control my speed. Lesw Says "be careful you don't run off the end of the rope doing that". "its Alright" says I "you are in front of me so I can see when you reach the end of the rope and slow down accordingly"
"Oh" says Lesw, "OK"
I immediately see Lesw reach the end of the rope 15 ft ahead and start to slow down. Just as immediately the rope breaks under the added strain and I fall flat on my arse and slide 5 feet down the slope. For some reason Lesw and known find this quite amusing.
Root and madrab don't find it at all amusing, this cheered me up as it is always nice to know that some peoples response to others misfortune is not to laugh, but rather to ignore the incident to save the embarrassment of those unfortunate enough to be involved. My respect for root and madrab was somewhat diminished when they inquired what was so funny and promptly joined in the laughter and piss taking. Apparently they were not showing solidarity with me by not laughing, but rather had been behind a tree and had missed the incident completely.
Everyone says how red you and your kit will be after a visit to ComptonMartinOchreMine, but this is just words. When you leave the mine in the dark you look at your kit and think " yup everyone was right, thats all very red". When you see your kit again in full daylight you are amazed, someone had spent the night painting your kit with red oxide paint. And it won't wash off. I tried cleaning my kneepads with the hose pipe, like I usually do, with no result. I tried with fairy liquid with no result. I eventually managed to get the stuff off using red hot soapy water and a nail brush.
7th Feb.
Known had double booked himself. He decided that an evening with root at ComptonMartinOchreMine was better than being with me and LesW at CuckooCleeves Cave.
When it came to the time to go caving, me and LesW decided that we missed known so much we should go and visit him at ComptonMartinOchreMine instead of freeclimbing CuckooCleeves . Went inside saw some bats, met up with root, known and madrab.
Went back outside and started walking down the very steep wooded valley side back to the car. This was made lots easier by the use of a couple of ropes left on the valley side to use as handhold's. I ran down the slope using the rope in one hand to control my speed. Lesw Says "be careful you don't run off the end of the rope doing that". "its Alright" says I "you are in front of me so I can see when you reach the end of the rope and slow down accordingly"
"Oh" says Lesw, "OK"
I immediately see Lesw reach the end of the rope 15 ft ahead and start to slow down. Just as immediately the rope breaks under the added strain and I fall flat on my arse and slide 5 feet down the slope. For some reason Lesw and known find this quite amusing.
Root and madrab don't find it at all amusing, this cheered me up as it is always nice to know that some peoples response to others misfortune is not to laugh, but rather to ignore the incident to save the embarrassment of those unfortunate enough to be involved. My respect for root and madrab was somewhat diminished when they inquired what was so funny and promptly joined in the laughter and piss taking. Apparently they were not showing solidarity with me by not laughing, but rather had been behind a tree and had missed the incident completely.
Everyone says how red you and your kit will be after a visit to ComptonMartinOchreMine, but this is just words. When you leave the mine in the dark you look at your kit and think " yup everyone was right, thats all very red". When you see your kit again in full daylight you are amazed, someone had spent the night painting your kit with red oxide paint. And it won't wash off. I tried cleaning my kneepads with the hose pipe, like I usually do, with no result. I tried with fairy liquid with no result. I eventually managed to get the stuff off using red hot soapy water and a nail brush.
